When God Was a Rabbit QUOTES

1 " You said I could be anything I wanted when I was older', I said.
She smiled and said, 'And you can be. But it's not very easy to become Jewish.'
'I know,' I said forlornly, 'I need a number.'
And she suddenly stopped smiling. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

2 " Nothing stays forgotten for long, Elly. Sometimes we simply have to remind the world that we're special and that we're still here. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

3 " I'd been feeling like this for a while, the continual looking back, the stuckness of it all. I blamed it on the coming New Year, only four and a half months away, when the clocks would read zero and we would start again, could start again, but I knew we wouldn't. Nothing would. The world would be the same, just a little bit worse. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

4 " Shut up, Arthur,' said my mother, and he zipped his mouth shut like an infuriating child.

Ginger started to laugh. Not at anything in particular, but just because Ginger was stoned. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

5 " Emotions embarassed her except when she sang. My dad said that was exactly why she sang. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

6 " I walked out and breathed fresh air. I felt the sun on my skin. The world is a different place when you are well, when you are young. The world is beautiful and safe. I said hello to the gatekeeper. He said hello back to me. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

7 " I wondered if all women did with other women was lie and hug. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

8 " She was of another world; different. But by then, secretly, so was I. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

9 " I’d been feeling like this for a while; the continual looking back the stuckness of it all. I blamed it on the coming new year only 4 1/2 months away when the clocks would read zero and we would start again, could start again, but I knew we wouldn’t. Nothing would. The world would be the same, just a little bit worse. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

10 " —¿A qué huele? —preguntó Jenny mirando alrededor.
—A la llegada del invierno —contesté exhalando un profundo suspiro. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

11 " You smell nice,’ she said.
‘Chanel,’ he said.
‘Wasted on you,’ she said and he reached into his bag and pulled out an almond tart.
‘Look what I’ve got,’ he said triumphantly as he lowered it under her nose.
‘Almonds,’ she said, ‘just like Paris.’
‘For us to share,’ he said, ‘just like Paris.’

I never knew if she had any real appetite or not for she hadn’t eaten solids for days. But he broke a piece off and held it to her mouth and she ate hungrily for it was the memory she was tasting again and the memory tasted good.
I moved a chair close to the bed for him and he sat down and held her hand. his own death he’d made peace with years ago but everyone else’s still frightened him and so he held her hand to not let her go. He held her hand because he wasn’t ready to let her go. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

12 " We’ll never know the truth of that story and I don’t think either of us wants to really. It was a story that begin and ended in that room. Arthur says everyone takes something to the grave. .. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

13 " I sat in front of the roaring hearth and watched the men play poker badly and loudly. My mother bent down and filled my wine glass. Maybe it was the angle or the light. Maybe it was simply her, but she looked so young that night. And Nancy must’ve noticed it too because I caught her looking at her as she carried in a tray of teas and it was a gaze I could see that extinguished all thoughts of her erratic marriage (A marriage that incidentally would never happen due to Detective Butler’s shameful ‘outing’ by national Inquirer magazine).
Later, as my mother entered my room to say good night I sat up and said, ‘Nancy’s in love with you.’
‘And I’m in love with her.’
‘But what about dad?’
She smiled, ‘I’m in love with him too.’
‘Oh. Is that allowed?’
She laughed and said, ‘for a child of sixties, Elle . . .
I know. Bit of a letdown.’
‘Never,’ she said. ‘Never. I love them differently that’s all. I don’t sleep with Nancy.’
‘Oh God I don’t need to know that.’
‘Yes you do. We play by our own rules Ellie always have. That’s all we can do. For us it works.’
And she leaned over and kissed me good night. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

14 " I thought this is how it would be if the sun died. The gentle shutting down of an organ; sleepy no longer working. No explosion at the end of life just the slow disintegration into darkness where life as we know it never wakes up because nothing reminds us that we have to. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

15 " But most of all I wrote about him - now called Max - my brother, our friend, missing now for 10 days. And I wrote about what I’d lost that morning. The witness of my soul, my shadow in childhood when dreams were small and attainable for all. When sweets were a penny and God was a rabbit. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

16 " Questionei-me quanto achariam os raptores que ele valia; quanto achariam os meus pais que eu valia e interroguei-me sobre se o valor das pessoas estava ligado a coisas como a bondade, a utilidade ou a disponibilidade para ajudar as pessoas menos afortunadas. Achei que era provável que o meu valor fosse superior quando era criança. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

17 " Las tardes de verano se alargaron y sentí deseos de salir con ella al patio, para que el sol le diera en la cara, y ver aparecer, una vez más, sus pecas bronceadas. Quería llevarla de nuevo a mi piso, detrás de la calle Cloth Fair, el piso que me aconsejó que me quedara cinco minutos después de verlo por primera vez, el noviembre pasado. Deseaba sentarme con ella en el tejado y contemplar el barrio de Smithfield al amanecer, y ver cómo abrían el mercado de carne, como si se tratara de una floración gigante y nocturna. Quería que volviéramos a escuchar juntas las campanas de Bartholomew, mientras comíamos cruasanes, leíamos los periódicos del domingo y cotilleábamos sobre las personas que conocíamos. Pero, sobre todo, quería que volviera a estar bien y que se incorporara enseguida a la colorida vida londinense. Pero Ginger nunca volvió a salir al exterior y, al final, le dije que no se perdía gran cosa, porque lo habíamos hecho todo, lo habíamos vivido todo, ¿no? Así que no hacía falta. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

18 " El mundo es un lugar diferente cuando estás bien, cuando eres joven. El mundo es hermoso y seguro. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

19 " —¿Que si creo en un anciano de barba blanca que vive en las nubes y juzga a los mortales con un código moral de diez mandamientos? ¡Cielo santo, querida Elly, claro que no! Me habría expulsado de esta vida hace años por mi alocada historia. ¿Que si creo en un misterio, en el inexplicable fenómeno que constituye la vida misma? ¿Que si creo en algo más grande que nosotros y que ilumina la inconsecuencia de nuestras vidas? ¿En algo que nos da una razón por la que luchar y la humildad para purificarnos y empezar de nuevo? Entonces sí, sí que creo en él. Es la fuente del arte, de la belleza, del amor, y ofrece la bondad suprema a la humanidad. Esto es Dios para mí. Esto es la vida, y es en esto en lo que creo. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit

20 " Pero sobre todo escribí acerca de él, que ahora se llamaba Max, acerca de mi hermano, nuestro amigo, que llevaba diez días desaparecido. Y escribí acerca de lo que había perdido aquella mañana: el testigo de mi alma, mi sombra de la infancia, cuando los sueños eran pequeños y alcanzables para todos; cuando los dulces costaban un penique y Dios era un conejo. "

― Sarah Winman , When God Was a Rabbit