The Ghostwriter Quotes

“Information is power, yes. But it’s also a burden because once you know something, you can’t pretend you don’t.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“People’s recollections are tinted with their own biases. Their beliefs, layered over the top, sometimes rendering a completely different meaning.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“That you can make up whatever you want to be the truth and you can live your life as if you’ve sealed it off forever. But, like a heartbeat behind a wall, the truth is always there, holding you hostage.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“You can’t erase the past by not thinking about it.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“Once you lie about your past, you wall yourself off from the present.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“Snippets of memories, fragments of conversations. When you’re living it, you can’t see how it all fits together, or how it’s all going to end. But here, in this space, all your days line up like pearls on a string, each one leading to the next. You get to touch them, live them one last time and finally understand.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“This is the consequence of speaking out as a woman. We are labeled hysterical, emotional, unreliable, and finally, incompetent.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“Every chapter has to have a point. Even if the reader can’t yet see it. Every story told must serve two purposes—to allow your reader to know your characters better, and to push the narrative toward the conclusion.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“I wonder if I will ever be settled. If I will ever be the kind of person who will feel secure with what I have, instead of always feeling like I’m about thirty seconds away from losing everything.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“The truth lives in people’s actions, their unguarded moments, not in the lies they tell.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“Stay open to all possibilities. Let the story lead you.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“People’s recollections are tinted with their own biases. Their beliefs, layered over the top, sometimes rendering a completely different meaning.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“But film won’t lie the way memories do.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“Another glance passes between them, and I pretend that I don’t miss the ghost of the person I love, sitting at my shoulder, getting to know my childhood best friend and, in the process, getting to know me.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“I was exhausted by the amount of work it took just to come in second. And angry as well that talent mattered so little to the people on top.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“When you can’t hear the words people use to distract you, you focus on what they’re doing instead. The truth lives in people’s actions, their unguarded moments, not in the lies they tell.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“Fear is a tool of the patriarchy”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“My fingers finally gain purchase on the object,”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“Most people have a set of stories—tried and true anecdotes they return to again and again. Moments—big or small, happy or sad—that have rooted inside of them, for whatever reason. I’ve found that it’s best to let them”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“I’m beginning to realize that once you lie about your past”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“You can’t erase the past by not thinking about it.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“Solitude is my lot in life. Those seeds were planted by my parents long ago, and it’s futile to think I would grow into something different.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“My mother laughed. “That’s why I have three children,” she said, pulling a roast out of the refrigerator and setting it on the counter. “One of you will take care of me.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“There are ten film reels in all. Three from March, two from April, four from May, and one from June. Such a short period of time. And such a consequential one.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“I feel like I’m riding shotgun with a man who has lost control of the car and there isn’t anything I can do but wait for us to crash.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“So I guess you finally came out.” I look down at my hands. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.” He waves away my apology. “It’s fine. Turns out, my mother had long suspected and had done a lot of the heavy lifting for me with my dad. They both adore Matt.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“Matt.” He looks at me sideways. “What about you? Anyone special?” I watch a couple biking past us, letting my eyes trail after the pair, noticing the way they pedal in slow circles, perfectly in sync. I imagine they are me and Tom, in a parallel”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“This is the consequence of speaking out as a woman. We are labeled hysterical, emotional, unreliable, and finally, incompetent. I consider refusing, telling him I won’t work that”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“This isn’t easy for me. I’ve spent fifty years staying silent—at my own peril. It’s not a matter of what needs to be said, but how the story should be told.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter

“When I have to push across the abyss—go from the easy stories to the harder ones. The ones that live inside all of us but don’t ever come out.”
― Julie Clark, The Ghostwriter