“ But do you know this idea of the imaginary homeland? Once you set out from shore on your little boat, once you embark, you'll never truly be at home again. What you've left behind exists only in memor… Claire Messud
“ From anywhere: where once he had feared that this immense city would set him adrift, a spinning atom in the ether, and where once he had seen in this the ultimate terror of insignificance, he now, and… Claire Messud
“ It was supposed to say Great Artist on my tombstone, but if I died right now it would say such a good teacher/daughter/friend instead; and what I really want to shout, and want in big letters on that… Claire Messud
“ I want to make a difference. But get a job? I worry that will make the ordinary, like everybody else. Claire Messud
“ You wouldn’t want them to know that in your heart, you are proud, and maybe even haughty, and are riven by thoughts the revelation of which would show everyone how deeply Not Nice you are. Claire Messud
“ I measure my life out in books. You should be measuring your life by living. Correction: you shouldn't be measuring your life. What's the point? Claire Messud
“ He says that children live on the edge of madness, that their behavior, apparently unmotivated, shares the same dream logic as crazy people’s. I see what he means, and because I’ve learned to be patie… Claire Messud
“ She wanted to remind him, whether his family was there or not. She wanted. And wanted. And endured in her wanting: the damp seat, the dry chicken, more champagne, the headache the champagne brought, t… Claire Messud
“ I thought I could get to greatness, to my greatness, by plugging on, cleaning up each mess as it came, the way you’re taught to eat your greens before you have dessert. Claire Messud
“ Isn’t it funny, she said, stroking with an inky finger the beads of condensation on her glass of white wine, that year was such an unhappy one, for me. Remember poor Reza? And Skandar away so much—and… Claire Messud
“ He didn't much like reading novels - he preferred history or philosophy - or poetry, although he could read only a little poetry at a time, because when a poem spoke to him it was as if a brilliant, a… Claire Messud
“ But just as the world is opening up, it's closing too, and things reveal their previously unimagined shapes. Claire Messud
“ I instead was reminded of watching my cousins at Thanksgiving through my own front windows, that strange sense of distance, even where you should belong. Claire Messud
“ The Thwaites lived on Central Park West in the upper Eighties, in a building that, while manifestly grand, particularly to someone from Ohio, was by no means the most elegant among its neighbors. Its… Claire Messud
