Christina Baker Kline
Christina Baker Kline
Christina Baker Klineis an American novelist. She is the author of five novels, including the #1 New York Times bestselling novel Orphan Train, and has co-authored or edited five non-fiction books. Kline is the recipient of several Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowships and has received numerous other awards...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
life throws
You have to try to take what life throws at you with grace and equanimity.
create details dwell experience fiction life narrative needing novel reason stark
Part of the reason I wanted to write a novel was that in fiction I could do something that's difficult to do in real life, which is to dwell on the stark details of the experience without really needing to create that narrative of redemption.
believe ideas people
Do you believe in spirits? Or ghosts?...Yes, I do. I believe in ghosts....They're the ones who haunt us. The ones who have left us behind." "Vivian has come back to the idea that the people who matter in our lives stay with us, haunting our ordinary moments. They're with us in the grocery store, as we turn the corner, chat with a friend. They rise up through the pavement; we absorb them through our soles." "The things that matter stay with you, seep into your skin.
song love-you writing
I love you," he writes again and again. "I can't bear to live without you. I'm counting the minutes until I see you." The words he uses are the idioms of popular songs and poems in the newspaper. And mine to him are no less cliched. I puzzle over the onionskin, trying to spill my heart onto the page. But I can only come up with the same words, in the same order, and hope the depth of feeling beneath them gives them weight and substance. I love you. I miss you. Be careful. Be safe.
memories thinking self
I've come to think that's what heaven is- a place in the memory of others where our best selves live on.
trying be-kind assumption
I like the assumption that everyone is trying his best, and we should all just be kind to each other.
dream play decision
When something terrible happens, a lifetime of small events and unremarkable decisions, of unresolved anger, and unexplored fears begins to play itself out in ways you least expect. You've been going along from one day to the next, not realizing that all those disparate words and gestures were adding up to something, a conclusion, you didn't anticipate. And later, when you begin to retrace your steps you see that you will need to reach back further than you could have imagined, beyond words and thoughts and even dreams, perhaps to make sense of what happened.
broken-inside expression empathy
She knows too well what it's like to tamp down your natural inclinations, to force a smile when you feel numb....The expression of emotion does not come naturally, so yo learn to fake it. To pretend. To display an empathy you don't really feel. And so it is that you learn to pass, if you're lucky, to look like everyone else, even though you're broken inside.
broken-inside looks lucky
And so it is that you learn how to pass, if you're lucky, to look like everyone else, even though you're broken inside.
selfish broken-inside people
I know too much; I've seen people at their worst, at their most desperate and selfish, and this knowledge makes me wary. So I am learning to pretend, to smile, to nod, to display empathy I do not feel. I am learning to pass, to look like everyone else, even though I feel broken inside.
people giving willing
You got to learn to take what people are willing to give.
thinking people want
It's human nature to want to think the best of others, but if you listen carefully, people will always tell you who they are.
believe human-nature reason
So is it just human nature to believe that things happen for a reason - to find some shred of meaning even in the worst experiences?
letting-go mean loss
I learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable. I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. And now I feel, with a strange, deep certainty, that it must be my lot in life to be taught that lesson over and over again.