The Colony Quotes

“Before things have happened, it always feels impossible that they would. If you had seen from the beginning which way things would go, you would have pumped the brakes from the start. But one day turns into the next and, without much thought, it becomes a life.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“You imagine that people look at you, searching for your shortcomings. “She didn’t wash her hair today.” “She really knows nothing about Foucault.” That’s what you imagine they are thinking, because that’s what you think about others. You”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“everyone has a clear role: workers, soldiers, drones, and queens. The workers and soldiers are females, said Sagne.
And the queen mates with the drones.
Everyone has a task for the community, said Sagne.
Everyone is needed.
No one has to know everything”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony

“People do things. Some of it feels good. Then they do those things again. That’s how traditions form.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“Grief finds its way through the body. It has no clear agenda. It only notices that something is different.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“When I think about it, Aagny said to herself while out on her usual morning walk, I have given my life to the Colony. She took a few steps. And it was totally worth it, she quickly added.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“Sagne and Zakaria both sang terribly, or so József had thought at first, before he realized that singing wasn’t a destination but a constant doing, an action for the body to perform, just like sleeping or eating, and surely no one would tell another that they slept in an improper way?”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“If you are wondering what they did with their days, they lived. And if you have lived a certain way for long enough, it’s hard to go back to anything else.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“Aagny didn’t feel that people usually behaved like in the best of worlds.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“The body needed to do certain things, and it was mostly humanity’s own fault that in our minds we had turned it into something disgusting. That’s what she thought.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“it was like she could see: There is a before and an after this moment. From this moment on, I no longer trust people. From this moment on, nothing will be all right again.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“But the more time goes by,” said Sara, “I’ve realized that the peace and quiet are deceptive. There are animals and insects and trees. There are lots of things happening if only you pay attention.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“No one thinks about a potato that it needs to live up to something. You just think that the potato is there. It is the way it is.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“Sometimes, there is a bafflingly small difference between romance and assault.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“That’s also how the world is made; things come and go. You can’t fight it. Just like the flower that blooms today and wilts tomorrow.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“In the midst of a hurricane, you have no view of the future or the past. And a person who has no goal can’t chart a direction either.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“The headache would creep up on her, at first just a twinge, barely discernible at all—then a mild throbbing, which grew stronger and stronger. She described it as wandering around in a parallel world, where a filter lay over everything; nothing felt real.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“Næss says that everything in nature has an inherent value,” she quoted. “Everything in nature has the right to self-realisation.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“Sex can be as many things as a conversation. A game. A bandage. A shrug. A party. Yoga? Violence. Something purely physical, almost like exercise. Bragging. People seeing each other. One seeing the other. If you are lucky: a bond.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“József would later think that this was the worst day of his life, and the best, and in hindsight, he would understand that he could never have experienced the best without it being the worst. That’s how life is, and if you think you can take shortcuts, you are mistaken.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“A lonely child requires action, and that was burdensome. A dedicated young swimmer could be left to his own devices.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“all the wars had morphed into the same—they all merged into one.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“When József was a child, grown-ups would call him melancholic. Grown-ups love to describe children, to put labels on them, like spices. Troubled children, sweet children. Melancholic children. Cumin. József looked like a painting of a weeping child, and this would remain true throughout his life.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“Låke you do know there is another world out there? Yes & in that world people live only for money & they harm each other. Yes, that’s true . . . too. There is also love & friendship & music out there. & books? Yes & books. Yes & Society wants to keep Track of every little thing you do. & love.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“Suddenly, life turns into an obstacle course of sensory stimuli.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“how the state took away the Sámi people’s land and culture, and these days the Sámi are just supposed to exist as a colorful, exotic flavor.”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“When I was growing up”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“She looked at him”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“When”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel

“in hindsight”
― Annika Norlin, The Colony: A Novel