There is a certain seductiveness about what is dead. It will retain all those admirable qualities of life with none of that tiresome messiness associated with live things. Crap and complaints and the need for affection. You can auction it, museum it, collect it. It’s much safer to be a collector of curios, because if you are curious, you have to sit and sit and see what happens. You have to wait on the beach until it gets cold, and you have to invest in a glass-bottomed boat, which is more expensive than a fishing rod, and puts you in the path of the elements. The curious are always in some danger. If you are curious you might never come home, like all the men who now live with mermaids at the bottom of the sea. Jeanette Winterson
About This Quote

This quote is a stunning and powerful example of this belief. It speaks to the seductiveness of death and how it becomes much easier to take the easy way out and stay safe by collecting the things of the past. In this case, the author refers to the items from the past as “crap” and “complaints” because they are boring and don’t hold any charm or interest. The only way to make these things interesting or worthwhile is by sitting around waiting for them to become cold and then investing in a glass-bottom boat that will take you into harm’s way.

Source: Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

Some Similar Quotes
  1. All words are pegs to hang ideas on. - Henry Ward Beecher
  2. A word is not the same with one writer as it is with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket. - Anonymous
  3. No doubt I shall go on writing, stumbling across tundras of unmeaning, planting words like bloody flags in my wake.... - Alexander Trocchi
  4. Strong words outlast the paper they are written upon. - Joseph Bruchac
  5. A new word. Bright with possibilities. A flawless pearl to turn over and over in my hand, then put away for safekeeping. - Jennifer Donnelly
More Quotes By Jeanette Winterson
  1. It happens like this. "One day you meet someone and for some inexplicable reason, you feel more connected to this stranger than anyone else--closer to them than your closest family. Perhaps this person carries within them an angel--one sent to you for some higher purpose;...
  2. You were you, and I was I;we were twobefore our time. I was yoursbefore I knew, and you have always been mine too.
  3. Before I fellin love with words, with setting skies and singing birds–it was you I fellin love with first.
  4. Love is a game of tic-tac-toe, constantly waitingfor the next x or o.
  5. Like time suspended, a wound unmended-- you and I. We had no ending, no said goodbye; For all my life, I'll wonder why.
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