3
" What they display, these students who don't arrive in the reading room until nine, or even later, is a kind of daring. They play with life, with possibilities. For me my studies are like a tightrope I'm balancing on, life will begin only when I've reached the other side. Only when I'm standing there triumphantly, with a glowing testimonial and glittering results, only then, I think to myself, will I be free. "
― Hanne Ørstavik , The Blue Room
8
" The sound of the car. When he's waiting he can never quite recall it. I've forgotten, he tells himself. But then it comes back to him, often in pauses between the waiting, after he's stopped thinking about it. And then she comes, and he recognizes the sound in an instant; he hears it with his tummy, it's my tummy that remembers the sound, not me, he thinks to himself. And no sooner has he heard the car than he sees it too, from the corner of the window, her blue car coming round the bend behind the banks of snow, and she turns in at the house and drives up the little slope to the front door. "
― Hanne Ørstavik , Love
13
" Tāda sajūta, it kā tas būtu bīstami. Tas ir bīstami. Tas, kas ar mani varētu notikt, ieejot iekšā, tuvojoties, izgaistot. Nokļūstot tur, kur es ilgojos, nevis atsakoties, bet jūtot, ka man tas ir nepieciešams, ka tas ir tas, ko es gribu. Un tas ir bīstami daudz apjomīgākā un citādākā veidā nekā līdz šim. Tur ir vēl kaut kas, kaut kas cits. Es nezinu, kas tas ir. "
― Hanne Ørstavik , Det finnes en stor åpen plass i Bordeaux
