I could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERI could never work out whether we were to view religion as a life-insurance policy or a life sentence.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERThe bad thing about small-town life is that everybody knows your business…I suppose that is my central obsession. What we owe to society, what we owe to ourselves.
BARBARA KINGSOLVEREvery life is different because you passed this way and touched history.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERSome of us know how we came by our fortune and some of us don’t; but we wear it all the same
BARBARA KINGSOLVERDon’t wait for the muse. She has a lousy work ethic. Writers just write.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERStop a minute, right where you are. Relax your shoulders, shake your head and spine like a dog shaking off cold water. Tell that imperious voice in your head to be still.
BARBARA KINGSOLVEREverything truly important is washable.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERLast time I talked to her she didn’t sound like herself. She’s depressed. It’s awful what happens when people run out of money. They start thinking they’re no good.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERIn the day-to-day, farm work is stress relief for me. At the end of the day, I love having this other career – my anti-job – that keeps me in shape and gives me control over a vegetal domain.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERI never think that anything I’m writing is bluntly political in any way. I’m not going for commentary.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERA sound-bite culture can’t discuss science very well. Exactly what we’re losing when we reduce biodiversity, the causes and consequences of global warming-these traumas can’t be adequately summarized in an evening news wrap-up.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERMany of us who aren’t farmers or gardeners still have some element of farm nostalgia in our family past, real or imagined: a secret longing for some connection to a life where a rooster crows in the yard.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERThis is what it means to be alone: everyone is connected to everyone else, their bodies are a bright liquid life flowing around you, sharing a single heart that drives them to move all together. If the shark comes they will all escape, and leave you to be eaten.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERIf it’s important, your heart remembers.
BARBARA KINGSOLVEREmpathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own.
BARBARA KINGSOLVERThe very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for!
BARBARA KINGSOLVER