My mother forbad us to walk backwards. That is how the dead… - Anne Carson

" "
My mother forbad us to walk backwards. That is how the dead walk, she would say. Where did she get this idea? Perhaps from a bad translation. The dead, after all, do not walk backwards but they do walk behind us. They have no lungs and cannot call out but would love for us to turn around. They are victims of love, many of them.

Anne Carson

Plainwater: Essays and Poetry · March 28, 2000 Verified in 1 source Sign up to see the complete provenance

English

Collect this quote

About Anne Carson

Anne Carson (born June 21, 1950) is a Canadian poet, and professor of Classics and comparative literature at the University of Michigan.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Anne Patricia Carson

All quotes from Anne Carson Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like Anne Carson:

Margaret Atwood Anne Sexton Virginia Woolf Louise Glück James Joyce

Additional quotes by Anne Carson

Now every mortal has pain
and sweat is constant,
but if there is anything dearer than being alive,
it's dark to me.
We humans seem disastrously in love with this thing
(whatever it is) that glitters on the earth — we call it life. We know no other.
The underworld's a blank
and all the rest just fantasy.

Friends disappear
or they are powerless.
This is what misfortune means
an acid test of friendship.
I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

And now time is rushing towards them
where they stand side by side with arms touching, immortality on their faces, night at their back.

My mother forbad us to walk backwards. That is how the dead walk, she would say. Where did she get this idea? Perhaps from a bad translation. The dea… - Anne Carson

About Anne Carson

Also Known As

Additional quotes by Anne Carson