Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
—Jessamyn West
At fourteen you don't need sickness or death for tragedy.
—Jessamyn West
Every arrival foretells a leave-taking, every birth a death. Yet each death and departure comes to us as a surprise, a sorrow never anticipated. Life is a long series of farewells; only the circumstances should surprise us.
—Jessamyn West
The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.
—Jessamyn West
Sex and religion are bordering states. They use the same vocabulary, share like ecstasies, and often serve as a substitute for one another.
—Jessamyn West