What I wanted to do was to fasten my index finger and thumb at the bolts of your collar bone, push out, spread the web of my hand until it caught against your throat. You asked me if I wanted to strangle you. No, I wanted to fit you, not just in the obvious ways but in so many indentations.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a deep longing for intimate connection and understanding beyond the surface level.
In this quote, Jeanette Winterson articulates a desire for a profound emotional connection with someone, emphasizing not only physical closeness but also the wish to understand and fit into the complexities of the other person's being. The imagery of fastening fingers to the collarbone and the web of the hand symbolizes a deep, intricate bond that goes beyond mere physicality, resonating with the intricacies of relationships and personal intimacy.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a heartfelt conversation about love and relationships.
What is remembered is not a deed in stone but a metaphor. Meta = above. Pheren = to carry. That which is carried above the literalness of life. A way of thinking that avoids the problems of gravity. The word won't let me down. The single word that can release me from all that unuttered weight.
Reading things that are relevant to the facts of your life is of limited value. The facts are, after all, only the facts, and the yearning passionate part of you will not be met there. That is why reading ourselves as a fiction as well as fact is so liberating. The wider we read the freer we become.
I have a list of titles that I leave at the [library] desk, because they are bound to be written some day, and it's best to be ahead of the queue.
Woolf wanted to say dangerous things in Orlando but she did not want to say them in the missionary position.
In that house, you will find my heart. You must break in, Henri, and get it back for me.' Was she mad? We had been talking figuratively. Her heart was in her body like mine. I tried to explain this to her, but she took my hand and put it against her chest. Feel for yourself.
History is a string full of knots, the best you can do is admire it, and maybe tie it up a bit more. History is a hammock for swinging and a game for playing.
Come then, put away your sword in its sheath, and let us two go up into my bed so that, lying together in the bed of love, we may then have faith and trust in each other.
When lovers of life get ready to dance, the earth shakes and the sky trembles.
It is too early to love. We will buy the right to do so by shedding blood.
If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.
Love is the strongest power there is.
It is a good thing to be rich and strong, but it is a better thing to be loved.
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