The truth is I am inventing the maybe. I can only make the choices I make, so why torture myself with what I might have done, when all I can handle is what I have done? The Maybe Islands are hostile to human life.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of living in the present and accepting one's choices without regret.
In this quote, Jeanette Winterson reflects on the concept of embracing one's decisions and the futility of contemplating alternate paths that were never taken. By acknowledging that one can only act upon the choices they have made, she urges us to focus on the present reality rather than being tormented by 'what ifs,' suggesting that the pursuit of endless possibilities can be detrimental rather than liberating.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a motivational talk about personal growth.
What is remembered is not a deed in stone but a metaphor. Meta = above. Pheren = to carry. That which is carried above the literalness of life. A way of thinking that avoids the problems of gravity. The word won't let me down. The single word that can release me from all that unuttered weight.
Reading things that are relevant to the facts of your life is of limited value. The facts are, after all, only the facts, and the yearning passionate part of you will not be met there. That is why reading ourselves as a fiction as well as fact is so liberating. The wider we read the freer we become.
I have a list of titles that I leave at the [library] desk, because they are bound to be written some day, and it's best to be ahead of the queue.
Woolf wanted to say dangerous things in Orlando but she did not want to say them in the missionary position.
In that house, you will find my heart. You must break in, Henri, and get it back for me.' Was she mad? We had been talking figuratively. Her heart was in her body like mine. I tried to explain this to her, but she took my hand and put it against her chest. Feel for yourself.
History is a string full of knots, the best you can do is admire it, and maybe tie it up a bit more. History is a hammock for swinging and a game for playing.
Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome.
No man is above the law, and no man is below it.
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.
It's not a problem that we're sinners; it's a problem that we aren't ashamed of our sin and don't seek forgiveness.
Man has his future within him, dynamically alive at this present moment.
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