13 Aug 2011

Lucky 13: Women Writers about Friendship.


"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature."
-- Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)

"If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends."
-- Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre)

"the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone to hold and be held by."
-- Nikki Giovanni

"Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over."
-- Gloria Naylor

"Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship."
-- Dorothy Parker

"He was the strangest of strangers in that he was also her oldest friend."
-- Ann Brashares

"Like so many plain cups on the shelves. You can reach for them, use them without thinking. Most of them don't matter. Sometimes you lose your grip on one of them and it falls and smashes to piece, and you shrug and say to yourself, what a pity. Then you reach for the cup that you use every day, one that you love and use so often that as you stretch out your hand it is already making the shape that fits its curve. You are certain that yesterday it was in its proper place, but now there is nothing. Just air. You have lost something that was so familiar, so much a part of your life that you were not even looking for it. Just expecting it to be there, as always."
-- Rosie Thomas (Iris and Ruby)

"I am treating you as my friend, asking you to share my present minuses in the hope that I can ask you to share my future plusses."
-- Katherine Mansfield

"This is what I miss, Cordelia: not something that’s gone, but something that will never happen. Two old women giggling over their tea."
-- Margaret Atwood (Cat's Eye)

"My mind is a neighborhood I try not to go into alone."
-- Anne Lamott

"It takes much bravery to stand up to our enemies but we need as much bravery to stand up to our friends."              
-- J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)

"The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away."
-- Barbara Kingsolver

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
-- Anaïs Nin

(to my friends)

--------
Photo 'friends' by Ferenc Pohly, available under a creative commons license. © 2006, Ferenc Pohly.
♥ Bookmark or share this post ♥

22 comments:

  1. Absolutely beautiful, K.C. I really enjoyed reading these.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Excellent Lucky 13 post, as usual. Those are some great friendship quotes. I love smart women. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm going to send some of these to my bestie - thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I particularly like the last one by Anais Nin.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Suze: thanks. :-) It was great fun finding them. :-)

    L.G.: me too. :-) I was trying to figure out which one here was my favourite, but there were too many. :-)

    Gwen: ah, great. :) I often think I don't show / tell my friends enough how important they are, assuming they know it. This is one way of letting them know. :-)

    Linda: totally. :-) It really set off my imagination. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love all these quotes and I'd only come across one of them before!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love the Dorothy Parker quote. Gives a history without telling. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rosemary: great to hear :-) - I love finding quotes that aren't all over yet. :-)

    AA: a great example of how one line can tell an entire story, or more than one. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is very inspiring. I love having real friends. Unfortunately, there never seems to be many around. It seems friendships fades or people drift apart. I'm a firm believer that people need people. Great post! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. What an extremely nice introduction to your blog. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. These were really nice quotes. Make me all teary eyed ... some of them. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Laila: we're lucky if we have a few true friends, of the kind that is there for you when it matters, even if you don't see each other often. :-)

    Libby: thanks. ;-) I'll try to keep it up, then. :-)

    MPax: yes, a few sweet and a few tougher ones, like our friends I suppose. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Aw, those were all so nice.

    Check out my math blog.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Beautiful quotes, K C. Thank you for sharing them with us!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Very cool quotes, and I agree with Ms Jane Austen, it's not about loving people by halves.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ellie: you're welcome, it's always so much fun to forage for them :-)

    DUO: yes! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Amazing. amazing quotes, some of them excellent reminders of what friendship is really about!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I always love your Lucky 13 posts, and this is no exception. I can't pick a favorite quote, love them all. Thanks for sharing! :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Angela: 8)

    damyanti: there are so many facets to real-life friendship, I hardly knew to begin, but I hope I've managed to capture the most important ones. :)

    Julie: thank you. :-) I couldn't choose either, even though I think Margaret Atwood's one evoked a highly appealing image for the future. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  20. And I wish every single day I read a quote from Ms. Parker. I adore her.~Mary

    ReplyDelete
  21. Mary: she's such a remarkable woman. I'm most amazed by how modern she sounds! :-)

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...