The Listener Quotes

“People carry their loved ones with them. They are forever present.”
― Tove Jansson, The Listener

“No one can depict desolation who hasn't inhabited desolation and observed it very closely. Things condemned have a terrible beauty.”
― Tove Jansson, The Listener

“How easy it is to love.”
― Tove Jansson, The Listener

“It seemed to her the window was a great eye looking out over the city and the harbour and a strip of the gulf under ice. The new silence and emptiness was not entirely a loss; it was something of a relief. Aunt Gerda felt like a balloon, untied, soaring off its own way. But, she thought, it's a balloon that's bouncing against the ceiling and can't get free.
She understood that this was no way to live; human beings are not built to float. She needed an earthly anchor of meaning and care so she didn't get lost in the confusion.”
― Tove Jansson, The Listener

“He did not confuse what he longed for with his gratitude for what he had. Extreme desires have their own sanctuary.”
― Tove Jansson, Lyssnerskan

“Here in the shadow of the firs lay everything the old house had spat out in the course of its life, everything worn out and unnecessary, everything not to be seen. In the darkening winter evening, this landscape was utterly abandoned, a territory that had no meaning for anyone but him. He found it beautiful.”
― Tove Jansson, The Listener