285 Quotes by Siri Hustvedt


  • Author Siri Hustvedt
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    Memories that have never been told aren't yet solid stories; they are potential stories. It may be that the interlocutor is the self, as in John Harmon's monologue, but it is always the self in relation to the idea of another, the "I" addressing a "you," because the desire to tell implies that the tale must become comprehensible to a listener.

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  • Author Siri Hustvedt
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    No one rejoices more in revenge than women, wrote Juvenal. Women do most delight in revenge, wrote Sir Thomas Browne. Sweet is revenge, especially to women, wrote Lord Byron. And I say, I wonder why, boys. I wonder why.

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  • Author Siri Hustvedt
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    Los patriarcas nos defraudan. No ven y no escuchan. Suelen permanecer ciegos y hacer oídos sordos a las mujeres, se pavonean, alardean y actúan como si no estuviéramos allí. Y no siempre son hombres. A veces son mujeres, también ciegas que se odian a sí mismas. Están atrapadas en los hábitos perceptivos de los siglos, en las expectativas que han llegado a gobernar su mente.

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  • Author Siri Hustvedt
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    But all attractions are alike,' he said. 'They come from an emptiness inside.' He hammered on this chest with his index finger. 'Something's missing and you have to fill it. Books, paintings, people, they're all the same...''A lot of people do without books and paintings.''True,' he said, 'but that doesn't affect the argument.' Paris turned his head to one side and chewed on his lip. 'Of course, nothing ever does the trick. Nobody's really satisfied for long.

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  • Author Siri Hustvedt
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    I know, but he must have felt it that way, that evil was an emptiness, a lack of something, not a presence.'He turned his head fast and looked at me. 'That's what desire is, isn't it? The lack of something.

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  • Author Siri Hustvedt
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    The bottle of red brush on a white table gleamed throughout the remaining years of my childhood as the sign of what was possible there.

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