Diane Ackerman Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• Look in the mirror. The face that pins you with its double gaze reveals a chastening secret. You are looking into a predator's eyes. Most predators have eyes set right on the front of their heads, so they can use binocular vision to sight and track their prey.

  Diane Ackerman

  Eye, Mirrors, Sight

  "A Natural History of the Senses". Book by Diane Ackerman, 1990.

  10 Copy quote

• I think that very often younger writers don't appreciate how much hard work is involved in writing. The part of writing that's magic is the thinnest rind on the world of creation. Most of a writer's life is just work. It happens to be a kind of work that the writer finds fulfilling in the same way that a watchmaker can happily spend countless hours fiddling over the tiny cogs and bits of wire. ... I think the people who end up being writers are people who don't get bored doing that kind of tight focus in small areas.

  Diane Ackerman

  Hard Work, Writing, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• Symbolic of life, hair bolts from our head[s]. Like the earth, it can be harvested, but it will rise again. We can change its color and texture when the mood strikes us, but in time it will return to its original form, just as Nature will in time turn our precisely laid-out cities into a weed-way.

  Diane Ackerman

  Weed, Hair, Color

  6 Copy quote

• For me, life offers so many complexly appealing moments that two beautiful objects may be equally beautiful for different reasons and at different times. How can one choose?

  Diane Ackerman

  Beautiful, Two, Different

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Natural History of the Senses”, p.48, Vintage

  6 Copy quote

• There is that unique moment when one confronts something new and astonishment begins.

  Diane Ackerman

  Weekend, Unique, Astonishment

  4 Copy quote

• Who would drink from a cup when they can drink from the source?

  Diane Ackerman

  Cups, Authenticity, Drink

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds”, p.91, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• We think of it as a sort of traffic accident of the heart. It is an emotion that scares us more than cruelty, more than violence, more than hatred. We allow ourselves to be foiled by the vagueness of the word. After all, love requires the utmost vulnerability. We equip someone with freshly sharpened knives; strip naked; then invite him to stand close. What could be scarier?

  Diane Ackerman

  Heart, Thinking, Knives

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Natural History of Love: Author of the National Bestseller A Natural History of the Senses”, p.20, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• Of all the errands life seems to be running, of all the mysteries that enchant us, love is my favorite

  Diane Ackerman

  Running, Love Is, Errands

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Natural History of Love: Author of the National Bestseller A Natural History of the Senses”, p.1, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• Who you are isn't tied solely to what you say, even though it may feel that way to you now.

  Diane Ackerman

  Philosophy, May, Way

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “One Hundred Names for Love: A Memoir”, p.149, W. W. Norton & Company

  7 Copy quote

• I watched her face switch among the radio stations of memory

  Diane Ackerman

  Memories, Radio, Faces

  Diane Ackerman (2017). “The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story (Movie Tie-in) (Movie Tie-in Editions)”, p.291, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• I hate the fearful trimming of possibilities that age brings.

  Diane Ackerman

  Hate, Age, Possibility

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “Deep Play”, p.116, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• Couples are jigsaw puzzles that hang together by touching in just enough points. They're never total fits or misfits. In time, a pair invents its own commonwealth, complete with anthems, rituals, and lingos-a cult of two with fallible gods.

  Diane Ackerman

  Inspirational, Couple, Jigsaw Puzzles

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “One Hundred Names for Love: A Memoir”, p.15, W. W. Norton & Company

  12 Copy quote

• We tend to think of heroes only in terms of violent combat, whether it's against enemies or a natural disaster. But human beings also perform radical acts of compassion; we just don't talk about them, or we don't talk about them as much.

  Diane Ackerman

  Hero, Thinking, Compassion

  4 Copy quote

• The more we exile ourselves from nature, the more we crave its miracle waters.

  Diane Ackerman

  Water, Miracle, Exile

  Diane Ackerman (2014). “The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us”, p.135, W. W. Norton & Company

  7 Copy quote

• hope and uncertainty [are] the twin ingredients necessary for romance to thrive. ... Nothing begins with so much excitement and hope, or fails as often, as love.

  Diane Ackerman

  Romance, Ingredients, Twins

  Diane Ackerman (1994). “A Natural History of Love”, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• We tend to think of memories as monuments we once forged and may find intact beneath the weedy growth of years. But, in a real sense, memories are tied to and describe the present. Formed in an idiosyncratic way when they happened, they're also true to the moment of recall, including how you feel, all you've experienced, and new values, passions, and vulnerability. One never steps into the same stream of consciousness twice.

  Diane Ackerman

  Memories, Real, Passion

  Diane Ackerman (2004). “An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain”, p.78, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• The visual image is a kind of tripwire for the emotions.

  Diane Ackerman

  Design, Emotion, Kind

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Natural History of the Senses”, p.268, Vintage

  6 Copy quote

• Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains...

  Diane Ackerman

  Summer, Nature, Memories

  "A Natural History of the Senses". Book by Diane Ackerman, 1990.

  67 Copy quote

• I'm fascinated how often and with what whole-heartedness people will risk their lives to perform acts of courage, sacrifice, and compassion for total strangers.

  Diane Ackerman

  Sacrifice, Compassion, People

  4 Copy quote

• A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at metaphorically.

  Diane Ackerman

  Lying, Together, Records

  Diane Ackerman (1999). “Deep Play”, Random House Incorporated

  7 Copy quote

• History is an agreed-upon fiction.

  Diane Ackerman

  History, Fiction

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “A Natural History of Love: Author of the National Bestseller A Natural History of the Senses”, p.7, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• I like handling newborn animals. Fallen into life from an unmappable world, they are the ultimate immigrants, full of wonder and confusion.

  Diane Ackerman

  Animal, Confusion, World

  Diane Ackerman (2011). “Moon By Whale Light: And Other Adventures Among Bats,Penguins, Crocodilians, and Whales”, p.184, Vintage

  6 Copy quote

• It's so acceptably easy for a woman not to strive too hard, not to be too adventure-crazed, not to take too many risks, not to enjoy sex with full candor ... It isn't seemly for a woman to have that much zest.

  Diane Ackerman

  Sex, Adventure, Zest

  4 Copy quote

• Poetry is an act of distillation. It takes contingency samples, is selective. It telescopes time. It focuses what most often floods past us in a polite blur.

  Diane Ackerman

  Past, Poetry, Telescopes

  Diane Ackerman (1999). “Deep Play”, Random House Incorporated

  7 Copy quote

• When I go biking, I am mentally far far away from civilization. The world is breaking someone else's heart.

  Diane Ackerman

  Heart, Civilization, World

  8 Copy quote

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