The Sea Gate Quotes

“Fear has trapped me, rendered me immobile and powerless. I'd forgotten I even had wings, let alone how to use them.”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate

“My throat feels hard and swollen, as if bulky words are trying to choke me.”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate

“It could be any time, and no time. I am in the moment, and life is good.”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate

“People do give themselves away by the things they accuse others of.”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate

“Wherever you go in the world, it seems to me, there are gullible people ready to be manipulated by those who are cleverer or more malign. They mould them into followers and do whatever they will.”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate

“There’s still so much fire in her, so much character, a sort of fierce, frail heroism. I wish I’d known Olivia when she was younger.”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate

“My mother’s voice is so strong it almost echoes. Concentrate on this moment, right now. It’s all we ever truly have.”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate

“That night, I regarded myself in the full-length mirror in my London hotel room and marvelled at how my scars have faded and thought about the pots Eddie would sometimes make, then deliberately and carefully break, before resetting them with molten gold (so that he could sell them for much more money). At the time I thought this practice inauthentic and pretentious, but I am starting to look at some things in life in a different way. Kintsukuroi is the name for this ancient Japanese art, which teaches that broken objects are not something to hide away but should be displayed with pride, for they are stronger and more beautiful for surviving the breakage. I think I, too, am stronger and more beautiful for surviving my travails. The”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate

“Kintsukuroi is the name for this ancient Japanese art, which teaches that broken objects are not something to hide away but should be displayed with pride, for they are stronger and more beautiful for surviving the breakage. I think I, too, am stronger and more beautiful for surviving”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate

“and thought of the painting of the little boat ploughing a course through dark seas towards the line of light. It had seemed to me then to represent elemental forces over which we had no control; now I see it as a brave little vessel buoyed up by beliefs and hopes, crewed by comrades and lovers, propelled by courage in the face of apparently overwhelming odds.”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate

“But now they would believe Hamid was responsible for the death of Mamie. It suited the stories they told themselves about the dark-skinned man, the foreigner, the outsider, the Muslim.”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate

“an Arabic word – algebra? It comes from the Arabic al-jabr and it means the reunion of broken parts. I like that, ‘the reunion of broken parts’: it’s poetic, don’t you think?”
― Jane Johnson, The Sea Gate