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I had to learn compassion. Had to learn what it felt like to hate, and to forgive and to love and be loved. And to lose people close to me. Had to feel deep loneliness and sorrow. And then I could write.

Louise Penny

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Louise Penny
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: July 1
Author
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
City of Toronto
Feels
Lose
Writing
Loved
Forgive
Love
Loses
Loneliness
Like
Learn
Forgiving
People
Hate
Sorrow
Write
Compassion
Felt
Close
Feel
Deep

More quotes by Louise Penny

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Every decade of my life I attempted to write a novel. But I had nothing to say. I was far too self-absorbed, and now I realize I was writing for others, so that they'd applaud me, see my genius, tell me how wonderful I am, or be jealous of my success.
Louise Penny
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The night is a strawberry.
Louise Penny
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Her voice was slightly accented but her French was perfect. Someone who'd not just learned the language but loved it. And it showed with every syllable. Gamache knew it was impossible to split language from culture. That without one the other withered. To love the language was to respect the culture.
Louise Penny
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Let every man shovel out his own snow, and the whole city will be passable, said Gamache. Seeing Beauvoir's puzzled expression he added, Emerson. Lake and Palmer? Ralph and Waldo.
Louise Penny
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Or - perhaps - I should just worry about my own behavior and let others be who they are.
Louise Penny
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Things are strongest where they're broken.
Louise Penny
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In winter the very ground seemed to reach up and grab the elderly, yanking them to earth as though hungry for them.
Louise Penny
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When someone stabs you it's not your fault that you feel pain.
Louise Penny
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I turned down all the requests for the rights to the books, for years, mostly because they wanted the rights to the characters, and to turn it into a TV series. This would have allowed them to do anything they wanted with the characters, and that just wasn't an option for me.
Louise Penny
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How much more courage it took to be kind than to be cruel.
Louise Penny
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What haunted people even, perhaps especially, on their deathbed? What chased them, tortured them and brought some of them to their knees? And [he] thought he had the answer. Regret. Regret for things said, things done, and things not done. Regret for the people they might have been. And failed to be.
Louise Penny
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I'm just like this. I have no talent for choosing my battles. Life seems, strangely, like a battle to me. The whole thing.
Louise Penny
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Every year the hunters shot cows and horses and family pets and each other. And unbelievably, they sometimes shot themselves, perhaps in a psychotic episode where they mistook themselves for dinner
Louise Penny
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Foolish people are never harmless. Stupidity accounts for as many crimes as anger and greed.
Louise Penny
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I went through a period in my life when I had no friends, when the phone never rang, when I thought I would die from loneliness. I know that the real blessing here isn't that I have a book published, but that I have so many people to thank.
Louise Penny
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It's a shame that creativity and sloth look exactly the same.
Louise Penny
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Myrna could spend happy hours browsing bookcases. She felt if she could just get a good look at a person’s bookcase and their grocery cart, she’d pretty much know who they were.
Louise Penny
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A good journalist, as you know, is a great listener. And so's a good writer. And I got to listen to people for almost 20 years. That serves me well, I hope, when I try to understand how a character might be feeling, or how they might react.
Louise Penny
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Now here's a good one: you're lying on your deathbed. You have one hour to live. Who is it, exactly, you have needed all these years to forgive?
Louise Penny
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I've seen enough successful writers who no longer seem to care when they are recognized with an award, and I think that's just tragic.
Louise Penny