Alice Steinbach Quotes & Sayings

I guess I'm too selfish to travel well with other people, I told Anne later. — Alice Steinbach

I made dangerous choices in those years, thinking myself bold and adventurous. Later I would come to understand that I hadn't been daring at all, just driven by confusion and hormones. The person capable of true daring, I knew now, possessed two admirable qualities: curiosity and courage. — Alice Steinbach

I suppose that, after the passion of love, water rights have caused more trouble than anything else to the human species. — Alice Steinbach

I'm a woman in search on an adventure — Alice Steinbach

It used to surprise me, the intensity with which I still remembered these distant memories. But when I entered my fifties ... I understood their enduring clarity ... In the end, what adds up to a life is nothing more than the accumulation of small daily moments. — Alice Steinbach

Women, I learned, adapted.
At first..they seemed so fragile, so dependent on fathers and husbands and brothers and lovers. Gradually, though, I noticed how supple their lives were beneath the surface. Then I realized it was this flexibility that enabled them to survive ... that sooner or later, by choice or by chance, most women faced the task of adapting to a future on their own. When at my most optimistic, I thought of it as independence; in darker moods, as survival. Either way women had to do it. — Alice Steinbach

What if more of life could be like that? Like the last slow dance, where, to echo T.S. Eliot, a lifetime burns in every moment. — Alice Steinbach

It is one of the strongest bonds, I think, that can spring up between people: sharing a passion for certain books and their authors. — Alice Steinbach

As I set out each day, I felt like a young child again. One who hadn't yet learned the rules of manmade time; the rules of clocks and calendars, of weekdays and weekends. Except the primitive markers of day and night, time lay ahead of me in a continuous, undefined mass. — Alice Steinbach

As promised, Kyoto Station turned out to be an ordeal. For ninety minutes I searched for a way out of the sixteen-story train station, — Alice Steinbach

I had forgotten how wonderful it is to stand on a bridge and catch the scent of rain in the air. I had forgotten how much I need to be a part of water, wind, sky. — Alice Steinbach

there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the Unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going into." Eight — Alice Steinbach

Sometimes it was hard for me to connect the boy I knew - the skinny smart kid who collected lead soldiers and pursued Boy Scout merit badges - with the phenomenally successful man he'd become. But sooner or later, when we were together, some remark would inevitably trigger childhood memories and then we'd be off, zipping down a path that existed now only for the two of us. — Alice Steinbach

Life is like that I thought, as I turned the corner to my building. Freedom has its danger as well as its joys. And the sooner we learn to get up after a fall, the better off will be. — Alice Steinbach

Occasionally, when trapped by memories, I would mistake change for loss, and grieve ... — Alice Steinbach

There's such joy and fearless in that face, isn't there? It's like the look you see on a child's face before the age of reason sets in. — Alice Steinbach

The fun-seekers, I noted, were spontaneous and flexible. They approached each day and each situation with a willingness to ride whatever wave came along, just for the experience of it. The complainers, on the other hand, would only catch a wave if it was exactly to their liking. Anything else drew loud protestations about how it was not what they expected. — Alice Steinbach

Here, there was an air of a country village. An apricot-colored cat sat on top of a fence, bathing himself in the sun. A woman entered a courtyard, her face veiled behind a huge bunch of lilies and baby's breath. The sounds of Mozart drifted down from a window. It was a pleasant surprise; I hadn't known such neighborhoods existed in Montmartre. — Alice Steinbach

I guess the idea of stepping out from behind the "camouflage of routine," as someone once described it, still intimated me. — Alice Steinbach

Never give up the search to have back what was lost too soon. — Alice Steinbach

A letter is always better than a phone call. People write things in letters they would never say in person. They permit themselves to write down feelings and observations using emotional syntax far more intimate and powerful than speech will allow. — Alice Steinbach

Most of us, I suppose, have had at one time or another the impulse to leave behind our daily routines and responsibilities and seek out, temporarily, a new life. — Alice Steinbach

I suspected, however, that I wasn't homesick for anything I would find at home when I returned. The longing was for what I wouldn't find: the past and all the people and places there were lost to me. — Alice Steinbach

A scene," Mary told us, "is a moment when there is some form of tension. A scene leads to the next scene. And a causal connection between scenes is what leads you to the story. A scene should be very clearly developed, and when the action is finished, the scene is over. An anecdote is, 'Oh, I missed the train. You'll never believe what happened ... ' An anecdote leads to nothing. — Alice Steinbach

I sat silent, ambushed by love for my sons. And by regret. Regret for the past, when I didn't or couldn't give them the nurturing they needed, and regret for what they-and I-could never have back. The irony was that now, when my sons no longer needed it, my love for them was unconditional. Sometimes, when either of my children came up against a thorny problem, I found myself worrying: did I give him what he needs to deal with this? Could I have done better? I could do better now, I thought. Now that it's too late.
But when you speak of your sons it is always with admiration. Is it true you would like to return and do things that might change who they are? — Alice Steinbach

Going back to school is like going back in time. Immediately, for better or for worse, you must give up a little piece of your autonomy in order to become part of the group. And every group, of course, has its hierarchies and rules- spoken and unspoken. It is like learning to live once again in a family- which, of course, is the setting where all learning begins. — Alice Steinbach

In many ways I was an independent woman. For years I'd made my own choices, paid my own bills, shoveled my own snow. — Alice Steinbach

His presence made me feel self-concious: of my appearance, of the way I was sitting, of my movements and gestures ... It was the behavior of a woman reacting to a man who attracts her. — Alice Steinbach

Mother loved the wind. When I was growing up, she would recite this poem to me. Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I, But when the trees bow down their heads, The wind is passing by. So it is with God. — Alice Steinbach

Maybe it was I who needed to learn how to be quiet instead of cluttering the moment with too many words. — Alice Steinbach

But it was difficult, this living in real time only, and not diluting it by looking back or skipping forward. No wonder it's never really caught on with most people, I thought. It's just too hard. — Alice Steinbach

Never mind that I hadn't a clue which path to follow or whether, to echo Robert Frost, the one I took would make all the difference. The truth is, I'd bailed out of the right choice-wrong choice mentality a long time ago. It seemed so clear to me
since I'd wised up to the idea that life is not a straight road with no exit ramps
that life presented opportunities all along the way for a person to change directions. Besides, over the last ten years, I'd grown to like the idea of not knowing where a choice might lead me. — Alice Steinbach

And who's to say that just because something lasts only a short time, it has little value? — Alice Steinbach

Women would be better off when they no longer needed men more than they needed their own independent identities ... How long a time it took me after my divorce to understand that being alone is not the same as being lonely. — Alice Steinbach

After all, watching a child march successfully into the larger world is one of the greatest satisfactions parenthood has to offer. — Alice Steinbach

After all, the word "travel" comes from the Latin "trepalium." Which, loosely translated, means "instrument of torture. — Alice Steinbach

Except for the primitive markers of day and night, time lay ahead of me in continuous, undefined mass. — Alice Steinbach

Most of the time I liked being in charge of my life, thrived on it, in fact. But occasionally, when I was tired or unhappy. I'd find myself thinking how nice it would be to let someone else run the show, at least for a while. — Alice Steinbach

What is the purpose of memory? Is it a trick to make sure we don't forget who we are by reminding us of who we were? — Alice Steinbach

Freedom has its dangers as well as its joys. And the sooner we learn to get up after a fall, the better off we'll be. — Alice Steinbach

What is the one emotion that you would like to feel for the rest of your life? — Alice Steinbach

The unexpectedness of life, waiting round every corner, catches even wise women unawares," [Freya] wrote. "To avoid corners altogether is, after all, to refuse to live." ... It was if someone in charge had said to me: not guilty. Permission granted to continue on with your life as usual. — Alice Steinbach

functioned - I realized that first impressions about hotel rooms are like first loves: neither is based on the concept of how, over time, one can come to appreciate the pleasures of durability over infatuation. — Alice Steinbach

I had surprised myself this year by jumping in to reshape my life before life stepped in to reshape it for me. — Alice Steinbach