Coming back Quote by Wallace Stegner
“I wonder if ever again Americans can have that experience of returning to a home place so intimately known, profoundly felt, deeply loved, and absolutely submitted to? It is not quite true that you can't go home again. I have done it, coming back here. But it gets less likely. We have had too many divorces, we have consumed too much transportation, we have lived too shallowly in too many places.”
About This Quote
Source Novel: The Spectator Bird, 1977
Nostalgia for a deeply familiar home fades as modern life fragments connections and roots.
In simple terms: Home feels distant as life becomes shallow and mobile.
Key Takeaway
Seek deeper, lasting ties to place.
Themes
nostalgia
home
displacement
modernity
Mood
melancholic
reflective
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- moving back to hometown
- long-term residency
- community building
- family reunions
Key Concepts
place attachment
rootlessness
cultural change
Questions to Reflect On
- What does “home” mean to you now?
- How can you cultivate belonging wherever you are?
A Different Perspective
The sentiment may romanticize the past, overlooking present opportunities.
![“[The modern age] knows nothing about isolation and nothing about silence. In our quietest and loneliest hour the automatic ice-maker in the refrigerator will cluck and drop an ice cube, the automatic dishwasher will sigh through its changes, a plane will drone over, the nearest freeway will…” quote by Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/868/wallace-stegner-1352_darkness_the-modern-age-knows-nothing-about-isola_1349271.jpg)
