Mother’s particular devils had remained mysterious to me for decades. So had her past. Few born liars ever intentionally embark in truth’s direction, even those who believe that such a journey might axiomatically set them free.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the complexities of understanding a mother's hidden truths and struggles.
Mary Karr highlights the enigmatic nature of her mother's past and the difficulty in uncovering the layers of truth behind a person who has lived with deception. The quote suggests that for those who have lived in lies, the path to truth is fraught with challenges, as recognizing one's own history can often lead to a painful but necessary journey towards freedom.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about family dynamics and the importance of understanding one another's histories.
There's a space at the bottom of an exhale, a little hitch between taking in and letting out that's a perfect zero you can go into. There's a rest point between the heart muscle's close and open - an instant of keenest living when you're momentarily dead. You can rest there.
I was 40 years old before I became an overnight success, and I'd been publishing for 20 years.
I always say that a poet loves the world, and the prose writer needs to create an alternative world.
Childhood was terrifying for me. A kid has no control. You're three feet tall, flat broke, unemployed, and illiterate. Terror snaps you awake. You pay keen attention. People can just pick you up and move you and put you down.
Reading is socially accepted disassociation. You flip a switch and you’re not there anymore. It’s better than heroin. More effective and cheaper and legal.
My idea of art is, you write something that makes people feel so strongly that they get some conviction about who they want to be or what they want to do. It's morally useful not in a political way, but it makes your heart bigger; it's emotionally and spiritually empowering.
You're only lonely if you don't like the person you are alone with.
It is not "forgive and forget" as if nothing wrong had ever happened, but "forgive and go forward," building on the mistakes of the past and the energy generated by reconciliation to create a new future.
Empathy fuels connection; sympathy drives disconnection.
You have never had any confidence in him. And if he has no confidence in himself it is because he sees himself through your eyes.
After telling the hard facts to anyone from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes. Often it is awe or admiration, sometimes it is repulsion, once or twice it has been fury hurled directly at me for reasons I remain unsure of.
To a shameful extent, the charm of marriage boils down to how unpleasant it is to be alone.
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