4
" Unconnected to the life of love, uncolored by love, the world resumes its own, its natural and callous importance. This is first a blow, then an odd consolation. And already I felt my old self - my old, devious, ironic, isolated self - beginning to breathe again and stretch and settle, though all around it my body clung cracked and bewildered, in the stupid pain of loss. "
― Alice Munro , Lives of Girls and Women
17
" He said the difference between the male and female modes of thought were easily illustrated by the thoughts of a boy and girl, sitting on a park bench, looking at the full moon. The boy thinks of the universe, its immensity and mystery; the girl thinks, "I must wash my hair." When I read this I was frantically upset; I had to put the magazine down. It was clear to me at once that I was not thinking as a girl thought; the full moon would never as long as I lived remind me to wash my hair. I knew if I showed it to my mother she would say, "Oh it is just that maddening male nonsense, women have no brains." That would not convince me; surely a New York psychiatrist must know. And women like my mother were in the minority, I could see that. Moreover I did not want to be like my mother, with her virginal brusqueness, her innocence. I wanted men to love me, and I wanted to think of the universe when I looked at the moon. I felt trapped, stranded; it seemed there had to be a choice where there couldn't be a choice. "
― Alice Munro , Lives of Girls and Women
18
" As I walked into Jubilee I repossessed the world. Trees, houses, fences, streets, cambe back to me, in their own sober and familiar shapes. Unconnected to the life of love, uncolored by love, the world resumes its own, its natural and callous importance. This is first a blow, then an odd consolation. And already I felt my old self--my old devious, ironic, isolated self--beginning to breathe again and stretch and settle, though all around it my body clung cracked and bewildered, in the stupid pain of loss. "
― Alice Munro , Lives of Girls and Women
20
" ¿Qué era una vida normal? Era la vida de las chicas que trabajaban con ella, las fiestas de homenaje, las sábanas de hilo, las baterías de cocina y la cubertería de plata, ese complicado orden femenino; y, por otro lado, era la vida del salón de baile Gay-la, ir borracha en coche por carreteras negras, escuchar chistes de hombres, soportar y pelearte con hombres y conseguirlos, conseguirlos: un lado no podía existir sin el otro, y al asumir y acostumbrarse a ambos, una chica se ponía en camino del matrimonio. No había otra manera. Y yo no iba "
― Alice Munro , Lives of Girls and Women
