Sarah Winman Quotes

“She was of another world; different. But by then, secretly, so was I.”
― Sarah Winman, When God Was a Rabbit

“I carried the tree into the front room where cloves had punctured the skin of oranges and I could see where you had been only minutes before. Your indent was still warm on the sofa with a book open to its side, a table with an empty plate, a cardigan, and the slow fade of a fire.”
― Sarah Winman, Tin Man

“Si no tenemos una razón para vivir, ¿qué sentido tiene la vida? La existencia necesita un propósito, y éste consiste en ser capaces de soportar el sufrimiento de la vida con dignidad. El propósito nos da una razón para continuar, pero el significado debe calar en nuestro corazón, no en nuestra mente. Debemos comprender el significado de nuestro sufrimiento.”
― Sarah Winman

“I’d been feeling like this for a while; the continual looking back the stuckness of it all. I blamed it on the coming new year only 4 1/2 months away when the clocks would read zero and we would start again, could start again, but I knew we wouldn’t. Nothing would. The world would be the same, just a little bit worse.”
― Sarah Winman, When God Was a Rabbit

“—¿A qué huele? —preguntó Jenny mirando alrededor.
—A la llegada del invierno —contesté exhalando un profundo suspiro.”
― Sarah Winman, When God Was a Rabbit

“You smell nice,’ she said.
‘Chanel,’ he said.
‘Wasted on you,’ she said and he reached into his bag and pulled out an almond tart.
‘Look what I’ve got,’ he said triumphantly as he lowered it under her nose.
‘Almonds,’ she said, ‘just like Paris.’
‘For us to share,’ he said, ‘just like Paris.’

I never knew if she had any real appetite or not for she hadn’t eaten solids for days. But he broke a piece off and held it to her mouth and she ate hungrily for it was the memory she was tasting again and the memory tasted good.
I moved a chair close to the bed for him and he sat down and held her hand. his own death he’d made peace with years ago but everyone else’s still frightened him and so he held her hand to not let her go. He held her hand because he wasn’t ready to let her go.”
― Sarah Winman, When God Was a Rabbit

“We’ll never know the truth of that story and I don’t think either of us wants to really. It was a story that begin and ended in that room. Arthur says everyone takes something to the grave. ..”
― Sarah Winman, When God Was a Rabbit

“I sat in front of the roaring hearth and watched the men play poker badly and loudly. My mother bent down and filled my wine glass. Maybe it was the angle or the light. Maybe it was simply her, but she looked so young that night. And Nancy must’ve noticed it too because I caught her looking at her as she carried in a tray of teas and it was a gaze I could see that extinguished all thoughts of her erratic marriage (A marriage that incidentally would never happen due to Detective Butler’s shameful ‘outing’ by national Inquirer magazine).
Later, as my mother entered my room to say good night I sat up and said, ‘Nancy’s in love with you.’
‘And I’m in love with her.’
‘But what about dad?’
She smiled, ‘I’m in love with him too.’
‘Oh. Is that allowed?’
She laughed and said, ‘for a child of sixties, Elle . . .
I know. Bit of a letdown.’
‘Never,’ she said. ‘Never. I love them differently that’s all. I don’t sleep with Nancy.’
‘Oh God I don’t need to know that.’
‘Yes you do. We play by our own rules Ellie always have. That’s all we can do. For us it works.’
And she leaned over and kissed me good night.”
― Sarah Winman, When God Was a Rabbit

“I thought this is how it would be if the sun died. The gentle shutting down of an organ; sleepy no longer working. No explosion at the end of life just the slow disintegration into darkness where life as we know it never wakes up because nothing reminds us that we have to.”
― Sarah Winman, When God Was a Rabbit

“But most of all I wrote about him - now called Max - my brother, our friend, missing now for 10 days. And I wrote about what I’d lost that morning. The witness of my soul, my shadow in childhood when dreams were small and attainable for all. When sweets were a penny and God was a rabbit.”
― Sarah Winman, When God Was a Rabbit