I have a superstition that if I talk about plot, it's like letting sand out of a hole in the bottom of a bag. Shirley Hazzard More Quotes by Shirley Hazzard More Quotes From Shirley Hazzard It's nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums of money to get rid of. Shirley Hazzard nervous writing needs At first, there is something you expect of life. Later, there is what life expects of you. By the time you realize these are the same, it can be too late for expectations. What we are being, not what we are to be. They are the same thing. Shirley Hazzard expectations too-late firsts The tragedy is not that love doesn't last. The tragedy is the love that lasts. Shirley Hazzard lasts confusion tragedy Poetry has been the longest pleasure of my life. Shirley Hazzard has-beens pleasure Human beings need unhappiness at least as much as they need happiness. Shirley Hazzard unhappiness humans needs Did you ever notice how easy it is to forgive a person any number of faults for one endearing characteristic, for a certain style, or some commitment to life - while someone with many good qualities is insupportable for a single defect if it happens to be a boring one? Shirley Hazzard forgiving numbers commitment It is the impulse of our century, with its nearly religious belief in magnitude, to fling an institution into every void. Shirley Hazzard void belief religious The United Nations emerged as a temple of official good intentions, a place where governments might - without abating their transgressions - go to church; a place made remote - by agreed untruth and procedural complexity, and by tedium itself - from the risk of intense public involvement. Shirley Hazzard risk government church Since the moment of the United Nations' inception, untold energies have been expended by governments not only toward the exclusion of persons of principle and distinction from the organization's leading positions, but toward the installation of men whose character and affiliations would as far as possible preclude any serious challenge to governmental sovereignty. Shirley Hazzard organization character men I think that one is constantly startled by the things that appear before you on the page when you're writing. Shirley Hazzard pages writing thinking There is balance in life, but not fairness. Shirley Hazzard life-balance fairness balance In thoughts one keeps a reserve of hope, in spite of everything. You cannot say good-bye in imagination. That is something you can only do in actuality. Shirley Hazzard spite imagination bye ... one doesn't really profit from experience; one merely learns to predict the next mistake. Shirley Hazzard profit next mistake I never had, or wished for, power over you. That isn't true, of course. I wanted the greatest power of all. but not advantage, or authority. Shirley Hazzard advantage over-you authority One would always want to think of oneself as being on the side of love, ready to recognize it and wish it well -but, when confronted with it in others, one so often resented it, questioned its true nature, secretly dismissed the particular instance as folly or promiscuity. Was it merely jealousy, or a reluctance to admit so noble and enviable a sentiment in anyone but oneself? Shirley Hazzard wish love thinking When people say of their tragedies, 'I don't often think of it now,' what they mean is it has entered permanently into their thoughts, and colors everything. Shirley Hazzard color mean thinking Marriage is like democracy - it doesn't really work, but it's all we've been able to come up with. Shirley Hazzard marriage democracy able Nothing creates such untruth in you as the wish to please. Shirley Hazzard please wish lying Italians are never punctual; the café, the convenient place to wait, absolves them from that. There is no question of hanging about, no looking lost and unwanted or even disreputable, as there is in hotel lobbies or the foyers of restaurants. One just sits and enjoys the scene, and waits. Shirley Hazzard foyers hotel-lobby waiting What you fear most will happen to you - that is the law. Shirley Hazzard law fear happens
