Caleb Azumah Nelson

Quotes

  1. What you're trying to say is that it's easier for you to hide in your own darkness, than emerge cloaked in your own vulnerability. Not better, but easier. However the longer you hold it in, the more likely you are to suffocate. At some point, you must breathe.

    Book cover: Open WaterOpen Water
  2. You ache. You ache all over. You are aching to be you, but you're scared of what it means to do so.

    Book cover: Open WaterOpen Water
  3. You know that to love is both to swim and to drown. You know to love is to be a whole, partial, a joint, a fracture, a heart, a bone. It is to bleed and heal. It is to be in the world, honest. It is to place someone next to your beating heart, in the absolute darkness of your inner, and trust they will hold you close. To love is to trust, to trust is to have faith. How else are you meant to love? You knew what you were getting into, but taking the Underground, returning home with no certainty of when you will see her next, it is terrifying.

    Book cover: Open WaterOpen Water
  4. Every time you remember something, the memory weakens, as you’re remembering the last recollection, rather than the memory itself. Nothing can remain in tact. Still, it does not stop you wanting, does not stop you longing.

    Book cover: Open WaterOpen Water
  5. It's easier to hide in your own darkness, than to emerge, naked and vulnerable, blinking in your own light.

    Book cover: Open WaterOpen Water
  6. It’s one thing to be looked at, and another to be seen.

    Book cover: Open WaterOpen Water
  7. You have always thought if you opened your mouth in open water you would drown, but if you didn't open your mouth you would suffocate. So here you are, drowning.

    Book cover: Open WaterOpen Water

That’s all the quotes.

7 quotes in the collection · come back when we add more