Lapvona Quotes

“What about heaven, Ina? Don’t you want to go?’ ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said. ‘I won’t know anyone.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“that love was a
distinctly human defect which God had created to counterbalance the power
of human greed.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“When she asked the birds what to do, they answered that they didn't know anything about love, that love was a distinctly human defect which God had created to counterbalance the power of human greed.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“When God gives you more than you can tolerate, you turn to instinct. And instinct is a force beyond anyone’s control.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“I am interested in disgust.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Marek guessed that Villiam could use his wealth to influence God's will. That was the way things worked, Marek thought. If you didn't have money, you had to be good.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Jude didn’t understand forgiveness. He was incapable of forgiveness because he was so addled by his own grief and grudges. This bad blood was what kept Jude’s heart pumping.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“But such was death - it had nothing to say.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Since he was little, a scraped knee or a whipped back, anything to make his body hurt, felt like the hand of God upon him.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Blood was the wine of the spirit, was it not?”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“He went outside, desperate for something, anything—an embrace or a blow to the head.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“I finally heard the truth,’ Grigor told him. He couldn’t explain when
he’d heard it, or from whom, but he’d heard it in his heart, without words, a
deep knowing, and nothing could hurt him or frighten him now. It was so
simple that the reasoning of it tended to slip through his mind as soon as he
touched it, like a rabbit in the woods. Once you breathe, it’s gone.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“She’d done everything so many times in her life, she drifted between now and then, often getting lost in between.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Marek lay back. He felt the warmth from the sun on his face, and felt his back relax a bit against the hard stone floor. 'Do you think my bones are right?' he asked Villiam.
'Please, don't ask me about bones. Tonight, we will only talk about normal things.'
Marek nodded. He had no idea what that meant. The wine had made him a bit softer in his mind, but no wiser.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“He loved not the Christ but himself and the thrill of keeping people in line. He liked wearing his habit, and he liked the preposterous authority that his position granted him. Since his assignment in Lapvona, he had not given any real sermons. He simply translated Villiam's rule into language that sounded vaguely religious.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Open up your heart,’ she said.

‘I’m afraid it’s broken.’

‘If I was knocking at your door, would you open it?’

‘I would, of course.’

‘Even if the door was broken.’

‘I would try.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“She had indeed seen death and she was not afraid of it. What scared her were other people and their immovable selfishness.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Yes, Marek was her son, but he was a bastard, a scar. That’s what a child of rape was, in fact—evidence.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Strange, he thought next, that fire hurts to the touch. Fire gives light. Shouldn’t the darkness hurt instead? Hell ought to be pure darkness. Nothingness.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“She was, to him, a holy grace, far more powerful than any priest or nun. God lived in her eyes. That was how he had fallen for her—like a religious conversion. It had struck him the moment he’d seen her, a profound, eternal love, the kind that occurred by cause of fate, against reason.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Beauty is the Devil’s shade,’ Jude said.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Perhaps hell is a tiny place, a single flame, Clod thought now. The thought moved him, and he imagined the pureness of the flame as he gazed through the darkness at the candelabra. Just one flame could contain all the evil that has come and gone. What if it were that easy to snuff it out? Would he do it? No. He would never interfere. Just the image of the white light, the way it swayed in the slow breeze floating through the manor, that was what mattered to him. If he could draw that, he thought, and make the picture move somehow, that would be interesting. He could suspend the drawing from a string and let the wind push it to and fro. Strange, he thought next, that fire hurts to the touch. Fire gives light. Shouldn’t the darkness hurt instead? Hell ought to be pure darkness. Nothingness. The thought chilled him. There was nothing to see there. He shrugged and pulled his back away from the wall, feeling his shirt stick to his skin with sweat.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Children are selfish, she thought. They rob you of life. They thrive as you toil and wither, and then they bury you, their tears never once falling out of regret for what they’ve stolen. That”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“I feel stupid when I pray. —“Anyone,” Demi Lovato”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Please, Erno. It’s Sunday. It’s evil to discuss money on the Sabbath,
don’t you know?’
‘It’s Tuesday, my lord,’ Erno muttered.
‘Every day is Sunday in God’s kingdom.’
‘Then when would we work?’
‘Please, Erno. Clod needs to concentrate.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“There was something strange in her face, a blankness that made her hard to see. He didn't believe that a man was something holy--the servants' faith did not recognize holiness in human beings. They didn't care for Jesus. Flesh was mortal. God was not. God was not alive. God was life itself. And life was invisible. This was why Clod felt he had to make art, to give proof of life.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Her absence hung over both of
them like a hovering bird. Marek felt the bird wasn’t close enough, that it
was just out of reach, that if it descended a bit farther he could grab hold of
its foot and it would take him away, fly him to some better place. And Jude
felt the bird was too close. If he looked up at it, it would scratch his eyes
out. The difference was that Jude had known Agata. And he knew the truth
about her absence. All Marek knew was that she had given her life for his
own, like any good mother would do.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Villiam was asleep in his four-post bed. He dreamt that the bed was made of human flesh, a living thing of fat and soft baby skin.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“Carnage or contribution. That’s what priests always say.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

“She was empty. ‘I am an object in the room,’ she had told herself. ‘That is all that I am.’ This belief spared her the agony of her own intelligence while she was a slave to the nuns.”
― Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona