He had been my almost. My might-have-been. I was afraid of what I wanted most - His kiss. Still, I collected kiss stories. -Susie Salmon Alice Sebold More Quotes by Alice Sebold More Quotes From Alice Sebold Now I am in the place I call this wide wide Heaven because it includes all my simplest desires but also the most humble and grand. The word my grandfather uses is comfort. So there are cakes and pillows and colors galore, but underneath this more obvious patchwork quilt are places like a quiet room where you can go and hold someone's hand and not have to say anything. Give no story. Make no claim. Where you can live at the edge of your skin for as long as you wish. Alice Sebold quilts humble hands Almost everyone in heaven has someone on Earth they watch, a loved one, a friend or even a stranger who was once kind, who offered warm food or a bright smile when one of us had needed it. And when I wasn’t watching I could hear the others talking to those they loved on Earth: just as fruitlessly as me, I’m afraid. A one-sided card cajoling and coaching of the young, a one way loving and desiring of their mates, a single-sided card that could never get signed. Alice Sebold coaching talking heaven The alcohol had the effect of making the black cloth blacker. This amused her; she had noted in her journal: "booze affects material as it does people. Alice Sebold black alcohol people So there are cakes and pillows and colors galore, but underneath this more obvious patchwork quilt are places like a quiet room where you can go and hold someone's hand and not have to say anything. Alice Sebold quilts color hands As if in the other side of his kiss there could ve a new life Alice Sebold kissing new-life sides I was in the air around him. I was in the cold mornings he had now. I was in the quiet time he spent alone. I was the girl he had chosen to kiss. He wanted, somehow to set me free. -Susie Salmon Alice Sebold kissing girl morning Between a man and a woman there was always one person who was stronger than the other one. That doesn’t mean the weaker one doesn’t love the stronger. Alice Sebold stronger men mean Loss could be used as a measure of beauty in a woman. Alice Sebold used loss His love for my mother wasn't about looking back and loving something that would never change. It was about loving my mother for everything -- for her brokenness and her fleeing, for her being there right then in that moment before the sun rose and the hospital staff came in. It was about touching that hair with the side of his fingertip, and knowing yet plumbing fearlessly the depths of her ocean eyes. Alice Sebold ocean eye mother Poison and medicine are often the same thing, given in different proportions Alice Sebold medicine different poison The sun came through the branches of the tree above her, and Ruth looked up past them. "I think she listens," she said, too softly to be heard. Alice Sebold tree past thinking I have always felt extremely weird. But I am very happy with my weirdnesses, and I want other people to be very happy with theirs. Alice Sebold weirdness want people I think you only learn what kind of personality you have by committing to things. Alice Sebold kind personality thinking In my 20s, I railed against anything 'spiritual', I thought it was all crap. Alice Sebold crap spiritual The relationship with the words someone uses is more intimate and integrated than just a quick read and a blurb can ever be. This intimacy - the words on the page being sent back and forth from engaged editor to open author - is unique in my experience. Alice Sebold editors unique use At fourteen, my sister sailed away from me into a place I’d never been. In the walls of my sex there was horror and blood, in the walls of hers there were windows. Alice Sebold wall sex blood It's hard, because when you talk about process or your characters ruling your narrative, it sounds like you have no control, but obviously you're ultimately the author, so you do have control. Alice Sebold narrative sound character I don't do much public speaking. I did a lot of stuff for Bones, and then ended up having said yes to a lot of things that kept me on the road for a while for that, but then I pretty much stopped. I'm touring for this book, but when the tour is done, that'll be the end of it. Alice Sebold done stuff book It's something that I know how to do because I taught for a very long time, so I can do it, and I feel a responsibility to do it - for instance, in this situation, where I'm touring specifically for this period of time. But most writers are not public people. There are a few writers out there who really enjoy it and are good at it, and can both work and do that at the same time, but I'm not one of those people. Alice Sebold responsibility long people I'm fine with whatever comes my way, and whatever doesn't come my way I'm fine with too. I have a very laissez-faire attitude with the whole thing. Alice Sebold laissez-faire attitude way
