We all work hard to understand the dynamic relationship we have with a parent. Alice Sebold More Quotes by Alice Sebold More Quotes From Alice Sebold Every day a question mark. Alice Sebold question-mark mark but, he also said it because part of him wanted more of her, this cold woman who was not exactly cold, this rock who was not stone. Alice Sebold cold rocks stones When I was raped I lost my virginity and almost lost my life. I also discarded certain assumptions I had held about how the world worked and about how safe I was. Alice Sebold assumption safe world People grow up by living. Alice Sebold growing-up grows people Learn a language of another country and then you can go to that country: a place where the problems of your family will not follow. A language they do not speak. Alice Sebold language problem country I was trying to prove to them and to myself that I was still who I had always been. I was beautiful, if fat. I was smart, if loud. I was good, if ruined. Alice Sebold smart trying beautiful If I had but an hour of love,if that be all that is given me,an hour of love upon this earth,I would give my love to thee. Alice Sebold lovely-bones earth giving For me, heaven would be a lack of alienation. The whole time I was growing up, I felt comfort was inherently evil. I think that for me heaven isn't about couches and milk shakes and never having a troubling thought again. Alice Sebold growing-up evil thinking I would like to tell you that I am, and you will one day be, forever safe. Alice Sebold one-day safe forever One thing about failing repeatedly: If you're still doing it after you've failed that much, you really mean it. Alice Sebold failing stills mean Once released from life, having lost it in such violence, I couldn’t calculate my steps. I didn’t have time for contemplation. In violence it is the getting out that you concentrate on. When you begin to go over the edge, life receding from you as a boat recedes inevitably from the shore, you hold on to death tightly, like a rope that will transport you, and you swing out on it, hoping to land away from where you are. Alice Sebold rope swings land She no longer believed in talk. It never rescued anything. Alice Sebold He would find his Susie,inside his young son. Give that love to the living. Alice Sebold young giving son Everyday he got up. Before sleep wore off, he was who he used to be. Then, as his consciousness woke, it was as if poison seeped in. At first he couldn't even get up. He lay there under a heavy weight. But then only movment could save him, and he moved and he moved and he moved, no movement being enough to make up for it. The guilt on him, the hand of God pressing down on him, saying, You were not there when your daughter needed you. Alice Sebold daughter sleep hands The dead are never exactly seen by the living, but many people seem acutely aware of something changed around them. They speak of a chill in the air. The mates of the deceased wake from dreams and see a figure standing at the end of thier bed, or in a doorway, or boarding, phantomlike, a city bus. Alice Sebold cities air dream Do you miss Susie?" Because it was dark, because Ruth was facing away from her,because Ruth was almost a stranger, Lindsey said what she felt. "More than anyone will ever know. Alice Sebold ruth missing dark I would do exactly what you are doing: I would talk to everyone I needed to, I would not tell too many people his name. When I was sure," she said, "I would find a quiet way, and I would kill him. Alice Sebold names people way But also I wanted him to go away and leave me be. I was granted one weak grace. Back in the room where the green chair was still warm from his body, I blew that lonely, flickering candle out Alice Sebold going-away lonely grace He was beginning to understand: You were treated special and, later, something horrible would be told to you. Alice Sebold horrible special would-be As she stood in the darkened room and watched my sister and father, I knew one of things that heaven meant. I had a choice, and it was not to divide my family in my heart. Alice Sebold choices heart father
