Even more than we want good love for ourselves, we want it for our children, those vulnerable satellites of our hearts that we send, unsteady, into the world.
Mona SimpsonRead
Even as a feminist, my whole life I'd been waiting for a man to love who could love me. For decades, I'd thought that man would be my father. When I was 25, I met that man, and he was my brother.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the struggle of seeking love and acceptance, ultimately finding it in unexpected places within one's family.
Mona Simpson's quote expresses a profound journey of understanding love and companionship. It highlights the societal expectation of romantic love while revealing that true emotional connection can come from familial relationships. Through her experience, she reflects on the complexities of love and the often-unrecognized bonds that exist within family, particularly in this case between siblings.
Themes
LoveFamilyBrotherhoodRelationshipsFeminism
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during family reunions to highlight the importance of familial love.
More from Mona Simpson
All quotes →Writers collect stories of rituals: John Cheever putting on a jacket and tie to go down to the basement, where he kept a desk near the boiler room. Keats buttoning up his clean white shirt to write in, after work.
Mona SimpsonRead
Instead of a dedicated room, my best trigger is the actual habit of reading over the texts from the day before. Marking. Changing. Fussing. This ritual amounts to a habit of trust. Trust that I can make it better. That if I keep trying, I will come closer to something true.
Mona SimpsonRead
We come into the world whole, all of us, but we don't know that, don't know that life will be taking large chunks out of us, forever.
Mona SimpsonRead
Similar quotes
I needed New Orleans so badly back in 2006, just somebody to believe in me, somebody to care about me
Drew BreesRead
Compassion is the ability to understand how difficult it is for people to be the best of what they want to be at all times.
Joan D. ChittisterRead
The best thing we can do if we want the Russians to let us be Americans is to let the Russians be Russian.
George F. KennanRead
I just always knew that I lived in two worlds. There was the world of my house and community, but to make my way in that white world I had to modify the way I spoke and acted. I had to sometimes not make direct eye contact.
Samuel L. JacksonRead
If you're a woman, it's almost impossible to establish a relationship. You're too much for everybody. It's too much. The woman always has to play this role of being fragile and dependent. And if you're not, they're fascinated by you, but only for a little while. And then they want to change you and crush you. And then they leave.
Marina AbramovicRead
That good disposition which boasts of being most tender is often stifled by the least urging of self-interest.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead