Serena Quotes

“Then one morning she’d begun to feel her sorrow easing, like something jagged that had cut into her so long it had finally dulled its edges, worn itself down. That same day Rachel couldn’t remember which side her father had parted his hair on, and she’d realized again what she’d learned at five when her mother left – that what made losing someone you loved bearable was not remembering but forgetting. Forgetting the small things first, the smell of the soap her mother had bathed with, the color of the dress she’d worn to church, then after a while the sound of her mother’s voice, the color of her hair. It amazed Rachel how much you could forget, and everything you forgot made that person less alive inside you until you could finally endure it. After more time passed you could let yourself remember, even want to remember. But even then what you felt those first days could return and remind you the grief that was still there, like old barbed wire embedded in a tree’s heartwood.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“It's a hard place this world can be. No wonder a baby cries coming in to it. Tears from the start”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“Don't love anything that can be taken away.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“What made losing someone you loved bearable was not remembering but forgetting. Forgetting small things first... it's amazing how much you could forget, and everything you forgot made that person less alive inside you until you could finally endure it. After more time passed you could let yourself remember, even want to remember. But even then what you felt those first days could return and remind you the grief was still there, like old barbed wire embedded in a tree's heartwood.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“She realized that being starved for words was the same as being starved for food, because both left a hollow place inside you, a place you needed filled to make it through another day. Rachel remembered how growing up she’d thought living on a farm with just a father was as lonely as you could be. (130)”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“You got one choice at the beginning but if you didn't choose right, things got narrow real quick.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“It struck her how eating was a comfort during a hard time because it reminded you that there had been other days, good days, when you’d eaten the same thing. Reminded you there were good days in life, when precious little else did. (268)”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“Nothing is but what is now”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“One thing's sure and nothing surer. The rich get richer and the poor get- children”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“It’s ever been the way of the man of science or philosophy. Most folks stay in the dark and then complain they can’t see nothing.” – Snipes (185)”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“And darkness. You can’t see it no more than you can see air, but when it’s all around you sure enough know it.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“A place where something so terrible had happened shouldn't continue to exist in the world”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“She walks in beauty.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“Others can make us vulnerable and the sooner such vulnerabilities are dealt with the better”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“We want what's in this world but we also want what ain't.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“A small profit it better than a big loss”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“I don’t even have a choice. Rachel thought how that was pretty much true of everything now, that you got one choice at the beginning but if you didn’t choose right, and she hadn’t, things got narrow real quick. Like trying to wade a river, she thought. You take a wrong step and set your foot on a wobbly rock or in a drop-off and you’re swept away, and all you can do then is try to survive. (83)”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“You men notice so little, Pemberton. Physical strength is your gender's sole advantage.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“We had some good times at school. I didn't know how good those times was till I left, but I guess that's the way of it”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“A kind of annihilation, was what Serena called their coupling, and though Pemberton would never have thought to describe it that way, he knew her words had named the thing exactly.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“She’d never known fear had a taste, but it did.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“It’s a hard place this world can be. No wonder a baby cries coming into it. Tears from the very start.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“It struck her how eating was a comfort during a hard time because it reminded you that there had been other days, good days, when you’d eaten the same thing.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“What made losing someone you loved bearable was not remembering but forgetting. Forgetting small things first, the smell of the soap her mother had bathed with, the color of the dress she’d worn to church, then after a while the sound of her mother’s voice, the color of her hair. It amazed Rachel how much you could forget, and everything you forgot made that person less alive inside you until you could finally endure it. After more time passed you could let yourself remember, even want to remember. But even then what you felt those first days could return and remind you the grief was still there, like old barbed wire embedded in a tree’s heartwood.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“My experience has been that altruism is invariably a means to conceal one’s personal failures.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“He suspected the workers thought of Serena as beyond gender, the same as they might some phenomenon of nature such as rain or lightning.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“The world lies all before us.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“Most folks stay in the dark and then complain they can’t see nothing.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“It amazed Rachel how much you could forget, and everything you forgot made that person less alive inside you until you could finally endure it. After more time passed you could let yourself remember, even want to remember. But even then what you felt those first days could return and remind you the grief was still there, like old barbed wire embedded in a tree's heartwood. And now this brown-eyed child. Don't love it, Rachel told herself. Don't love anything that can be taken away.”
― Ron Rash, Serena

“A great business investment, religion. I’ll take it over government bonds anytime.”
― Ron Rash, Serena