You never give away your heart; you lend it from time to time. If it were not so, how could we take it back without asking? Jeanette Winterson More Quotes by Jeanette Winterson More Quotes From Jeanette Winterson What it means to be human is to bring up your children in safety, educate them, keep them healthy, teach them how to care for themselves and others, allow them to develop in their own way among adults who are sane and responsibile, who know the value of the world and not its economic potential. It means art, it means time, it means all the invisibles never counted by the GDP and the census figures. It means knowing that life has an inside as well as an outside. And I think it means love. Jeanette Winterson mean children art ..to change something you do not understand is the true nature of evil. Jeanette Winterson nature-of-evil true-nature evil Tell me the story, Pew. . . . It was a woman. You always say that. There's always a woman somewhere, child; a princess, a witch, a stepmother, a mermaid, a fairy godmother, or one as wicked as she is beautiful, or as beautiful as she is good. Is that the complete list? Then there is the woman you love. Who's she? That's another story. Jeanette Winterson beautiful beauty children I've lived my life like a serial killer; finish with one part, strangle it and move on to the next. Life in neat little boxes is life in neat little coffins, the dead bodies of the past laid out side by side. I am discovering, now, in the late afternoon of the day, that the dead still speak. Jeanette Winterson serial-killer past moving Loneliness isn't about being by yourself. That's fine, right and good, desirable in many ways. Loneliness is about finding a landing-place, or not, and knowing that, whatever you do, you can go back there. The opposite of loneliness isn't company, it's return. A place to return. Jeanette Winterson being-yourself loneliness opposites You play, you win, you play, you lose. You play. It’s the playing that’s irresistible. Dicing from one year to the next with the things you love, what you risk reveals what you value. Jeanette Winterson winning love years I have a list of titles that I leave at the [library] desk, because they are bound to be written some day, and it's best to be ahead of the queue. Jeanette Winterson library titles lists I believe in communication; books communicate ideas and make bridges between people. Jeanette Winterson communication believe book Somewhere between fear and sex passion is. Jeanette Winterson passion sex I do not accept that life has an ordinary shape, or that there is anything ordinary about life at all. We make it ordinary, but it is not. Jeanette Winterson accepting shapes ordinary Art saved me; it got me through my depression and self-loathing, back to a place of innocence. Jeanette Winterson healing depression art I never wanted children. If I'd been deeply in love with a man and he'd wanted children, it would have been difficult. Jeanette Winterson love men children We're here, there, not here, not there, swirling like specks of dust, claiming for ourselves the rights of the universe. Being important, being nothing, being caught in lives of our own making that we never wanted. Breaking out, trying again, wondering why the past comes with us, wondering how to talk about the past at all. Jeanette Winterson dust rights past If people aren't educated, they can't question. If they can't question, they can't change anything, which is great for the status quo and all the people who can question them at their own level. Jeanette Winterson status-quo levels people We are told not to privilege one story above another. All the stories must be told. Well, maybe that's true, maybe all stories are worth hearing, but not all stories are worth telling. Jeanette Winterson privilege hearing stories Do all lovers feel helpless and valiant in the presence of the beloved? Helpless because the need to roll over like a pet dog is never far away. Valiant because you know you would slay a dragon with a pocket knife if you had to. Jeanette Winterson knives dragons dog Poets will never be the highest-paid writers in the world. Instead, poetry will go on cutting a hand-made path through the mass-market insanity. For me, anyway, that path is the one that leads to the Chapel of the Grail. Jeanette Winterson cutting insanity hands One of the problems with watching TV is that you've got a fairly low level of language operating all the time. Quite a small vocabulary and really no conceptual or abstract thinking. That's an issue. If you've got a wide vocabulary, you can learn. The complexities of grammar, in themselves, force you to think about time in a particular way. Force you to widen your outlook on the world. Jeanette Winterson issues vocabulary thinking The mind will not believe in death, perhaps because, as far as the mind is concerned, death never happens. Jeanette Winterson mind believe death The secret of the world is this: the world is entirely circular and you will go round and round endlessly, never finding what you want, unless you have found what you really want inside yourself. When you follow a star you know you will never reach that star; rather it will guide you to where you want to go. Its a reference point, not an end in itself, even though you seem to be following it. So it is with the world. It will only ever lead you back to yourself. The end of all your exploring will be to cease from exploration and know the place for the first time. Jeanette Winterson stars time love
