I know that the hopes of this whole human world can fit inside one soul.
CHRIS CLEAVEI know that the hopes of this whole human world can fit inside one soul.
CHRIS CLEAVEThere’s what people say, and there’s what people mean, and I like to explore the difference between the two.
CHRIS CLEAVEIs it my fault if I do not look like an English girl and I do not talk like a Nigerian? Well, who says an English girl must have skin as pale as the clouds that float across her summers? Who says a Nigerian girl must speak in fallen English…?
CHRIS CLEAVEAnd thus love makes fools of us all.
CHRIS CLEAVEAt this point in time the war [ WWII] is close enough to still feel hotly personal to a writer, yet far enough away so that jingoism and heroics are no longer required.
CHRIS CLEAVEDeath, of course, is a refuge. It’s where you go when a new name, or a mask and cape, can no longer hide you from yourself. It’s where you run to when none of the principalities of your conscience will grant you asylum.
CHRIS CLEAVESometimes we don’t notice that someone is being brave, because they are only doing something that seems quite easy for us.
CHRIS CLEAVESad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive
CHRIS CLEAVEThis thing with being lovers, it isn’t like being married.
CHRIS CLEAVEI think bravery means a different thing to everyone.
CHRIS CLEAVEI’m not happy with just repeating myself.
CHRIS CLEAVEThe only bad days as a writer are the ones when you are too cowardly or too lazy to sit down at the keyboard and give it everything you have.
CHRIS CLEAVEEven for a girl like me, then, there comes a day when she can stop surviving and start living. To survive, you have to look good or talk good. But to end your story well– here is the truth– you have to talk yourself out of it.
CHRIS CLEAVEThis is the forked tongue of grief again. It whispers in one ear: return to what you once loved best, and in the other ear it whispers, move on.
CHRIS CLEAVENobody has the time to sit down and explain the first world from first principles.
CHRIS CLEAVEI’m really interested in people’s decisions.
CHRIS CLEAVE