How is it that one day life is orderly and you are content, a little cynical perhaps but on the whole just so, and then without warning you find the solid floor is a trapdoor and you are now in another place whose geography is uncertain and whose customs are strange?
Travelers at least have a choice. Those who set sail know that things will not be the same as at home. Explorers are prepared. But for us, who travel to cities of the interior by chance, there is no preparation. We who are fluent find life is a foreign language. Somewhere between the swamp and the mountains. Somewhere between fear and sex. Somewhere between God and the Devil passion is and the way there is sudden and the way back worse.
–Jeanette Winterson, from The Passion
A masterful stylist, Winterson published The Passion in 1987. Haunting and memorable, her body of work is prodigious and includes Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Written on the Body, Art and Lies, and Sexing the Cherry. Thank you Whiskey River for bringing this great quote up to the surface.
I, too, am a huge fan of Whiskey River. I visit their blog daily and drink inspiration (and yes, often repost their quotes, poetry, insights on my blog, too!).
That’s a beautiful quote.
What an arresting quote! And now I have another writer’s work to explore. Thank you.
It touches on so many threads that I have experienced. So glad all of you had a similar response.