“In a sense, the media is a moving Potemkin village of understanding, constantly adapting and reconstructing after-the-fact.”
“Don t try to understand and you won t be confused.”
“As I increasingly saw Mom s behavior in myself, I tried to understand her.”
“There s a reason we live in time. We are too small a flask [...] to tolerate too much knowing. Instead, truth must drip through us as through a pipette, to allow only moments of apprehension. Moments diffuse and miniature enough to be survived.”
“Music s power is like love s power: it can be felt but not understood.”
“Tugging at the ring, which remained stubbornly clamped on her finger, she glanced at Evie in despair. To her astonishment, Evie did not seem at all shocked or critical, but rather understanding. There was something in her face, a sort of tender gravity, that made Amelia think, No wonder Lord St. Vincent is besotted with her. I think you re a capable young woman, Evie said, who loves her siblings and bears a great deal of responsibility for them. I think that s a heavy burden for a woman to carry alone. I also think you have a gift for accepting people as they are. And Cam knows how rare that is.”
“I ve always wondered why you re the only one who doesn t have a temper. I ve never seen you in a rage. I m quite capable of anger, Helen assured her wryly. Anger, yes. But not the kind of fury in which you shout and throw things, and make nasty remarks you ll later regret. Helen worked diligently on the vanilla vine as she replied. Perhaps I m a late bloomer. I could develop a temper later. Heavens, I hope not. If you do, we ll have no kind, calm person to soothe savage beasts such as Mr. Winterborne. Helen sent her a quick, sidelong glance. He s not savage. He s accustomed to being the center of much activity. It s difficult for a man with a forceful nature to be idle and ill.”
“You re elegance in a misunderstood form. Crystal quartz in a world of platinum. Oh, my dizzy boy, there s a fire in you that I use to warm my hands on chilly mornings.”
“It s a blindness thing, faith.”
“I cannot understand what you do not say.”
“Loving you, I understood myself.”
“I confess that I sometimes felt like I was being launched into the endless expanses of space alone...But from the moment I had voiced my trans identity that first night, every step I took felt like coming home. Every step felt like healing, aching and uncomfortable as it began, but slowly hinting at a kind of relief, a feeling of rightness I’d never known before. I was shedding my skin like a snake. I knew it as soon as the itch began. I can only describe how I knew it as the unyielding certainty of instinct.”
“The only fundamental basis for understanding is that one himself becomes what he understands and one understands only in proportion to becoming himself that which he understands.”
“Why is it surprising that I, your Little Sequin, can write devastating love poems? Tell me how you can spot the violent storms inside a heart? Can you identify which person is going through a revolution? Which is revolting against their thoughts and overthrowing their mind, only to make their heart king? There is a world inside each of us. By writing, I hope to share mine with you. So please, step inside.”
“Language has its limits, but it’s all we’ve got. For understanding each other or misunderstanding each other or whatever.”
“It is worthwhile studying other peoples, because every understanding of another culture is an experiment with our own.”
“They never understood what Harry Potter was about. Or maybe they didn t want to understand.”