It had seemed like the beginning of happiness, and Clarissa is still sometimes shocked, more than thirty years later to realize that it was happiness; that the entire experience lay in a kiss and a walk. The anticipation of dinner and a book. The dinner is by now forgotten; Lessing has been long overshadowed by other writers. What lives undimmed in Clarissa's mind more than three decades later is a kiss at dusk on a patch of dead grass, and a walk around a pond as mosquitoes droned in the darkening air. There is still that singular perfection, and its perfect in part because it seemed, at the time, so clearly to promise more. Now she knows: That was the moment, right then. There has been no other. . Michael Cunningham
About This Quote

Clarissa, you are absolutely right. We can never return to the past; we can only move forward. We will always look back on the past with nostalgia, but we must remember that it was once upon a time. We must be able to forgive ourselves for our mistakes, and continue to move forward.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Promise YourselfTo be so strong that nothingcan disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness, and prosperityto every person you meet. To make all your friends feelthat there is something in them To look at the sunny side of everythingand make your optimism come... - Christian D. Larson
  2. They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. - Tom Bodett
  3. Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness. - Bertrand Russell
  4. Happiness is holding someone in your arms and knowing you hold the whole world. - Orhan Pamuk
  5. I know that's what people say-- you'll get over it. I'd say it, too. But I know it's not true. Oh, youll be happy again, never fear. But you won't forget. Every time you fall in love it will be because something in the man... - Betty Smith
More Quotes By Michael Cunningham
  1. You cannot find peace by avoiding life.
  2. One always has a better book in one's mind than one can manage to get onto paper.
  3. Beauty is a whore, I like money better.
  4. Dead, we are revealed in our true dimensions, and they are surprisingly modest.
  5. How often since then has she wondered what might have happened if she'd tried to remain with him; if she’d returned Richard's kiss on the corner of Bleeker and McDougal, gone off somewhere (where?) with him, never bought the packet of incense or the alpaca...
Related Topics