--- title: "1 Past Complicated Quotes By Alistair MacLeod" description: "1 Past Complicated quotes by Alistair MacLeod. Plus more from Alistair MacLeod and more Past Complicated sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0ee/alistair-macleod-32787_life_and-i-am-overwhelmed-now-by-the-awfulnes_79295.jpg" --- > [“And I am overwhelmed now by the awfulness of over-simplification. For now I realize that not only have I been guilty of it through this long and burning day but also through most of my yet young life and it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/and-i-am-overwhelmed-now-by-the-awfulness-of-over-simplification-for/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0ee/alistair-macleod-32787_life_and-i-am-overwhelmed-now-by-the-awfulnes_79295.jpg) ## More by Alistair MacLeod > [“And I am overwhelmed now by the awfulness of over-simplification. For now I realize that not only have I been guilty of it through…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/and-i-am-overwhelmed-now-by-the-awfulness-of-over-simplification-for/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [Perhaps it is better to have a place to go to that you hate than to have no place at all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/perhaps-it-is-better-to-have-a-place-to-go-to-that-you-hate-than-to/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [A Fiddle for Angus is a charming tale. This is a very fine book.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/a-fiddle-for-angus-is-a-charming-tale-this-is-a-very-fine-book/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [“Some men,” she would add in ominous seriousness, “are nice as pie in public but within their own homes they are mean and miserly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/some-men-she-would-add-in-ominous-seriousness-are-nice-as-pie-in/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [I like to think that I am telling a story rather than writing it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/i-like-to-think-that-i-am-telling-a-story-rather-than-writing-it/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [There is a kind of belief among my students that things that are true are interesting. But most things that are true are not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/there-is-a-kind-of-belief-among-my-students-that-things-that-are-true/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/no-one-has-ever-said-that-life-is-to-be-easy-only-that-it-is-to-be/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [Today there is a division between those who write about literature and those who create it. I, obviously, don't think that should be there.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/today-there-is-a-division-between-those-who-write-about-literature/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [“Sometimes it slanted against her window with a pinging sound, which meant it was close to hail, and then it was visible as tiny…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/sometimes-it-slanted-against-her-window-with-a-pinging-sound-which/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [All of us are better when we're loved.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/all-of-us-are-better-when-we-re-loved/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [And then there came into my heart a very great love for my father and I thought it was very much braver to spend…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/and-then-there-came-into-my-heart-a-very-great-love-for-my-father-and/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [“Measure twice; cut once.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/measure-twice-cut-once/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [“ On a clear day you can see Prince Edward Island , we would say. Not "forever", just Prince Edward Island.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/on-a-clear-day-you-can-see-prince-edward-island-we-would-say-not/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [If people aren't creating literature, there would be nothing for people to criticize.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/if-people-aren-t-creating-literature-there-would-be-nothing-for/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) > [Writers write about what worries them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alistair-macleod/writers-write-about-what-worries-them/) [Alistair MacLeod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alistair-macleod/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/past-complicated/alistair-macleod/#itemlist", "name": "1 Past Complicated Quotes By Alistair MacLeod", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“And I am overwhelmed now by the awfulness of over-simplification. For now I realize that not only have I been guilty of it through this long and burning day but also through most of my yet young life and it is only now that I am doubly its victim that I begin to vaguely understand. For I had somehow thought that ‘going away’ was but a physical thing. And that it had only to do with movement and with labels like the silly ‘Vancouver’ that I had glibly rolled from off my tongue; or with the crossing of bodies of water or with the boundaries of borders. And because my father told me I was ‘free’ I had foolishly felt that it was really so. Just like that. And I realize now that the older people of my past are more complicated than perhaps I had ever thought. And that there are distinctions between my sentimental, romantic grandfather and his love for coal, and my stern and practical grandmother her hatred of it; and my quietly strong but passive mother and the souring extremes of my father’s passionate violence and the quiet power of his love. They are all so different. Perhaps it is possible I think now to be both and yet to see only one. For the man in whose glassed-in car I now sit sees only similarity. For him the people of this multi-scarred little town are reduced to but a few phrases and the act of sexual intercourse. They are only so many identical goldfish leading identical, incomprehensible lives within the glass prison of their bowl. And the people on the street view me from behind my own glass in much the same way and it is the way that I have looked at others in their ‘foreign licence’ cars and it is the kind of judgment that I myself have made. And yet it seems that neither these people nor this man are in any way unkind and not to understand does not necessarily mean that one is cruel. But one should at least be honest. And perhaps I have tried too hard to be someone else without realizing at first what I presently am. I do not know. I am not sure. But I do know that I cannot follow this man into a house that is so much like the one I have left this morning and go down into the sexual embrace of a woman who might well be my mother. And I do not know what she, my mother, may be like in the years to come when she is deprived of the lighting movement of my father’s body and the hammered pounding of his heart. For I do not know when he may die. And I do not know in what darkness she may cry out his name nor to whom. I do not know very much of anything, it seems, except that I have been wrong and dishonest with others and myself. 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