Brigid Pasulka · 368 pages
Rating: (1.6K votes)
“The stupid things you do in life are the most beautiful.”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“[The Pigeon had learned something about [women] from his eight sisters, and if over the years he had absorbed only this one thing, it would stand as vindication that a boy does not suffer needlessly from growing up in a house with eight sisters. That thing was that a woman's heart is not bought by the currency of a man's emotion for her. A woman's heart is won over by her own feelings for herself when he just happens to be around ...”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“If everyone knows so much about it, why do they need to make a documentary?”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“I press my back against the wall and feel the pressure of it against my whole body. I want to feel enclosed again, protected, safe as I was in the village. I wrap the blanket tightly around me, and I try to comfort myself by thinking about Tadeusz, but the loneliness that has opened up inside me is bigger than one person can fill.”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“It was just after the war. There was nothing left in Warsaw for me. He and his brother were coming to Krakow to make a fresh start. And he loved me so. He would have done anything for me.”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“I keep repeating the conversation with Taduesz in mind, reaching out to touch it to make sure it doesn't disappear.”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“Golden hands. It is said that all Poles have them, and that this is how you know your place in life, by the ease of your hands, that whether you are born to make cakes or butcher animals, cuddle children or paint pictures, drive nails or play jazz, your hands know it before you do. Long before birth, the movements are choreographed into the tendons as they're formed.”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“Over the weeks I am surprised to find that the more stories I record and the longer I carry them around, the lighter they become. I find out that the difference between knowing something and being able to talk about it is that there we many hands now, and we all share the burden”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“Normally I give permission to take my daughter for a walk after only the building of a wall and a stone pathway.' He smiled. 'For future reference.'
'But, Pan, I knew after the first week that a walk was not the only thing I would request,' the Pigeon said, smiling, 'and winter will be here soon.”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“That was before I found out that capitalists are just communists without the polyester.”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“When someone is telling you what to do all the time, anything you do of your own volition becomes a protest, doesn’t it?”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“But I thought you protested against the communists."
"Phooh. That was before I found our that capitalists are just communists without the polyester.”
― Brigid Pasulka, quote from A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
“Now look," snapped the Dean, "we've searched everywhere for a decent library on this island. There simply isn't one! It's ridiculous. How is anyone supposed to get anything done?”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from The Last Continent
“All I knew was, even if she wasn't mine, I wanted to leave her with a smile.”
― Kiera Cass, quote from The Prince
“[T]he more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into a dialogue with them. This person does not consider himself or herself the proprietor of history or of all people, or the liberator of the oppressed; but he or she does commit himself or herself, within history, to fight at their side.”
― Paulo Freire, quote from Pedagogy of the Oppressed
“Sid and Nancy's relationship forever illustrates the worst part of being in love with anyone, which is that people in love can't be reasoned with.”
― Chuck Klosterman, quote from Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story
“You don't worry about happiness and fulfilment when you're starving.”
― Harlan Coben, quote from The Woods
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