Untying the Knot Quotes

“summer ends and autumn begins. The trees retract their sap in a hurry and the resulting bright colours must be a panic-stricken response to the sudden withdrawal of that life-blood. Because the sight's so beautiful, you forget what this gorgeous display actually represents. Decay and death. If only human death were so glorious.”
― Linda Gillard, Untying the Knot

“you”
― Linda Gillard, Untying the Knot

“Instead, I gradually shut down. I stopped socialising altogether. It was just too much effort. I didn’t answer emails because I found I had nothing to say. Eventually I didn’t even pick up the phone. I left the answer phone on as often as possible, then failed to return calls. Eventually there weren’t any calls for me. I”
― Linda Gillard, Untying the Knot

“That's what we do. Embellish. Decorate. Unvarnished truth has only limited appeal. Some events are a joy to recall, but others are best modified, even forgotten. They live in some lumber-room of the mind, housed somewhere you wouldn't want to go alone and never after dark. If I make a mistake in my work or if I change my mind, I can unpick. Undo what I've done. I can make good my errors and no one is the wiser. If they looked, even through a magnifying glass, all observers would see would be the tiny holes where my needle had travelled. I can erase even that evidence by scratching carefully at the weave of the lining with my needle, until the holes are no longer visible. But life isn't like that. Mistakes once made are rarely reversible. The holes they leave in the fabric of life aren't tiny and they can't be scratched away. You have to live with them as best you can. Work round them. That's why you have to come to terms with memory. You can't obliterate the past or eradicate it from the mind, even when, for our own good, memory enfolds us in a blanket of forgetfulness. There are always traces left, marks where time gripped us and left its telltale fingerprint.”
― Linda Gillard, Untying the Knot

“I poured myself another glass of wine (white, now warm and disgusting, but I was in a masochistic mood)”
― Linda Gillard, Untying the Knot

“Em's the first woman I've met who seems to be...well, the answer.' 'Answer to what?' He shrugged. 'All the questions, I suppose.' Fay looked blank. 'The questions you ask yourself at 4:00am... All the questions you'll ever ask yourself at 4:00am”
― Linda Gillard, Untying the Knot

“As I stared out of the train window, the scenery became a blur, as unclear as my thoughts and feelings.”
― Linda Gillard, Untying the Knot

“Faced with the daunting prospect of a party at which both my ex-husband and my ex-lover would be present with their much younger fiancées, I did what any woman would do in such an emergency. I shopped.”
― Linda Gillard, Untying the Knot

“I had to ask myself, why I was sensing a twinge of something that felt suspiciously like nostalgia. But starlight can do that to a person.”
― Linda Gillard, Untying the Knot