First time Quote by Claire Messud

““It occurred to me, not for the first time, that Lili's world was not so different from my dioramas, or even from Sirena's installations: you took a tiny portion of the earth and made it yours, but really what you wanted was for someone else -- ideally, a grown-up, because a grown-up matters, has authority, but is also not the same as you -- to come and see, to get it, and thereby, somehow, to get you; and all of this, surely so that you might ultimately feel less alone on the planet.””

Claire Messud

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More by Claire Messud

I'd wish for my work to be remembered rather than myself.

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I have said it somewhere - our literary lived lives are as important as our literally lived lives.

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“Life is about deciding what matters. It’s about the fantasy that determines the reality. Have you ever asked yourself whether you’d rather fly or…

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Life's funny. You have to find a way to keep going, to keep laughing, even after you realize that none of your dreams will…

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It's the strangest thing about being human: to know so much, to communicate so much, and yet always to fall so drastically short of…

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The fictional narratives that television, film, and the news provide for girls and young women are appalling.

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“I don't want to sleep,' my mother said. 'I want -- for God's sake, I want to wake up.”

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“It was supposed to say “Great Artist” on my tombstone, but if I died right now it would say “such a good teacher/daughter/friend” instead; and what I really want to shout, and want in big letters on that grave, too, is FUCK YOU ALL. Don’t all women feel the same? The only difference is how much we know we feel…

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“Live, my dear Nora. Satisfy your hunger. There's food all around you, you know.' 'What kind of food, I'd like to know?' 'Ah'-he smiled-…

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I digress a lot - it's how I experience the world. I would like to write in a way that will convey that to…

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We think that - as kids, you know - that kids make up stories and live in a sort of fictional place, but that,…

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“It makes sense that if you stand almost daily in the middle of a perfect crescent of shore, with a vista open to eternity,…

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Explore all 249 Claire Messud quotes

More First time quotes

A man walks down the street. It's a street in a strange world. Maybe it's the third world. Maybe it's his first time around. He doesn't speak the language. He holds no currency. He is a foreign man. He is surrounded by the sound, sound of cattle in the marketplace, scatterlings and orphanages. He looks around, around he sees angels…

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“I’m so stressed that a weird Olympic-style commentary starts up in my head. And here we have Zelah Green, the fourteen-year-old champion of rituals, attempting the afternoon toilet-touching event for the first time … I take my first faltering step towards the rim. And she’s approaching the target, booms the voice. Steady approach, good footwork … My right hand, naked…

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I'm very used to working with first time actors - you can just look back at 'E.T.' with Drew Barrymore, and Christian Bale from…

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“I’m waiting for you,” he murmured, smiling a slow, familiar grin that seemed to hint at a secret between them. And for the first…

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“Treat every natural beauty you met as if you see them for the first and last time!”

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“I won’t break your heart. For the first time in my life, I’ve found something worth fighting for, someone more important than me.”

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Life is like a parachute jump: you have to get it right the first time.

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When I was in my twenties and just so sexually prolific, the first time I went to Machu Picchu, this guy, a spiritual teacher,…

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When my kids were in the school play for the first time, I decided I had to make the costumes from scratch and bought…

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“I will run every mile, i will save every line, i will say i reached the top and i will fall back down standing. I will write down every thing, the good and the bad,I will wake up one day and go back to the start. I will notice that the good ones were nothing but my beautiful lines, were…

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“Or maybe your magic isn't that destructive after all. The rain of Doritos, the bed thing,this...Maybe it's just that you create too big, you know?" When I could find my voice, I said, "Cal, that might be the nicest thing anyone's said to me since we got here." He twirled one of the naked roots between his fingers, and didn't…

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