“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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“SONNET 43
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow's form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me. ”
― William Shakespeare, quote from Shakespeare's Sonnets
“Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward.”
― Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, quote from The Bhagavad Gita
“Sookie: "Eric, when I'm back to being myself, I'm going to nail your ass for putting me in this position of being pledged to you." Eric: Darling, you can nail my ass anytime," he said charmingly, and turned to go back to his table. Pam rolled her eyes. "You two," she said. "Hey this isn't any of my doing," I said, which wasn't entirely true. But it was a good exit line, and I took advantage of it to leave the bar.”
― Charlaine Harris, quote from Dead and Gone
“Lys," he whispered. "Do you know what's coming?"
"Yes," she whispered.
"And you know that I'll be with you until the end?”
― Lauren Kate, quote from Passion
“She was his wife, mother, best friend, sister, lover, and priest.”
― Dennis Lehane, quote from Mystic River
The Black Cauldron
Little Children
Skeleton Key
The Almond Tree
Charade
Where'd You Go, Bern...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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