My characters are always on the outside; the spotlight's not on them. But they do get somewhere. Jeanette Winterson More Quotes by Jeanette Winterson More Quotes From Jeanette Winterson It is just as likely that as I invent what I want to say, you will invent what you want to hear. Jeanette Winterson what-you-wantwant Everything in writing begins with language. Language begins with listening. Jeanette Winterson listeningwritinginspirational Life is fragmentary, and the pattern that creativity can offer is not one that is imposed, not something rigid, but rather something which can reveal the intrinsic patterns of that fragmentation. Things are in a perpetual dance, but there is an order. It's not really random at all. Jeanette Winterson patternscreativityorder The body shuts down when it has too much to bear; goes its own way quietly inside, waiting for a better time, leaving you numb and half alive. Jeanette Winterson numbnessleavingwaiting Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. What then kills love? Only this: Neglect. Jeanette Winterson neglectlovewater Cheating is easy. There's no swank to infidelity. To borrow against the trust someone has placed in you costs nothing at first. You get away with it, you take a little more and a little more until there is no more to draw on. Oddly, your hands should be full with all that taking but when you open them there's nothing there. Jeanette Winterson infidelitycheatinghands Growing up is difficult. Strangely, even when we have stopped growing physically, we seem to have to keep on growing emotionally, which involves both expansion and shrinkage, as some parts of us develop and others must be allowed to disappear...Rigidity never works; we end up being the wrong size for our world. Jeanette Winterson expansiongrowing-upour-world I had no one to help me, but the T. S. Eliot helped me. So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn’t be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language – and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers – a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn’t a hiding place. It is a finding place. Jeanette Winterson powerfulstupidschool Yes, we are [friends] and I do like to pass the day with you in serious and inconsequential chatter. I wouldn't mind washing up beside you, dusting beside you, reading the back half of the paper while you read the front. We are friends and I would miss you, do miss you and think of you very often. I don't want to lose this happy space where I have found someone who is smart and easy and doesn't bother to check their diary when we arrange to meet. Jeanette Winterson smartreadingfriendship Do it from the heart or not at all. Jeanette Winterson heartinspirationallife I like the way the morning can be stormy and the afternoon clear and sparkly as a jewel in the water. Put your hand in the water to reach for a sea urchin or a sea shell, and the thing desired never quite lies where you had lined it up to be. The same is true of love. In prospect or contemplation, love is where it seems to be. Reach in to lift it out and your hand misses Jeanette Winterson morninglove-islying They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it? Jeanette Winterson differentliteraturegoes-on When I was born I became the visible corner of a folded map. The map has more than one route. More than one destination. The map that is the unfolding self is not exactly leading anywhere. The arrow that says YOU ARE HERE is your first coordinate. There is a lot that you can't change when you are a kid. But you can pack for the journey. Jeanette Winterson journeyselfkids In my subconscious, my books were part of a single emotional journey. Jeanette Winterson emotionaljourneybook Pain is very often a maimed creature without a mouth. Jeanette Winterson creaturespainmouths Fragile creatures of a small blue planet, surrounded by light years of silent space. Jeanette Winterson lightblueyears When a woman gives birth her waters break and she pours out the child and the child runs free. Jeanette Winterson upliftingrunningfunny There is still a popular fantasy, long since disproved by both psychoanalysis and science, and never believed by any poet or mystic, that it is possible to have a thought without a feeling. It isn’t. When we are objective we are subjective too. When we are neutral we are involved. When we say ‘I think’ we don’t leave our emotions outside the door. To tell someone not to be emotional is to tell them to be dead. Jeanette Winterson emotionaldoorsthinking Life was a pre-death experience. Jeanette Winterson There's no such thing as autobiography, there's only art and lies Jeanette Winterson autobiographylyingart
