Jonathan Hull Quotes & Sayings

Love is self-explanatory: the right person makes you feel well nigh immortal, vaccinating you with their affections. So long as you remain in their heart you are safe, or better than safe even, for a while at least. You are momentarily, in a state of grace. — Jonathan Hull

It is said that life is too short, and that's quite true, unless you are lonely. Loneliness can bring time to its knees; an absolute and utter standstill. — Jonathan Hull

I think we all look for clues that we are not utterly alone ... Clues we find in literature and paintings and music and even someone's eyes; clues that demonstrate that someone else has felt the same indescribable feelings, seen the same things or passed by the spot even if it was by candlelight three hundred years ago. It means everything, like finding footprints in the sand of a deserted island. — Jonathan Hull

Maybe other people are like mirrors that we see ourselves in; versions of ourselves that vary dramatically depending on the particular cut of glass. — Jonathan Hull

If love doesn't triumph, it ought to. For love is the one thing we have that feels more powerful than even death; the only respite from life's wretched absurdity. The magic of love is not that it contains all the answers, it's that it eliminates the need for so many pressing questions. For love makes us feel like gods
and that's what we're really after, isn't it? — Jonathan Hull

Like most bookworms I read so as not to be alone, which often annoys those who are trying to make conversation with me. — Jonathan Hull

I've always judged places and times by how lonely they felt. The entire Midwest, for example, strikes me as horrifically lonely, Indiana more so than Wisconsin and Wisconsin more so than Ohio or Illinois. Coasts are dependably less lonely than inland areas while the warmer latitudes are noticeably less lonely than the colder ones. Hardware stores feel lonely while bookstores do not. Mornings are lonelier than afternoons, while the hours before dawn can be devastating. Vienna is lonelier than Paris or London, while Los Angeles is lonelier than San Francisco or Boston. The Atlantic Ocean is lonelier than the Pacific while the Caribbean is not lonely at all... — Jonathan Hull

No wonder such a big part of growing old is learning to lower one's expectations, only we call that maturity and wisdom so as not to sound too defeatist. When you are young you demand ecstasy; when you are old you settle for anything short of agony. — Jonathan Hull

During a moment of silence I close my eyes tight and let the birds take me. When I opened my eyes I saw her. — Jonathan Hull

Without art; without paintings, books, sculpture and music, the human soul would be quite impenetrable, don't you think? — Jonathan Hull

I wonder if music is the only expression of the soul that is not hopelessly compromised in communication. — Jonathan Hull

So who is better off, those who share love long enough to see which parts inevitably fade or those who lose their love when it is still pristine? I think each is lonely in a different place, though if you lose your love while it is still perfect you at least have a clear explanation for your grief, while if it gradually crumbles in your hands you do not. — Jonathan Hull

I don't think we ever really live in the present; instead, we're either just this side of the past or future, wavering anxiously between anticipation and recollection. That's where I lived my life, always wanting, longing, wishing. — Jonathan Hull

Maybe what life needs is a good soundtrack, especially during the long stretches when nothing interesting is being said. A soundtrack might dignify things a bit, ennobling us with the proper drama and tension and pathos. — Jonathan Hull

I've known people whose faces rested naturally in a smile and I'm certain their lives were much different because of that. — Jonathan Hull

We are all eccentrics in our dreams. Lunatics, even. — Jonathan Hull

Why does the longing for love have to be so acute, like a desperate thirst? Is it because love is wanting to be saved and we can never really be saved? Maybe love is really born of our fears. Love is the heart's desire for a painkiller; a tearful plea for a great big epidural. Yes that's it: love is the only anesthesia that really works. And so people with broken hearts are really those who are just coming to, and if you've ever seen someone come out of general anesthesia, you know that it looks a lot like the beginnings of a broken heart. — Jonathan Hull

What I remember most is the searing sensation of looking into her eyes for the first time,eyes that would hunt me for the rest of my life — Jonathan Hull

You can't expect people to dwell on the fact that they'll ultimately lose everything they have and love."
"Why not? It might make them think about what really matters."
"What does really matter?" I asked.
"Having someone to love. Being compassionate. Being fully alive everyday so that you really see and hear and smell and feel things."... — Jonathan Hull

I've always hated Mondays, the whole lot of them. Too much whiplash, snapping the tired masses to attention. God's way, perhaps, of reminding us that we are not masters of our fate, no matter how deluded we became during the weekend respite. — Jonathan Hull

...and thinking how the first scent of autumn is like coming across a lost album of childhood photographs. — Jonathan Hull

Books aren't just my defenses, the sandbags I use to fortify my position; they are also the building blocks of my soul, and I am the sum of all I read. — Jonathan Hull