81 Quotes by Laura Kasischke

Like a twentieth-century dream of Europe—allhorrors, and pastries—some part of me, for all timestands in a short skirt in a hospital cafeteria line, with a tray, whilein another glittering tower namedfor the world's richest manmy mother, who is dying, never dies.

July, that lovely hell, allvelvet dresses and drapesstuffed into a hot little hole.

I am the impossibility of desiringthe person you pity. And the petal of the Easter lily—

A knife plunged into the centerof summer. Airand terror, which become teeth together.

The urgent warnings:The dreamy terror of certain summer mornings.

There is dancing and laughter in hell, an angel weeping openly on a park bench in heaven. My mother, dead and frantic in an attic. A white shirt on a floor. An old man in a wheelchair, rubbing his eyes. Here it is, here it is! the occupational therapists sing as they rise to the surface of the earth, smiling, bearing their terrible surprise.

That to want to succeed is to fail

We must imagine our lives well. We must engage our conscience. Conscience is the voice of God in the nature and heart of man.

Heartbreak could be lived with if it weren't accompanied by regret.