A Quiet Life Quotes

“Looking at Winifred there, so confident and contained in the sunlight, she thinks that perhaps this is the secret to Winifred's happiness; that she can pack each thing into its proper pace, she can retain boundaries at each point of contact, can go on learning and growing, without losing herself in pursuit of a grander dream.”
― Natasha Walter, A Quiet Life

“Maybe it is only a quiet, day-to-day loyalty that is worth having; maybe the grand love or the great gesture is always doomed.”
― Natasha Walter, A Quiet Life

“But after a while, obeying a new script that has just occurred to her, she begins to behave differently from the way she has acted the last two times they have met. She begins a false performance of openness, as if she has succumbed to his persuasiveness.”
― Natasha Walter, A Quiet Life

“Laura could see how hard her mother tried to focus on the needs of the moment... She knew that strategy very well; it was the one she had used for years. You must keep your gaze on the immediate scene: the plates that needed clearing, the dresses that needed ironing, the vases that needed fresh water, while the clouds above you gathered and dispersed and gathered again.”
― Natasha Walter, A Quiet Life