Joan Wickersham

“Young" and "Poor" sounded so promising, the way my mother always told the story. Temporary conditions: poignant "befores" that existed only to…

— Joan Wickersham

“What we did not say was that with these hurts an edge was worn down. It happens out of necessity -- it…

— Joan Wickersham

And while some healing does happen, it isn't a healing of redemption or epiphany. It's more like the slow absorption of a…

— Joan Wickersham

“Not just the beating. The words. 'Boris, you're stubborn, lazy, worthless, you can't do anything right, you're evil' -- at least once…

— Joan Wickersham

A love story - your own, or anyone else's - is interior, hidden. It can never be accurately reported, only imagined. It…

— Joan Wickersham

“The word "miss" is so wistful. As is the word "wistful," for that matter. They both have sighs embedded in them, that…

— Joan Wickersham

“Those moments of knowing are sharp and merciless, but then they fade out, like stars when the sky gets light in the…

— Joan Wickersham

“That's how it went between us. We would have a horrible fight, which at the time would feel insurmountable. It was impossible…

— Joan Wickersham

“My feelings-let's hold on to this idea of them as shuffling Victorians, let's make them servants, an entire uniformed household staff- were…

— Joan Wickersham

“Or maybe she simply couldn't stay merry. That subversive, candid merriment of hers was enchanting, electric; but it was a social phenomenon.…

— Joan Wickersham

But who is ever able to apply to her own current love affair a word like "similar"?

— Joan Wickersham

“You are like a nearsighted person who can see the cracks in the bowl when she's wearing glasses -- and so chooses…

— Joan Wickersham

“Time and judgment collaborate to produce farce, and farce in turn contains much truth; major characters upon the stage may turn out…

— Joan Wickersham

“She knows by now that grief is about endurance, understanding over and over that the person you loved is not coming back.”

— Joan Wickersham

There is also something deeply lovely about uncertainty: the possibility of optimism.

— Joan Wickersham

“A story went around that someone had asked Mozart how he intended to refute his detractors. "I will refute them with new…

— Joan Wickersham

[On suicide:] It's the only cause of death that can be used as a noun to describe the dead person. If you…

— Joan Wickersham

“It's Violent. You imagine it deafening, red, boiling-hot. It's like a comic book: the bright colors, the crude outlines, the words in…

— Joan Wickersham