Nora Webster Quotes

“We walk among them sometimes, the ones who have left us. They are filled with something that none of us knows yet. It is a mystery.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“She would learn how to spend these hours. In the peace of these winter evenings, she would work out how she was going to live.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“You learn, no matter what age you are, to keep things to yourself.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“You never know what way life goes. Some of it makes no sense at all.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“Wait until you’re old, Nora,” she said, “and then you’ll know. It’s the mixture of being content with even the smallest thing and then feeling a great dissatisfaction with everything.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“So this was what being alone was like, she thought. … It was this wandering in a sea of people with the anchor lifted, and all of it oddly pointless and confusing.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“the problem for her was that she was on her own now and that she had no idea how to live.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“She noticed then that Conor was watching her.
'Are you going for a swim?' he asked her.
'In a while. Why don't you go down and check if it's warm enough?'
'And if it's not warm enough?'
'We'll still go in. But at least we'll know.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“the idea that what had happened could be erased, that the burden that was on her now could be lifted, that the past could be restored and could make its way effortlessly into a painless present.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“Finally, she let herself feel how much she had lost, how much she would miss.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“She wondered if she was alone in having nothing in between the dullness of her own days and the sheer brilliance of this imagined life.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“There is no better way to heal yourself than singing in a choir,’ Laurie said. ‘That is why God made music.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“All I hope is that things will be simpler in heaven.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“Finding things to think about was not the problem for her; the problem for her was that she was on her own now and that she had no idea how to live.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“...тя се замисли колко лесно можеше да е съвсем друг човек, че момчетата, които я чакаха у дома, леглото и лампата до леглото, работата утре сутринта - всичко това бе просто случайност.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“В тишината на стаята я осени, че всички имат своя миг, своето време на този свят, сенки в сенките, досущ като Морис, като майка и и всички преди нея, досущ както тя самата е сменила един дъх за друг, един звук за друг, взирайки се в непознатия свят между боята и хартията, а може би и вътре в тях.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“Значи това е да си сама. Страшна бе не самотата, която я задушаваше, нито миговете, когато смъртта му за пореден път я разтърсваше, а ето това - реене с вдигната котва в морето от хора, докато наоколо кипи безсмислен и неразбираем живот.”
― Колъм Тойбин, Nora Webster

“more she thought about it the more she came”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“In future, she hoped, fewer people would call. In future, once the boys went to bed, she might have the house to herself more often. She would learn how to spend these hours. In the peace of these winter evenings, she would work out how she was going to live.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“It occurred to her that he had thought more closely about her over the previous few years than she had about him. She wondered if that could be true. She knew that how she felt affected him, and now, for the first time, how he felt seemed more urgent, more worthy of attention than any of her feelings. All she could do was to let him know and make him believe that she would do everything she promised to do.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“she had made a decision for herself, the idea that she had asked no one’s advice. It was the first time since she had sold the house in Cush that such a chance had come so easily, and she was glad she had taken it. Perhaps it was not wise; perhaps it made more sense to be grateful to the Gibneys. But it pleased her now to be grateful to no one.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“And, in return, when I get sick, you can come out and look after me when the others get fed up of me. That’s what we are all for.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“May Lacey, wisps of thin grey hair appearing from under her hat, her scarf still around her neck, sat opposite Nora in the back room and began to talk. After a while, the boys went upstairs; Conor, when Nora called him, was too shy to come down and say good night, but soon Donal came and sat in the room with them, carefully studying May Lacey, saying nothing.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“As they looked at one another, Nora felt Fiona was hostile, and forced herself to remember how upset she must be, and how lonely she might be too. She smiled as she said that they would have to go and in return Fiona smiled at her and at the boys. As soon as Nora walked away, however, she felt helpless and regretted not having said something kind or special or consoling to Fiona before they left her; maybe even something as simple as asking her when she was coming down next, or emphasising how much they looked forward to seeing her soon. She wished she had a phone in the house so she could keep in more regular touch with her. She thought that she might write Fiona a note in the morning thanking her for coming to meet them.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“That was not even ten years ago, it might have been six or seven years ago, and if anyone had told her that she would be standing here now listening to this song and all the things that had happened between then and now, she would not have believed them.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“Once more she noted the hectoring tone, as though she were a child, unable to make proper decisions.”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster

“Greta Wickham. He used to say if only Nora and Greta were here now, we wouldn’t be in this mess, even when there was no mess at all.” “Oh, he talked very warmly about you,” Peggy interjected, “and William Junior and Thomas had nothing but good words to say about Maurice Webster when he was teaching them. I remember one day Thomas had a temperature and we all wanted him to stay in bed and he wouldn’t, oh no he wouldn’t, because he had a double commerce class with Mr. Webster that he could not miss. You know they wanted Thomas to stay in Dublin when he qualified. Oh, he got offers with very good prospects! We told him he should consider”
― Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster