“Love is so easily bruised by the necessity of making choices.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“I remember being disappointed when Papa had shown me Caravaggio's Judith. She was completely passive while she was sawing through a man's neck. Caravaggio gave all the feeling to the man. Apparently, he couldn't imagine a woman to have a single thought. I wanted to paint her thoughts, if such a thing were possible -- determination and concentration and belief in the absolute necessity of the act. The fate of her people resting on her shoulders...”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“Amar es ponerse al cuello el nudo corredizo de la ilusión; adorar a alguien mientras pareces asfixiarte. Pero incluso el amor no correspondido, el amor fugaz, es mejor que nada.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“What could she possibly have done that was so heinous as to earn her a lifetime of self-mortification? No one short of a tyrant deserved such unremitting agony. I cried there with her, for her, for Eve, for sorrows past, for sorrows yet to come. I put my pencil away. It was wrong to draw live pain. If there had been an artist at Bethany, it would have been wrong to intrude his chalk or charcoal on Mary Magdalene’s weeping as she washed Jesus’ feet. Some things were too raw for art until time dulled their sharpness.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“Sì. Ma la bellezza non è tutto. E' meglio essere assetati di bellezza e comprenderla, che essere belli e basta. Alla fine la vita risulta più ricca. Un giorno forse lo imparerà.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“If a person loves something above all else, if he values the work of his heart and hands, then he should naturally, without hesitation, pour into it his whole soul, undivided and pure. Great art demands nothing less.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“Just think. We’re whizzing through the universe.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“In this universe where I knew now we were not the center, where I was as insignificant and unremarkable as a grain of salt seen from a tower, God still allowed me to take my next breath.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“Which one is really my child? The one I brought forth with my own groans who has no liking for the thing I love most in all the world, or the stranger’s child whom fate placed in my life, the one who is absorbing and treasuring every word I give her, whose eyes are learning every day, whom I would love to teach...”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“I know. But it’s got to be this way, that she isn’t sure, so people looking at it a long time from now, women and men too, might feel badly, might even weep that at some ignorant time there was once a woman raped who was pressured, even expected, to kill herself.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“Things will change, Father. They must. And art can help create the change.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“I leaned out the window to feel the night’s deep blue, the same dark air that surrounded him in Genoa or Paris or wherever he was. I would give a great deal to know what he was thinking right at this moment. If a person could know for certain what the other person was thinking or doing, then loneliness might cease to exist in the world.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“A moon of startling brightness rose over the rooftops, lifted on a divine, invisible thread...”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“At some times in our lives, our passion makes us perpetrators of hurt and loss. At other times we are the ones who are hurt—all in the name of art. Sometimes we get what we want. Sometimes we pay for another to get what he or she wants.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“Look and look and don’t ever forget. Now, close your eyes. Here, give me your hand. And just feel. Can you feel the Earth move?”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“Palmira. She’s like an apparition floating unknowingly into her future,' I said. 'Here for too brief a time.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“That’s what great art is supposed to do—help us to live in the spirit and die at peace.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“It’s better to have a hunger and appreciation for beauty than to be merely beautiful. In the end, life is richer that way. She may learn that.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“Should I explain to him Galileo’s discovery that we are not what we thought—that our lives are made smaller by the unimportance of our dwelling place on the periphery, like a touch of color at the edge of a painting, contributing to the whole but unnoticed by most?”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“But even one-way love, fleeting love, is better than no love at all. I’m grateful for having had the feeling.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
“Before this I had always held back, had never lived freely, not with Pietro, not even with Palmira, but here, where nothing was known, I did not fear judgment, and because Father and I shared the same sensibilities, all the rigidness of my living melted and I felt myself coming into myself. If it was genuine, if it would last, it was a wonderful feeling.”
― Susan Vreeland, quote from The Passion of Artemisia
Susan Vreeland
Born place: in Racine, WI, The United States
Born date January 20, 1946
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“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8”
― quote from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version
“I was just curious.” She shoved her hands into her pockets and gave Noah what she hoped was a sweet smile. “Just tell me what he did and I’ll leave. Are you going to fire him? Can I watch?”
“Fine.” Rory didn’t look happy, that was odd enough. He looked angry at her, and he was never angry with her. And his smile. It was tight. All teeth. When had he turned into a full-grown man on her? He wasn’t a kid brother any longer. “He was staring at your ass! Now you deal with it.”
He turned and slammed out of the office, leaving her to stare at him in shock before she turned to meet Noah’s amused gaze.
“He was lying to me,” she said.
He grinned. Noah was absolutely entranced. Once again, he had to ask, though, what had happened to the Sabella he had known six years before. The one who never chipped a nail, and would have never, under any circumstances, butted into a male/male confrontation.
“You have a fine ass,” he stated, and knew she wasn’t buying it.
Her eyes narrowed. “And you’re not going to tell me what he was chewing your ass over?”
Noah had to chuckle. “It was more in the way of a warning.”
He was treading a fine line. Nathan wasn’t as dead as Noah might wish; he still had habits that had once been ingrained. One of those habits? Twirling that damned wrench as he tried to figure out a particular problem beneath the hood of a vehicle.
She sniffed at his response. “Piss him off too far and I’ll convince him to finally fire you.”
He had to grin at that one as he sauntered to the door. Before passing her, he stopped, lowered his head, and whispered, “And I caught you looking at my ass too. Maybe I should tell Rory on you.”
― Lora Leigh, quote from Wild Card
“Betsy returned to her chair, took off her coat and hat, opened her book and forgot the world again.”
― Maud Hart Lovelace, quote from Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown
“I went to him in the doorway and embraced him tightly.
"Thank you," I whispered. "You've done so much for us, and we've done nothing for you."
"Don't say that." Vic's hands patted my back. "You're my friends. Nothing else to it.”
― Claudia Gray, quote from Afterlife
“I believe in God because only an idiot can look at the complex balance of nature and believe that has not been designed. Believe it or not, but some people still believe that a watch can make itself out of sand if you just give it enough time. That’s what they call evolution. And you wonder why I am cynical. From my point of view you have to be a fool not to be cynical.”
― Ted Dekker, quote from Blink
The Walking Drum
The Melancholy Death...
Transfer of Power
A Game of You
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