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Near to the Wild Heart QUOTES

Near to the Wild Heart QUOTES

1 " there are indestructible things that accompany the body to death as if they had been born with it. And one of them is what is created between a man and a woman who have experienced certain moments together. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

2 " It was darker, all she could see of him was a shadow. He was fading more and more, slipping through her hands, dead at the bottom of sleep. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

3 " When I surprise myself at the mirror I am not frightened because I think I am ugly or beautiful. It is because I discover I am of a different nature. After not having seen myself for a while I almost forget I am human, I forget my past and I am as free from end and awareness as something merely alive. I am also surprised, eyes open pale at the mirror, that there are so many things in me besides what I know, so many things always silent. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

4 " There were two ways of looking at it: imagining that it was far away and big, in the first place; in the second, that it was small and near. But at any rate, a stupid, hard, brown mountain. How she hated nature sometimes. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

5 " Where does music go when it’s not playing?—she asked herself. And disarmed she would answer: May they make a harp out of my nerves when I die. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

6 " She felt the phrase “demand her rights” had lain inside her forever, waiting. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

7 " But she didn’t want to rest! – Her blood ran through her more slowly, its pace domesticated, like a beast that had trained its steps to fit in its cage. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

8 " When I suddenly see myself in the depths of the mirror, I take fright. I can scarcely believe that I have limits, that I am outlined and defined. I feel myself to be dispersed in the atmosphere, thinking inside other creatures, living inside things beyond myself. When I suddenly see myself in the mirror, I am not startled because I find myself ugly or beautiful. I discover, in fact, that I possess another quality. When I haven't looked at myself for some time, I almost forget that I am human, I tend to forget my past, and I find myself with the same deliverance from purpose and conscience as something that is barely alive. I am also surprised to find as I gaze into the pale mirror with open eyes that there is so much in me beyond what is known, so much that remains ever silent. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

9 " I see myself abandoned, solitary, thrown into a cell without dimensions, where light and shadows are silent phantoms. Within my inner self I find the silence I am seeking. But it leaves me so bereft of any memory of any human being and of me myself, that I transform this impression into the certainty of physical solitude. Were I to cry out — I can no longer see things clearly — my voice would receive the same indifferent echo from the walls of the earth. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

10 " Dying is something else. Dying is different to good and bad. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

11 " The steel suddenly touched her heart. Ah, jealousy, it was jealousy, the cold hand mashing her slowly, squeezing her, diminishing her soul. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

12 " Inside her it was as if death didn’t exist, as if love could weld her, as if eternity were renewal. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

13 " I can feel myself holding a child, thought Joanna. Sleep, my child, sleep, I tell you. The child is warm and I am sad. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

14 " - How does it feel to have a daughter?
- At times it's like holding a warm egg in my hand. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

15 " They were fine and slender. At any given moment they stopped every bit as much lines, every bit much in the same state as at the beginning. Interrupted, always interrupted not because they terminated, but because no one could take them to the end. Circles were more perfect, less tragic and didn’t move her enough. Circles were the work of man, finished before death and not even God could finish them better. While straight, fine, freestanding lines – were like thoughts. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

16 " she had stared through the window at a little old lady in the sun, grubby, light and quick – a branch quivering in the breeze. A dry branch where there was so much femininity, Joana had thought, that the poor dear could have a child if life hadn’t dried up in her body "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

17 " How was she to tie herself to a man without permitting him to imprison her? And was there some means of acquiring things without those things possessing her? "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

18 " Queria saber: Depois que se é feliz, o que acontece? O que vem depois? "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

19 " Never suffer because you don't have an opinion on this or that topic. Never suffer because you are not something or because you are. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart

20 " The only truth is that I live. Sincerely, I live. Who am I? Well, that's a bit much. "

― Clarice Lispector , Near to the Wild Heart