Share & Save
Meaning
The speaker is describing a recurring trade-off between fitting in and staying free. They say they have sometimes chosen belonging at the cost of freedom, but even more often they have had to let go of any expectation of being accepted. The quote suggests loneliness and the pressure to compromise identity for inclusion.
When It Was Said
Not documented yet.
Who It Was Said To
Not documented yet.
Historical Context
Not documented yet.
Source
The World and Other Places: Stories (2013)
Original Language & Translation
Originally said in English.
Did They Really Say It?
The phrase appears in the book "The World and Other Places: Stories (2013)" by Jeanette Winterson (Google Books snippet); no earlier source was checked.
Did You Know?
Not documented yet.
About Jeanette Winterson
English author
Jeanette Winterson is an English author. She is known for her fiction, especially her debut novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, a semi-autobiographical story about a lesbian growing up in an English Pentecostal community. Her later novels often explore gender and sexual identity, and her more recent work turns to the relationship between people and technology. Her books have been translated into nearly 20 languages, and she also broadcasts and teaches creative writing.
More from Jeanette Winterson (277 quotes) →Keep reading Jeanette Winterson
- “I dreamed I was a single moment in a single day. A note struck and vanished. A sounding. A reckoning. Gone.”Jeanette Winterson
- “Hold in, hold in, one crack and the wall is breached. I need now to be finite, self-contained, to stop this b…”Jeanette Winterson
- “Why is it that human beings are allowed to grow up without the necessary apparatus to make sound ethical deci…”Jeanette Winterson
- “Our own front door can be a wonderful thing, or a sight we dread; rarely is it only a door.”Jeanette Winterson
Belonging: more sayings
- “I refuse to surrender my Swedish passport despite having lived in this country for 43 of my 54 years because…”Ulrika Jonsson
- “Sometimes something that you've been asking forIt's just something that you could not see before. For it was…”Ana Claudia Antunes
- “My father was a man of great charity towards the poor, and compassion for the sick, and also for servants; so…”Saint Teresa of Avila
Explore Order
- “I read a lot of history. It has taught me that any politician has to overcome difficult periods in order to a…”Pierre Poilievre
- “The other thing that happened was my last military assignment - this was in the air force; I had enlisted in…”Robert Jay Lifton
- “Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able, - to dress and entertain, and order th…”Charlotte Perkins Gilman
READ THE SOURCE
Books by Jeanette Winterson
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
1991
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
2012
Weight
2006
The passion
1989
The stone gods
2007