It is my feeling that a story is not finished until it is read, and that the reader finishes it through his or her life experience, prejudices, worldview and thoughts.
Annie ProulxRead
We face up to awful things because we can't go around them, or forget them. The sooner you get it over with, the sooner you say 'Yes, it happened, and there's nothing I can do about it,' the sooner you can get on with your own life. You've got children to bring up. So you've got to get over it. What we have to get over, somehow we do. Even the worst things.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We must confront difficult situations instead of avoiding them to move forward in life.
Annie Proulx emphasizes the importance of facing our challenges head-on, rather than trying to escape or forget them. By accepting the reality of our circumstances and acknowledging that tough things happen, we free ourselves to move on and focus on what truly matters in our lives, like raising children and finding joy in the present.
Themes
ConfrontationAcceptanceMoving OnCourageLife
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speaker might use this quote to inspire people to address their fears.
More from Annie Proulx
All quotes →No wonder, he thought, that the panhandle people were a godly lot, for they lived in sudden, violent atmospheres. Weather kept them humble.
Annie ProulxRead
You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.
Annie ProulxRead
I think it's important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience.
Annie ProulxRead
If a piece of knotted string can unleash the wind, and if a drowned man can awaken, then I believe a broken man can heal.
Annie ProulxRead
But the only rhyme he could summon for 'out' was 'sauerkraut,' which lacked poetic glory. He let it go. The right line would come in time. That was the thing about poetry. It crept up through the draws and coulees of the brain.
Annie ProulxRead
Similar quotes
When I had cancer, people were surprised at how cheerful and upbeat I was, but I couldn't let myself go to depression - to go there, that defeat would allow everything in. If you look too far into the abyss, you might never come out again. You can stand on the abyss and peep but not give in to sadness.
Sam Taylor-JohnsonRead
Very often as a little girl, then as a young woman, I have suffered my lot of discrimination. I was brought up with brothers; I grew up in a boys' world. You have to elbow your way in. When you come with that sentiment of having been in a minority for a long period of time, then you are much more attentive to minorities.
Christine LagardeRead
Now that I know the dangers? Yes, I still would do it again. Why? 'Cause look at me. Look at my family. They're able to eat, they're able to have food and shelter over their head. Would I play football again? Yes.
Ed ReedRead
People sometimes pay with their lives for saying aloud what they think. In fact, one can even get killed for giving me information. I am not the only one in danger. I have examples that prove it.
Anna PolitkovskayaRead
One usually dies because one is alone, or because one has got into something over one's head. One often dies because one does not have the right alliances, because one is not given support. In Sicily the Mafia kills the servants of the State that the State has not been able to protect.
Giovanni FalconeRead
Braving obstacles and hardships is braver than retreat to tranquility.
Khalil GibranRead