The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves Quotes

“Every sickness has an alien quality, a feeling of invasion and loss of control that is evident in the language we use about it.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Pain is always emotional. Fear and depression keep constant company with chronic hurting.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Dreams are stories made by and for the dreamer, and each dreamer has his own folds to open and knots to untie.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“The truth is that personality inevitably bleeds into all forms of our intellectual life. We all extrapolate from our own lives in order to understand the world.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Memory changes as a person matures.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“The faculty of memory cannot be separated from the imagination. They go hand in hand. To one degree or another, we all invent our personal pasts. And for most of us those pasts are built from emotionally colored memories.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Ture stories can't be told forward, only backward. We invent them from the vantage point of an ever-changing present and tell ourselves how they unfolded.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“There's a phenomenology of being sick, one that depends on temperament, personal history, and the culture which we live in.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Memory is essential to who we are, and memories can be both implicit and explicit - unconscious and conscious.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Dreaming is another form of thinking, more concrete, more economical, more visual, and often more emotional than the thoughts of the day, but a thinking through of the day, nevertheless.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“True stories can't be told forward, only backward. We invent them from the vantage point of an ever-changing present and tell ourselves how they unfolded.”
― Siri Hustvedt , The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“It seems to me that going backward sometimes means going forward.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Worries about the power of a doctor's suggestions to influence and shape his patient's mind, whether they are made under hypnosis or not, are still with us.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Infancy is irretrievable. Its memories live underground. To what extent they return by stealth or are triggered by various catalysts remains an ongoing question.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Je n'écris plus, je suis écrite. (p.86)”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“D. W. Winnicott, un psychanaliste et pédiatre anglais: "Se réfugier dans la normalité, ce n'est pas la santé." (p.96)”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Le cou n'est-il pas l'endroit où finit la tête et où le corps commence? (p.148)”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Natürlich ist ein Selbst viel umfassender als der innere Erzähler. Die Insel des selbst-bewussten Geschichtenerzählers liegt mitten in einem Meer von Unbewusstem, über das wir nichts wissen, nie etwas wissen werden oder das wir vergessen haben. Es gibt vieles in uns, das wir nicht beherrschen oder wollen, aber das bedeutet nicht, dass es unwichtig wäre, eine Erzählung für uns selbst zu finden. In der Sprache bilden wir den Lauf der Zeit so ab, wie wir ihn empfinden – das Es war, es ist, es wird sein. Wir abstrahieren, denken und erzählen. Wir ordnen unsere Erinnerungen und verknüpfen sie miteinander und diese Bruchstücke bekommen einen Besitzer: das autobiographische Ich, das nicht ohne ein Du ist. Für wen erzählen wir denn schließlich? Auch allein in unseren Köpfen ist ein vorausgesetzter anderer dabei, die zweite Person unserer Rede.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“Most people aren't attacked by colors.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“En mayor o menor medida, todos inventamos nuestro pasado.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves

“¿Para quién narramos, después de todo? Incluso en la soledad de nuestra cabeza existe un supuesto otro, la segunda persona de nuestro discurso.”
― Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or A History of My Nerves