At the Bottom of the River Quotes

“this is how you smile to someone you don't like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don't know you very well, and this way they won't recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming;”
― Jamaica Kincaid, At the Bottom of the River

“The night-soil men can see a bird walking in trees. It isn't a bird. It is a woman who has removed her skin and is on her way to drink the blood of her secret enemies. It is a woman who has left her skin i a corner of a house made out of wood. It is a woman who is reasonable and admires honeybees in the hibiscus.”
― Jamaica Kincaid, At the Bottom of the River

“Looking at the horizon again, I saw a lone figure coming toward me, but I wasn't frightened because I was sure it was my mother. As I got closer to the figure, I could see that it wasn't my mother, but still I wasn't frightened because I could see that it was a woman.”
― Jamaica Kincaid, At the Bottom of the River

“How soft is the blackness as it falls. It falls in silence and yet it is deafening, for no other sound except the blackness falling can be heard. The blackness falls like soot from a lamp with an untrimmed wick. The blackness is visible and yet it is invisble, for I see that I cannot see it. The blackness fills up a small room, a large field, an island, my own being. The blackness cannot bring me joy but often I am made glad in it.”
― Jamaica Kincaid, At the Bottom of the River: A Story

“Is life, then, a violent burst of light, like flint struck sharply in the dark?”
― Jamaica Kincaid, At the Bottom of the River

“I shall grow up to be a tall, graceful, and altogether beautiful woman, and I shall impose on large numbers of people my will and also, for my own amusement, great pain.”
― Jamaica Kincaid, At the Bottom of the River

“Contempla la bellezza nelle cose semplici: il sole che sorge da quell'immensa, scintillante distesa d'acqua che è il mare; sorge ogni giorno in modo nuovo, come fosse la prima volta. <> dice nel suo cuore, perchè sente la fresca brezza sulla nuca. Ma più volte sente l'inutilità di tutto ciò, perchè davanti a lui si stende un silenzio spaventoso, una vastità, dalla lunghezza e larghezza e profondità incommensurabili. Il nulla”
― Jamaica Kincaid, At the Bottom of the River