5 Quotes by Ninni Holmqvist

I was happy in the dream; but when I woke up it was with a feeling that I was falling apart, that I was cracking up from the inside and slowly falling to pieces. My heart was jumping and grating like a cold engine that doesn't want to start. My skin was crawling, and I couldn't manage a single clear thought. It was as if all my thoughts were crushed to bits just as they began to take shape. I didn't get much done that day.

single people without children have a "childish sensitivity and are unwilling or unable to compromise or fit in

People who read books,” he went on, “tend to be dispensable. Extremely.

You haven’t forgotten what it feels like to lose a friend because of a child, I hope?” If course I hadn’t forgotten that feeling of being abruptly pushed out of a close circle to some distant periphery. Coming second, third, fourth, last. Being treated like someone less knowledgeable, someone inferior.

I heard that before; I’d heard it until I was completely sick of it. People had often told me I was strong, and I regarded it as something dismissive rather than a compliment – or whatever it was meant to be. Because I knew, and I know that there are no strong people. All people are weak. Some are certainly more independent than others, but that doesn’t mean they’re strong.