Certificate of Absence Quotes

“Her words, herself: broken up, pieced together. Today she falls to the ground, together with her words, but regains her footing: the words arise once more, as she herself rises. She is thankful for those undulating words that hold her again, caressing her body and
recognizing her scars. Her body and her phrase will tear again, but not at the old scars: they will split open in a different way, revealing new fractures. She accepts this future violence as something not necessarily negative, as a sign, perhaps, of a secret order.”
― Sylvia Molloy, Certificate of Absence

“Today she would like to be alone in the sea: at ease in the water, letting herself go, without anyone calling her from the shore, without spectacular rescues. Simply in the water, with the violent sea she misses because she needs it more and more. Schedules disappeared during those vacations or were so radically modified that the rhythm they marked was almost her own. Lunch was not at one but at three; dinner not at nine but at eleven.”
― Sylvia Molloy, Certificate of Absence