The Beautiful Indifference Quotes

“In truth, she disliked books. She felt a peculiar disquiet when opening the pages. She had felt it since childhood. She did not know why. Something in the act itself, the immersion, the seclusion, was disturbing. Reading was an affirmation of being alone, of being separate, trapped. Books were like oubliettes. Her preference was for company, the tactile world, atoms.”
― Sarah Hall, The Beautiful Indifference

“Let him join the men of the past. Her old lovers were ghosts. None of them had survived; none were missed.”
― Sarah Hall, The Beautiful Indifference

“The truth of death is a peculiar thing. For when they leave us the beloved are as if they never were. They vanish from this earth and vanish from the air. What remains are moors and mountains, the solid world upon which we find ourselves, and in which we reign. We are the wolves. We are the lions. After so many nights treading the banks with the dogs and my brothers, intent on some mettlesome purpose I did not truly understand, night after night I dreamed of the river. I dream it now: a river of stolen perfumes, winding its way through our inverse Eden.”
― Sarah Hall, The Beautiful Indifference

“At night, in the garden, it occurs to you that it might have been your heart that left you as you reached the capital. Your heart might not have travelled well, closed up in its cavity, quivering and gnawing at the bars of your ribcage during the commute. It might be tracking north now, along edgelands, past spoil-heaps and stands of pylons, under motorway passes, back to the higher ground. Back to him.”
― Sarah Hall, The Beautiful Indifference

“Lipstick never lasted long when they were together; he would always kiss her after she had applied it, as if he liked the smearing viscous sensation. Sometimes she felt sure it was discomposing her that he enjoyed.”
― Sarah Hall, The Beautiful Indifference

“You look at your face in the mirror. You wonder if you'll ever be able to use your body again for more than basic living.”
― Sarah Hall, The Beautiful Indifference