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Rivka Galchen QUOTES

Rivka Galchen QUOTES

1 " Physics advances by accepting absurdities. Its history is one of unbelievable ideas proving to be true. "

― Rivka Galchen

2 " Sometimes failing is what's needed. I think it can put people in a good mood, to see someone fail. Let people entertain themselves. I think that's one of the reasons people are so lonely in this country. Because they always have to rush out and have someone else in the room entertain them. It's terrible, the loneliness here. People live in coffins... "

― Rivka Galchen , American Innovations

3 " I should at least have learned more about how it had come to be that Rema had abandoned her mother, before I asked her to marry - and hopefully not abandon - me. But I saw Rema all prismatically, all fractured and reconstituted as if seen in the valley of an unshined silver spoon and actually I'm glad love does that, I shouldn't complain about love or love's perspective - distorted or no, to feel superior to it would be wrong, as if there were some better way of seeing. "

― Rivka Galchen

4 " I wonder if I talk like a dead man. My daughter once came home from school very excited about some lecture -this was years ago, before I died, though just right before- and she said her English teacher had talked about what the dead sound like in Dante. This funny thing about Dante's dead, which is that they know the past, and even the future, but they don't know the present. About the present they have all these questions for Dante. And that somehow is what being alive is, to be suspended in the time. She seemed to feel that really meant something. That and also that the dead know themselves better than the living do. "

― Rivka Galchen , Atmospheric Disturbances

5 " I barely even know how I didn't feel. I didn't feel like reading a newspaper, or having a coffee, or going for a jog, or watching television. Nor did I feel like crying behind the boiler in the basement. Or like trying out for something. I did't even feel like I had lost someone I deeply loved; this was different from that. I didn't feel like going to another movie and asking for extra butter on my popcorn. I didn't feel like talking to someone who would understand. "

― Rivka Galchen , American Innovations

6 " Then the nurse did turn to glance, and then stare—actually stare—at me. His look made me feel as if I was green, or whistling, or dead. "

― Rivka Galchen , Atmospheric Disturbances

7 " It's true what they say, that a baby gives you a reason to live. But also, a baby is a reason that it is not permissible to die. There are days when this does not feel good. "

― Rivka Galchen , Little Labors

8 " I'm not one of these people who are disheartened that the universe is expanding. But as news and data breed and the crowded channels grow ever noisier, I do feel that the space is ever increasing between me and it, whatever it might be. "

― Rivka Galchen

9 " He is my unicorn, though... That's how I felt falling in love with him, as if I'd found a creature of myth. "

― Rivka Galchen

10 " It's important to avoid mirrors if one is unprepared to accept their daily news, and I think, in something as insignificantly devastating as appearance, denial is more socially constructive than despondency. Not that there's anything especially wrong with me--just the usual. "

― Rivka Galchen , American Innovations

11 " That's what life is: a bunch of thorns, and a berry. "

― Rivka Galchen , Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

12 " I was certain she would recover. She had so much strength in her, and spirit. I started making some pickles; I was thinking that many months ahead. The cucumbers were so green and compelling, and I carefully cut away bruises. But Maruschl was gone before the next Tuesday. The baby Katharina died as well within the month. To hear Susanna weeping in an unspeakable misery saying, My baby, my baby, was worse than my own losses. I was willing to give everything and anything to bring the children back. As we waited for Hans to return, there was a part of me that held out the hope that when he returned, so they would too. I dreamed of walking hand in hand with Maruschl. I dreamed even of us arguing, of her growing angry with me, or disappointed, I wanted that for her much more than I wanted to live. "

― Rivka Galchen , Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

13 " I also felt that I had failed Hans in failing to save his child. Poor Susanna, in that house with me, but really alone. She mended every garment in the home, even those of the children. LittleHammer survived. But she had become cold and aloof. I understood her—to love others is to suffer. "

― Rivka Galchen , Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch

14 " She didn't have what one would call a "profession," but I didn't know why she particularly wanted one; it seemed like she'd been infected by a very American idea of identity, to think that who you were mostly consisted of what you did to get paid—that seemed silly to me. "

― Rivka Galchen , Atmospheric Disturbances

15 " Even the most normal person, if placed in a highly abnormal situation, can be mistakenly perceived as the source of abnormality of the person/circumstance aggregate "

― Rivka Galchen , American Innovations

16 " So,' I said, partly to Magda, partly to myself, 'Rema left Argentina with this An-a-to-le person.' I adopted the four-syllable pronunciation with confidence, feeling myself an Hercule Poirot: it was near the end of the story, the suspects were in the room. "

― Rivka Galchen , Atmospheric Disturbances

17 " We need to develop a better descriptive vocabulary for lying, a taxonomy, a way to distinguish intentional lies from unintentional ones, and a way to distinguish the lies that the liar himself believes in – a way to signal those lies that could be more accurately described as dreams. Lies – they make for a tidy little psychological Doppler effect, tell us more about a liar than an undistorted self-report ever could. "

― Rivka Galchen , Atmospheric Disturbances

18 " I’m interested in [meteorology], but I’m more interested in gross misappropriations of the authoritative language of science. It feels rife with clarity, and yet you don’t understand what it means. And I think that’s beautiful. "

― Rivka Galchen

19 " I’d consider it profession enough to have streaky bleached hair, to wear a green scarf, to spill spicy teas, to walk (slightly) unevenly on high heels. What more is there to give to the world than that? I realize this sentiment of mine is currently considered appalling, but these days I find the popularity of ideas even more meaningless than ever before. "

― Rivka Galchen , Atmospheric Disturbances

20 " I had considered envying men before -- I pretend to envy things like their higher incidence of ungrounded confidence and monomania -- but I don't really envy those things, and I'm not sure I even believe in them -- but this, the covert-baby-having thing, was the first real thing. "

― Rivka Galchen , Little Labors