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The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World QUOTES

The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World QUOTES

1 " A famous citation from the American psychotherapist Virginia Satir (1916-1988) reads: 'We need four hugs a day for survival. We need eight hugs a day for maintenance. And we need twelve hugs a day for growth. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

2 " There was no addition or subtraction in life that did not require some time for adjustment. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

3 " Yui developed her own theory: that for some people, life started loosening their joints when they were still in the cradle, and they had to work hard to hold the pieces together. She imagined those people juggling a bundle of limbs, ears, feet, and kidneys in their arms, like parts of the game Operation. But then, at some point, something would slot into place: they'd fall in love, start a family, get a well-paid job, a nice career, and they would begin to feel more stable. The truth was, though, they were just giving out parts of themselves to relatives and trusted friends; they were learning that it was normal not to be able to cope on your own, and that asking people for help was the only way forward if there were other things they wanted to do with their lives. They had to depend on others.

And then? Then what would happen? That's where Yui believed luck came into it. Because if those people lost someone who had been looking after a fundamental piece of them, they would never be able to regain their balance. The harmony would be gone, along with their loved one. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

4 " ...fragility does not reside in things so much as in flesh. An object can be repaired or replaced, but the body cannot. Perhaps it is stronger than the soul, which once broken can remain so forever, but it is weaker than wood, lead, or iron. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

5 " But then she remembered a line, or even half a line, she had read in a book on raising children. She recalled it very clearly because it had unsettled her. It said that distance makes us love better and with greater respect. That distance wasn't, in fact, a bad thing. On the contrary, it was the lack of distance that could be harmful, and only the purest emotion, spontaneous and visceral love, was capable of healing a wound.

Ah so, she remembered thinking, love is dangerous. And yet it's essential. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

6 " Da bambini la felicità la si percepisce come una cosa.
...Da grandi si fa tutto più complicato. La felicità è il successo, il lavoro, un uomo o una donna, tutte cose sfumate, laboriose. Quando c'è, e anche quando non c'è, diventa soprattutto questo, una parola. Ecco, pensò ora Yui, l'infanzia insegnava invece un'altra cosa, cioè che bastava allungare la mano nella direzione giusta e la si sarebbe ottenuta. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

7 " Intuiva soltanto che certe cose complesse come la felicità, più che le parole le potesse insegnare l'esempio e che, soprattutto, la gioia di vivere serviva possederla in abbondanza per poterla consegnare a un altro. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

8 " Lei che rovesciava sulla tavola il secchiello stracolmo della propria giornata e lui che cercava tra la sabbia, per valorizzare ogni microscopica conchiglia e farla felice. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

9 " Quella sera Yui rientrò nel silenzio condensato della sua casa pensando che i ricordi erano come le cose, come quel pallone da calcio che dopo un anno dallo tsunami era giunto sulle coste dell'Alaska, a 3000 miglia dall'altro lato dell'Oceano Pacifico. Prima o poi, tornano a galla. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

10 " Se il mondo cadeva, si disse, lei sarebbe caduta con lui; ma se vi era anche una sola possibilità di tenerlo in piedi, magari pure in un goffo equilibrio, avrebbe speso ogni granello residuo di energia per aiutarlo. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

11 " Di chi non si sa nulla, non c'è niente da dire.
Di chi non si sa nulla, nulla più importa.
In quel luogo di confino Yui scoprì d'aver imparato un'altra cosa importante, ovvero che un uomo bastava tacerlo per eliminarlo per sempre. Per questo serviva ricordare le storie, parlare con le persone, parlare delle persone. Ascoltare le persone parlare di altre persone. Anche dialogare con i morti, se fosse servito. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

12 " Precisissima nel rigovernare la casa, non dimenticava una celebrazione o una bolletta. E tuttavia anche distratta, di quella leggerezza innata di chi non si impunta su ogni cosa sbagliata.
Ecco, stava lì soprattutto il bello di Akiko: sapeva lasciar correre il mondo. A differenza di lei, non se ne faceva una malattia se le cose non andavano come voleva. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

13 " It was the right moment. It always is when something beautiful happens. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

14 " Ecco come nasceva la gioia. Era in una parola restituita, che sempre le avrebbe ricordato il prima, e avrebbe cementificato il dopo. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

15 " Time may pass, but the memory of the people we've loved doesn't grow old. It is only we who age. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

16 " It isn't just the best things that come to an end, but also the worst. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

17 " Every week had been a struggle; every month simply hours stacked up in the attic, for a future that might never arrive. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

18 " Later, Yui realized she had learned another important thing in that place of confinement: that silencing a man was equivalent to erasing him forever. And so it was important to tell stories, to talk to people, to talk about people. To listen to people talking about other people. Even to speak with the dead, if it helped. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

19 " Love is like therapy, it only works when you believe in it. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

20 " As children we see happiness as a thing. A toy train sticking out of a basket or the plastic film around a slice of cake. or a photograph of a scene in which we are at the centre, all eyes on us.

As adults it gets more complicated. Happiness is success, work, a man or a woman. All vague, laborious things. Whether it's a word we use to describe our lives or not, it is mostly just that, a word.

Childhood taught us something different about happiness, Yui thought, that all you needed to do was reach out your hand in the right direction and you could grasp it. "

― Laura Imai Messina , The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World