Quotes From "Near To The Wild Heart" By Clarice Lispector

There are indestructible things that accompany the body to death as if they had been born with it. And one of them is what is created between a man and a woman who have experienced certain moments together. Clarice Lispector

And woman was mystery in itself, she discovered. There was in all of them a quality of raw material, something that might one day define itself but which was never realized, because its real essence was "becoming". Wasn't it precisely through this that the past was united with the future and with all times? Clarice Lispector

When I surprise myself at the mirror I am not frightened because I think I am ugly or beautiful. It is because I discover I am of a different nature. After not having seen myself for a while I almost forget I am human, I forget my past and I am as free from end and awareness as something merely alive. I am also surprised, eyes open pale at the mirror, that there are so many things in me besides what I know, so many things always silent. . Clarice Lispector

There were two ways of looking at it: imagining that it was far away and big, in the first place; in the second, that it was small and near. But at any rate, a stupid, hard, brown mountain. How she hated nature sometimes. Clarice Lispector

Where does music go when it’s not playing?–she asked herself. And disarmed she would answer: May they make a harp out of my nerves when I die. Clarice Lispector

She felt the phrase “demand her rights” had lain inside her forever, waiting. Clarice Lispector

But she didn’t want to rest! — Her blood ran through her more slowly, its pace domesticated, like a beast that had trained its steps to fit in its cage. Clarice Lispector

When I suddenly see myself in the depths of the mirror, I take fright. I can scarcely believe that I have limits, that I am outlined and defined. I feel myself to be dispersed in the atmosphere, thinking inside other creatures, living inside things beyond myself. When I suddenly see myself in the mirror, I am not startled because I find myself ugly or beautiful. I discover, in fact, that I possess another quality. When I haven't looked at myself for some time, I almost forget that I am human, I tend to forget my past, and I find myself with the same deliverance from purpose and conscience as something that is barely alive. I am also surprised to find as I gaze into the pale mirror with open eyes that there is so much in me beyond what is known, so much that remains ever silent. . Clarice Lispector

I see myself abandoned, solitary, thrown into a cell without dimensions, where light and shadows are silent phantoms. Within my inner self I find the silence I am seeking. But it leaves me so bereft of any memory of any human being and of me myself, that I transform this impression into the certainty of physical solitude. Were I to cry out – I can no longer see things clearly – my voice would receive the same indifferent echo from the walls of the earth. . Clarice Lispector

Dying is something else. Dying is different to good and bad. Clarice Lispector

The steel suddenly touched her heart. Ah, jealousy, it was jealousy, the cold hand mashing her slowly, squeezing her, diminishing her soul. Clarice Lispector

Inside her it was as if death didn’t exist, as if love could weld her, as if eternity were renewal. Clarice Lispector

I can feel myself holding a child, thought Joanna. Sleep, my child, sleep, I tell you. The child is warm and I am sad. Clarice Lispector

- How does it feel to have a daughter?- At times it's like holding a warm egg in my hand. Clarice Lispector