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I waked quickly and sat up in bed abruptly. It is only when I am anxious that I awaken easily, and for a minute I could not remember what it was. Then I remembered, the old reason: he had not come home, my father.

— Edna O'Brien The Country Girls (1960)

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More quotes by Edna O'Brien

She said the reason that love is so painful is that it always amounts to two people wanting more than two people can give.

Never forget this moment, the hum of the bee, the saffron threads of the flower, the drawn blinds, nature's assiduousness and human cruelty.

The Light of Evening (2006)

Oh, God, who does not exist, you hate women, otherwise you'd have made them different. And Jesus, who snubbed your mother, you hate them more.

That is the mystery about writing: it comes out of afflictions, out of the gouged times, when the heart is cut open.

Country Girl: a Memoir (2012)

It is increasingly clear that the fate of the universe will come to depend more and more on individuals as the bungling of bureaucracy permeates every corner of our existence.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edna O'Brien (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.