Nadine Gordimer Quotes

There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.

We cannot always assure the future of our friends

Vulnerability is not weakness, and the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure we face every day are not optional. Our only choice is a question of engagement. Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose; the level to which we protect ourselves from being vulnerable is a measure of our fear and disconnection.

Listen to me: everything you think you know, every relationship you've ever taken for granted, every plan or possibility you've ever hatched, every conceit or endeavor you've ever concocted, can be stripped from you in an instant. Sooner or later, it will happen. So prepare yourself. Be ready not to be ready. Be ready to be brought to your knees and beaten to dust. Because no stable foundation, no act of will, no force of cautious habit will save you from this fact: nothing is indestructible.

Well, I always run the risk of falling on my face, which has in fact happened.

Unwillingness to risk failure is always there, but it gets harder when you feel you have more to lose.

I do have a sense of displacement as constant instability - the uninterrupted existence of everything that I love and care about is not guaranteed at all. I wait for catastrophes.

When I walked out of the seminary, I was 31, but I was like a scared, frightened kid. I had no place to live, no license, no clothes. I was just a lost soul.

I felt vulnerable and very much between friends. I remember walking down the hallway and thinking I had no way of knowing what was coming, literally. This wasn't because I had some horrific bullying story, but because of a steady drip of negativity.

I don't have control over what's on screen, and that's terrifying.

I worry about the many things that could happen to the people I love.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

Grief has limits, whereas apprehension has none. For we grieve only for what we know has happened, but we fear all that possibly may happen.

My father died when I was seven. I guess I am interested in fatherlessness as a metaphor for vulnerability and unprotectedness. Being on your own in the world in a way you're not quite ready for, ever.

In Afghanistan, life is so fragile; who knows what the next week will bring? That fragility really affects the way you're able to report, and the kind of stories people will tell you.

There is no such thing as security. There never has been.

I don't feel like I have anything to lose, so I don't really understand what I'm putting at risk.

Life is a risk.

I always feel the danger because you might always be subject to an unexpected or emergency event.

It's hard to care deeply for something that might turn on you and eat you.

Two things scare me. The first is getting hurt. But that's not nearly as scary as the second, which is losing.

But I'm the sort of person who, if certain structures topple, it could all go horribly wrong.

You take the risk of being rejected.

We find ourselves in a tiny boat in the middle of a mighty current.

The way to feel safe is never to feel secure.