The Nine-Chambered Heart Quotes

“As though I am oriented only by your presence, or your absence. You are my north.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“The ones we pretend to ignore are the ones we're most aware of.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“I am struck, at this moment, by how precisely we know how to hurt the ones we love.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“Because life is like that, isn't it? One cannot stop its ebb and flow. You step into the current and whatever's in your path will cross you and touch you and sometimes stay.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“I grow jealous of your memories because those are times in your life i will never be a part of, and i imagine them large and exuberant in your head.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“Perhaps it’s the only way to retain it. Love. To never have it happen. To love, otherwise, is always to lose. And isn’t it true? That one imagined kiss is worth a thousand real ones.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“The once we pretend to ignore are the once we are most aware of..”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“You have a heart as open as the sky. It is rare, and i am touched.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“And things will mellow. And all this love will turn to friendship tinged forever. After that, there will be only accidental meetings, a stray email, a long-lost text.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“I made the mistake of coming round to your side of the table, and praising the girl to your right.
'Look... how she's allowed some sky to filter through the branches... That's how it is, isn't it? A tree is patchy. There are gaps between the leaves...'
You stared at me with something close to hatred.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“Look... how she's allowed some sky to filter through the branches... That's how it is, isn't it? A tree is patchy. There are gaps between the leaves...”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“They are starlings, you say, and you are certain they are the souls of the dead. My voice is stuck in my throat. I'd like to think that's true. That all the dead in the world are reborn into creatures of flight.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“They don't know it yet, but the young drink to die. Alongside raging life runs an urge to extinguish themselves.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“This is what it was like, I think, for explorers, perched on the brink of an expedition. You an undiscovered continent. A land that hasn't been charted. And in a way, for me, the world.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“The thing is, at moments like these, I always think it’s sweet and rare, and it isn’t. It’s so easy to feel love. And I know you’re hurling yourself into this because you’re in a space of great sadness, and what else can I do but allow you to fall so that you’re carried elsewhere, wherever that may be.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“I was like that too, you know …’ you continue, ‘A “leavee”, if there’s such a word, not a leaver … but not any more, I like to think …’ I turn to you and ask, ‘What happens when you leave people?’ You hesitate for the briefest moment. ‘It allows you both to grow.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“I lean across to take your hand, and you exclaim, looking at the rose, ‘It’s wilted … already, it’s wilted …’ I say that’s what it is. Tristezza dei fiori. The sadness of flowers. You look at me, and cannot take your eyes away from mine. You repeat the words. The sadness of flowers.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“It’s not as though I haven’t seen skimpily clad women – at least in pictures (I study in an all-boys school, remember?) – but I’d see them and think, what’s all the fuss about? You, though, are as beautiful as light splitting through glass.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“Quelli che fingiamo di ignorare sono quelli di cui percepiamo la presenza con più intensità.”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart

“i do not love you but i will not forget you”
― Janice Pariat, The Nine-Chambered Heart