The Definitions Quotes

“If I could hold on to just this one moment. If I had this one moment, I feel quite sure I could find my way back.”
― Matt Greene, The Definitions

“Seeing this, I can’t imagine seeing it again and not thinking that the world is a gift.”
― Matt Greene, The Definitions

“There would be different types of silence, and speakers of this language would immediately know which type they were in. There would be a type of silence for when you weren’t saying anything and another, different type for when you weren’t saying something. There would be a third type, for when you didn’t know the word that captured the feeling you were having, a fourth type for when you knew the word but didn’t want to say it, since in saying it you would clip the feeling’s wings, and a fifth type, the rarest and most quiet, for when you weren’t saying something but the person you were talking to already knew what it was.”
― Matt Greene, The Definitions

“But we rarely notice this: that we’re walking around in someone else’s shoes.”
― Matt Greene, The Definitions

“Language allows us to communicate ideas and feelings that are not quite our own.”
― Matt Greene, The Definitions

“I’ve come to understand that language is like the molds in the trays we use to bake muffins: that without it everything flows into everything else. The molds are necessary but are also a compromise: language allows us to communicate ideas and feelings that are not quite our own. But we rarely notice this: that we’re walking around in someone else’s shoes. This is the Paradox of Language: that in order to communicate I have to talk in terms that are never quite what I mean.”
― Matt Greene, The Definitions

“You should never regret, she told us. It’s a terrible sin. There’s nothing worse than being ungrateful.”
― Matt Greene, The Definitions