Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within
Elif Shafak
Top 10 Best Quotes
“Male writers are thought of as "writers" first and then "men". As for female writers, they are first "female" and only then "writers".”
“Every book is a journey, a map into the complexities of the human mind and soul.”
“Do you know that the Sufis believe the world is a mother's womb? she asks. We are all babies in a womb. When the time comes we have to leave the world. We know this but we don't want to leave. We fear that when we die we will cease to exist. But death is actually a birth. If we could understand this we wouldn't be scared of anything.”
“Loneliness was an inseparable part of being human.”
“I am not saying that fiction has the magnitude of an earthquake, but when we are inside a good novel we leave our cozy, small apartments behind and, through fictional characters, find ourselves getting to know people we had never met before, and perhaps had even disliked as our Others.”
“But I have always believed that stories, too, have a similar effect on us. I am not saying that fiction has the magnitude of an earthquake, but when we are inside a good novel we leave our cozy, small apartments behind and, through fictional characters, find ourselves getting to know people we had never met before, and perhaps had even disliked as Our others.”
“Not only are the depressed in a different place but their relationship to time is also warped. Depression recognizes only one time slot-the past-and only one manner of speech: “If only.” People who are depressed have very little contact with the present moment. They live persistently in their memories, resurrecting all that has come and gone. Like a hamster on a wheel or a snake that has swallowed its tail, they are stuck in a roundabout of gloom”
“Is that what depression is about-the sinking feeling that your connection to God is broken and you are left to float on your own in a liquid black space, like an astronaut who has been cut loose from his spaceship and all that linked him to Earth?”
“I liked loneliness. I cherished it. I knew people who would go nuts if they were alone for too many hours. It was the opposite with me. I would go nuts if I had to be in the company of other people all the time. I would miss my privacy.”
“You’re all big talk! You always talk about depth,” grumbles Little MissPractical. “What are you, a scuba diver?”
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Book Keywords:
humanity, time, depression, women-writers, philosophy-of-life, spirituality, journey, loneliness, reading
