Glaciers Quotes

“It's a strange product of infatuation, she thinks. To want to tell someone about mundane things. The awareness of another person suddenly sharpens your senses, so that the little things come into focus and the world seems more beautiful and complicated.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“Monotonous and thankless as her job can be sometimes, she cheers at the thought of her coworkers - a dozen of them crammed into their little offices in the basement - all cleverly disguised as harmless geeks, all capable of saving the world if called upon.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“We do not last, she thinks. In the end, only the stories survive.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“It’s never the wedding dresses, you know. We keep those, too, but only because they’re so blooming expensive. No. I’ve seen enough old ladies’ closets to know what we really hold on to. Not the till-death-do-us-part dresses. It’s those first lovely dresses: the slow dance dresses, the good-night-kiss dresses. It’s those first pangs we hold on to.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“Her sister read that spiders have book lungs, which fold in and out over themselves like pages. This pleased Isabel immensely. When she learned later that humans do not also have book lungs, she was disappointed. Book lungs. It made complete sense to her. This way breath, this way life: through here.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“Before Isabel could read, she loved books.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“There's not a thing in the world that will not change, including you.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“There are treasures everywhere...it's a treasure if you love it. It doesn't matter how much it costs, or whether anyone else wants it. If you love it, you will treasure it.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“She wants him to want to be looking at her.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“They've walked for nearly a block when he stops short and looks at her. They are in the middle of the sidewalk, face to face, between a tobacco shop and a trash can. Everything they've never said flows into the narrow space between them. Isabel feels the passing of time acutely, like a flood coming and only so much time to gather up the most important things.”
― Alexis Smith, Glaciers

“They read. The sounds of paper between them as they turn and crease and carefully avoid touching each other.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“The early morning sunlight warms a patch of linoleum, and she lets her feet bathe in it while the kettle heats on the stove.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“Believe me when I tell you that everything is temporary. Everything. There's not a thing in the world that will not change, including you.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“The woman seems ready to be pleased with the world.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“They are in the middle of the sidewalk, face to face, between a tobacco shop and a trash can. Everything they’ve never said flows into the narrow space between them.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“Isabel turns down Oak toward the little vintage shop at Fourth Avenue, thinking of lunch—the Chinese place in Old Town, casting around inside herself for hunger, imagining the tastes of things.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“All these things tell a story, but is it hers? It has always been more than an aesthetic choice, holding on to the past; it's a kind of mourning for the things that do not last.

We do not last, she thinks. In the end, only the stories survive.

She thinks of the photograph of the eleven-year-old girl, standing under a glacier, saying goodbye.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers

“Well, he began, since we're talking about books, there is a book in my story.”
― Alexis M. Smith, Glaciers