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Jeanette Winterson Quotes

Writer

Here is a thoughtfully curated collection of quotes from celebrated British author Jeanette Winterson, whose writing blends emotional depth with intellectual clarity. Known for her explorations of love, identity, time, and the fluid nature of reality, Winterson challenges readers to question convention and embrace imagination. These quotes capture the lyrical intensity and philosophical insight that define her distinctive literary voice.

Happiness was still on the other side of a glass door, but at least she could see it through the glass, like a prisoner being visited by a longed-for loved one.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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Pursuing happiness, and I did, and still do, is not at all the same thing as being happy - which I think is fleeting, dependent on circumstances, and a bit bovine...The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centered.

What you are pursuing is meaning - a meaningful life...There are times when it will go so wrong that you will barely be alive, and times when you realise that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.
From Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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Our own front door can be a wonderful thing, or a sight we dread; rarely is it only a door.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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The Buddhists say there are 149 ways to God. I'm not looking for God, only for myself, and that is far more complicated. God has had a great deal written about Him; nothing has been written about me. God is bigger, like my mother, easier to find, even in the dark. I could be anywhere, and since I can't describe myself I can't ask for help.
From Sexing the Cherry
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Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently. Some people say there are true things to be found, some people say all kinds of things can be proved. I don't believe them. The only thing for certain is how complicated it all is, like string full of knots. It's all there but hard to find the beginning and impossible to fathom the end. The best you can do is admire the cat's cradle, and maybe knot it up a bit more.
From Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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I can't be a priest because although my heart is as loud as hers I can pretend no answering riot. I have shouted to God and the Virgin, but they have not shouted back and I'm not interested in the still small voice. Surely a god can meet passion with passion? She says he can. Then he should.
From The Passion
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Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. What then kills love? Only this: Neglect.
From Written on the Body
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If the sun is shining, stand in it- yes, yes, yes. Happy times are great, but happy times pass- they have to- because time passes. The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centred. What you are pursuing is meaning- a meaningful life... There are times when it will go so wrong that you will be barely alive, and times when you realise that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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And you? Now that I have discovered you? Beautiful, dangerous, unleashed. Still I try to hold you, knowing that your body is faced with knives.
From Gut Symmetries
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Sometimes I think of you and I feel giddy. Memory makes me lightheaded, drunk on champagne. All the things we did. And if anyone has said this was the price I would have agreed to pay it. That surprises me; that with the hurt and the mess comes a shift of recognition. It was worth it. Love is worth it.
From Written on the Body
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When I was born I became the visible corner of a folded map.
The map has more than one route. More than one destination. The map that is the unfolding self is not exactly leading anywhere. The arrow that says YOU ARE HERE is your first coordinate. There is a lot that you can't change when you are a kid. But you can pack for the journey . . .
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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...when I was successful, but accused of arrogance, I wanted to drag every journalist who misunderstood to this place, and make them see that for a woman, a working-class woman, to want to be a writer, to want to be a good writer, and to believe that you were good enough, that was not arrogance; that was politics.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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Do you wake up as I do, having forgotten what it is that hurts or where, until you move? There is a second of consciousness that is clean again. A second that is you, without memory or experience, the animal warm and waking into a brand new world. There is the sun dissolving the dark, and light as clear as music, filling the room where you sleep and the other rooms behind your eyes.
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I was happy, but happy is an adult word. You don't have to ask a child about happy, you see it. They are or they are not. Adults talk about being happy because largely they are not. Talking about it is the same as trying to catch the wind. Much easier to let it blow all over you. This is where I disagree with the philosophers. They talk about passionate things but there is no passion in them. Never talk happiness with a philosopher.
From The Passion
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There is nothing when we are gone--at least nothing that means anything to those left behind. Dead is gone. But still we hope.
From Night Side of the River
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I knew it like destiny, and at the same time, I knew it as choice.
From Lighthousekeeping
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You had once asked me if I was afraid of death.

I said I was afraid of not living.

I don’t want to eke out my life like a resource in short supply. The only selfish life is a timid one. To hold back, to withdraw, to keep the best in reserve, both overvalues the self, and undervalues what the self is.
From The PowerBook
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They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?
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Time that withers you will wither me. We will fall like ripe fruit and roll down the grass together. Dear friend, let me lie beside you watching the clouds until the earth covers us and we are gone.
From Written on the Body
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There is a certain seductiveness about dead things. You can ill treat, alter and recolour what's dead. It won’t complain.
From Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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St. Paul said it is better to marry than to burn, but my mother taught me it is better to burn than to marry.
From The Passion
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I know now, after fifty years, that the finding/losing, forgetting/remembering, leaving/returning, never stops. The whole of life is about another chance, and while we are alive, till the very end, there is always another chance.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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He: What’s the matter with you?

Me: Nothing.

Nothing was slowly clotting my arteries. Nothing slowly numbing my soul. Caught by nothing, saying nothing, nothingness becomes me. When I am nothing they will say surprised in the way that they are forever surprised, "but there was nothing the matter with her.
From Gut Symmetries
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Happiness was still on the other side of a glass door, but at least she could see it through the glass, like a prisoner being visited by a longed-for loved one.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Pursuing happiness, and I did, and still do, is not at all the same thing as being happy - which I think is fleeting, dependent on circumstances, and a bit bovine...The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centered.

What you are pursuing is meaning - a meaningful life...There are times when it will go so wrong that you will barely be alive, and times when you realise that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.
From Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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Our own front door can be a wonderful thing, or a sight we dread; rarely is it only a door.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The Buddhists say there are 149 ways to God. I'm not looking for God, only for myself, and that is far more complicated. God has had a great deal written about Him; nothing has been written about me. God is bigger, like my mother, easier to find, even in the dark. I could be anywhere, and since I can't describe myself I can't ask for help.
From Sexing the Cherry
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Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently. Some people say there are true things to be found, some people say all kinds of things can be proved. I don't believe them. The only thing for certain is how complicated it all is, like string full of knots. It's all there but hard to find the beginning and impossible to fathom the end. The best you can do is admire the cat's cradle, and maybe knot it up a bit more.
From Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
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I can't be a priest because although my heart is as loud as hers I can pretend no answering riot. I have shouted to God and the Virgin, but they have not shouted back and I'm not interested in the still small voice. Surely a god can meet passion with passion? She says he can. Then he should.
From The Passion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. What then kills love? Only this: Neglect.
From Written on the Body
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If the sun is shining, stand in it- yes, yes, yes. Happy times are great, but happy times pass- they have to- because time passes. The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centred. What you are pursuing is meaning- a meaningful life... There are times when it will go so wrong that you will be barely alive, and times when you realise that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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And you? Now that I have discovered you? Beautiful, dangerous, unleashed. Still I try to hold you, knowing that your body is faced with knives.
From Gut Symmetries
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Sometimes I think of you and I feel giddy. Memory makes me lightheaded, drunk on champagne. All the things we did. And if anyone has said this was the price I would have agreed to pay it. That surprises me; that with the hurt and the mess comes a shift of recognition. It was worth it. Love is worth it.
From Written on the Body
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When I was born I became the visible corner of a folded map.
The map has more than one route. More than one destination. The map that is the unfolding self is not exactly leading anywhere. The arrow that says YOU ARE HERE is your first coordinate. There is a lot that you can't change when you are a kid. But you can pack for the journey . . .
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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...when I was successful, but accused of arrogance, I wanted to drag every journalist who misunderstood to this place, and make them see that for a woman, a working-class woman, to want to be a writer, to want to be a good writer, and to believe that you were good enough, that was not arrogance; that was politics.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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Do you wake up as I do, having forgotten what it is that hurts or where, until you move? There is a second of consciousness that is clean again. A second that is you, without memory or experience, the animal warm and waking into a brand new world. There is the sun dissolving the dark, and light as clear as music, filling the room where you sleep and the other rooms behind your eyes.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I was happy, but happy is an adult word. You don't have to ask a child about happy, you see it. They are or they are not. Adults talk about being happy because largely they are not. Talking about it is the same as trying to catch the wind. Much easier to let it blow all over you. This is where I disagree with the philosophers. They talk about passionate things but there is no passion in them. Never talk happiness with a philosopher.
From The Passion
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There is nothing when we are gone--at least nothing that means anything to those left behind. Dead is gone. But still we hope.
From Night Side of the River
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I knew it like destiny, and at the same time, I knew it as choice.
From Lighthousekeeping
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You had once asked me if I was afraid of death.

I said I was afraid of not living.

I don’t want to eke out my life like a resource in short supply. The only selfish life is a timid one. To hold back, to withdraw, to keep the best in reserve, both overvalues the self, and undervalues what the self is.
From The PowerBook
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Time that withers you will wither me. We will fall like ripe fruit and roll down the grass together. Dear friend, let me lie beside you watching the clouds until the earth covers us and we are gone.
From Written on the Body
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There is a certain seductiveness about dead things. You can ill treat, alter and recolour what's dead. It won’t complain.
From Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
St. Paul said it is better to marry than to burn, but my mother taught me it is better to burn than to marry.
From The Passion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I know now, after fifty years, that the finding/losing, forgetting/remembering, leaving/returning, never stops. The whole of life is about another chance, and while we are alive, till the very end, there is always another chance.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
He: What’s the matter with you?

Me: Nothing.

Nothing was slowly clotting my arteries. Nothing slowly numbing my soul. Caught by nothing, saying nothing, nothingness becomes me. When I am nothing they will say surprised in the way that they are forever surprised, "but there was nothing the matter with her.
From Gut Symmetries
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Happiness was still on the other side of a glass door, but at least she could see it through the glass, like a prisoner being visited by a longed-for loved one.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Pursuing happiness, and I did, and still do, is not at all the same thing as being happy - which I think is fleeting, dependent on circumstances, and a bit bovine...The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centered.

What you are pursuing is meaning - a meaningful life...There are times when it will go so wrong that you will barely be alive, and times when you realise that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I seem to have run in a great circle, and met myself again on the starting line.
From Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Our own front door can be a wonderful thing, or a sight we dread; rarely is it only a door.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The Buddhists say there are 149 ways to God. I'm not looking for God, only for myself, and that is far more complicated. God has had a great deal written about Him; nothing has been written about me. God is bigger, like my mother, easier to find, even in the dark. I could be anywhere, and since I can't describe myself I can't ask for help.
From Sexing the Cherry
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently. Some people say there are true things to be found, some people say all kinds of things can be proved. I don't believe them. The only thing for certain is how complicated it all is, like string full of knots. It's all there but hard to find the beginning and impossible to fathom the end. The best you can do is admire the cat's cradle, and maybe knot it up a bit more.
From Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I can't be a priest because although my heart is as loud as hers I can pretend no answering riot. I have shouted to God and the Virgin, but they have not shouted back and I'm not interested in the still small voice. Surely a god can meet passion with passion? She says he can. Then he should.
From The Passion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. What then kills love? Only this: Neglect.
From Written on the Body
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If the sun is shining, stand in it- yes, yes, yes. Happy times are great, but happy times pass- they have to- because time passes. The pursuit of happiness is more elusive; it is life-long, and it is not goal-centred. What you are pursuing is meaning- a meaningful life... There are times when it will go so wrong that you will be barely alive, and times when you realise that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
And you? Now that I have discovered you? Beautiful, dangerous, unleashed. Still I try to hold you, knowing that your body is faced with knives.
From Gut Symmetries
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Sometimes I think of you and I feel giddy. Memory makes me lightheaded, drunk on champagne. All the things we did. And if anyone has said this was the price I would have agreed to pay it. That surprises me; that with the hurt and the mess comes a shift of recognition. It was worth it. Love is worth it.
From Written on the Body
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When I was born I became the visible corner of a folded map.
The map has more than one route. More than one destination. The map that is the unfolding self is not exactly leading anywhere. The arrow that says YOU ARE HERE is your first coordinate. There is a lot that you can't change when you are a kid. But you can pack for the journey . . .
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
...when I was successful, but accused of arrogance, I wanted to drag every journalist who misunderstood to this place, and make them see that for a woman, a working-class woman, to want to be a writer, to want to be a good writer, and to believe that you were good enough, that was not arrogance; that was politics.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Do you wake up as I do, having forgotten what it is that hurts or where, until you move? There is a second of consciousness that is clean again. A second that is you, without memory or experience, the animal warm and waking into a brand new world. There is the sun dissolving the dark, and light as clear as music, filling the room where you sleep and the other rooms behind your eyes.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I was happy, but happy is an adult word. You don't have to ask a child about happy, you see it. They are or they are not. Adults talk about being happy because largely they are not. Talking about it is the same as trying to catch the wind. Much easier to let it blow all over you. This is where I disagree with the philosophers. They talk about passionate things but there is no passion in them. Never talk happiness with a philosopher.
From The Passion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There is nothing when we are gone--at least nothing that means anything to those left behind. Dead is gone. But still we hope.
From Night Side of the River
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I knew it like destiny, and at the same time, I knew it as choice.
From Lighthousekeeping
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
You had once asked me if I was afraid of death.

I said I was afraid of not living.

I don’t want to eke out my life like a resource in short supply. The only selfish life is a timid one. To hold back, to withdraw, to keep the best in reserve, both overvalues the self, and undervalues what the self is.
From The PowerBook
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Time that withers you will wither me. We will fall like ripe fruit and roll down the grass together. Dear friend, let me lie beside you watching the clouds until the earth covers us and we are gone.
From Written on the Body
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There is a certain seductiveness about dead things. You can ill treat, alter and recolour what's dead. It won’t complain.
From Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
St. Paul said it is better to marry than to burn, but my mother taught me it is better to burn than to marry.
From The Passion
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I know now, after fifty years, that the finding/losing, forgetting/remembering, leaving/returning, never stops. The whole of life is about another chance, and while we are alive, till the very end, there is always another chance.
From Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
He: What’s the matter with you?

Me: Nothing.

Nothing was slowly clotting my arteries. Nothing slowly numbing my soul. Caught by nothing, saying nothing, nothingness becomes me. When I am nothing they will say surprised in the way that they are forever surprised, "but there was nothing the matter with her.
From Gut Symmetries
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote