14 Quotes by Anna Smaill



  • Author Anna Smaill
  • Quote

    That difference, that indefinable difference between talent and genius. It is as fine as hair, invisible to the eye and even, most of the time, to the ear. But in her face when she looks at her brother, I see that it may as well be a huge uncrossable chasm.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Anna Smaill
  • Quote

    What is it, the difference between ordinary people and those with genius? Not just ordinary people either. Intelligent people, sensitive ones, exceptionally talented ones. Even people like Sonja who give everything and then more, who work harder than seems possible on the thing they love.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Anna Smaill
  • Quote

    What you’ll learn, Simon, is that people do not want to know the truth. You might think you are doing them a great favour to bring it to them. But even if you put it right on their doorstep, nobody will thank you for it. They’ll throw it away. Throw it in your face. Most people prefer to forget.

  • Share

  • Author Anna Smaill
  • Quote

    When you don’t grasp something or remember something, I think your mind at last says, “Okay,” and part of it accepts this. In the end your mind gets to welcome that deadening. that’s what I believe anyway. Half of our memoryloss is by choice.

  • Share

  • Author Anna Smaill
  • Quote

    But some memories are more important than others,′ she says. ‘Because some memories belong to more than just one other person... Some memories tell us about who we are. They need to be kept safe so that things can change for all of us.

  • Share

  • Author Anna Smaill
  • Quote

    It is an awful knowledge. Even if what you are coming up out of is a nightmare, waking is hard. When you were deep inside the dream, all was decided for you. Out in the morning is something else altogether. Something you have to choose for yourself.

  • Share

  • Author Anna Smaill
  • Quote

    Deep in the drilled-in mud of the fields behind me, our bulbs are wrapped in their brittle skins with their messages of color stored inside. Blue iris, yellow crocus, tulips of all colors.

  • Share