Patricia Hampl - A romantic education (1981)

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The golden light of metaphor, which is the intelligence of poetry, was implicit in alchemical study. To change, magically, one substance into another, more valuable one is the ancient function of metaphor, as it was of alchemy.

Patricia Hampl

Writing was the soul of everything else.... Wanting to be a writer was wanting to be a person.

Patricia Hampl

[They] hunted mushrooms with Moravian cunning and passion.

Patricia Hampl

Looking repeatedly into the past, you do not necessarily become fascinated with your own life, but rather with the phenomenon of memory.

Patricia Hampl

It is hard to sever the cords that tie us to our slavery and leave intact those that bind us to ourselves.

Patricia Hampl

I come from people who have always been polite enough to feel that nothing has ever happened to them.

Patricia Hampl

The cold was our pride, the snow was our beauty. It fell and fell, lacing day and night together in a milky haze, making everything quieter as it fell, so that winter seemed to partake of religion in a way no other season did, hushed, solemn.

Patricia Hampl