Unfinished Business Quotes

“Responsible for every successful connection ever made between a book and a reader--no less than between people--is that deepest of all human mysteries, emotional readiness: upon which the shape of every life is vitally dependent. How morbidly circumstantial life can seem when we think of the apparent randomness with which we welcome or repel what will turn out to be--or what might have turned out to be--some of the most important relationships of our lives. How often have lifelong friends or lovers shuddered to think, 'If I had met you at any other time...' It's the same between a reader and a book that becomes an intimate you very nearly did not encounter with an open mind or a welcoming heart because you were not in the right mood; that is, in a state of readiness.”
― Vivian Gornick, Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader

“Between what we know and what we cannot hope to know about how we come to be as we are lies an emotional dumping ground into which exceptional writers pour all the art they are capable of making.”
― Vivian Gornick, Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader

“La libertad sin matices no es libertad ni es nada. Son los matices los que nos hacen actuar como seres humanos civilizados, incluso cuando no nos sentimos como seres humanos civilizados. Si eliminamos todos los matices, nos queda solamente la vida animal: en otras palabras, la guerra.”
― Vivian Gornick, Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader

“[...]por encima de todo lo demás, lo que procura la lectura es un alivio puro y duro del caos mental. A veces creo que me infunde por sí sola valor para vivir, y lo ha hecho desde mi más tierna infancia.”
― Vivian Gornick, Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader

“Come quasi tutti i lettori, a volte ho la sensazione di essere nata leggendo".”
― Vivian Gornick, Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader

“This book is for Randall Jarrell, the man who believed we are devoted to the act of making literature because it leads to the act of reading.”
― Vivian Gornick, Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader