The Body in Question Quotes

“Grief doesn’t feel as if a rug has been pulled out from under her. There is no rug. There is no floor on which to lay a rug. There is no ground on which to build a floor to lay a rug.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“During her lectures, she explains the difference between the beautiful and the sublime this way: The stars are beautiful—diamonds, twinkles, something you can wish upon. The space in between the stars is the sublime—cold, black, and infinite, something that inspires awe and fear.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“she explains the difference between the beautiful and the sublime this way: The stars are beautiful—diamonds, twinkles, something you can wish upon. The space in between the stars is the sublime—cold, black, and infinite, something that inspires awe and fear.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“You either photograph what you know, or you photograph what you want to know. But the giants photograph what they don’t want to know.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“They still have sex, but nothing she would have called, at sixteen, “all the way.” He doesn’t so much possess her as haunt her. At the best of times, she can still marvel at how intrepidly he wants sex. Potency, technique, performance have been replaced by something more basic—the will to live while alive. His height and mass may have lessened with age, but his life force has only grown denser and more combustible. Their lovemaking doesn’t pivot on potency and technique; it does something far more intimate and abiding. It slays C-2.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“wanted to live in the dark as a teenager until I realized that ugliness already makes you invisible,”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“The stars are beautiful—diamonds, twinkles, something you can wish upon. The space in between the stars is the sublime—cold, black, and infinite, something that inspires awe and fear.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question

“One of them is going to tell the judge for the same reason children always tattle to the teacher. For attention and a gold star.”
― Jill Ciment, The Body in Question