“The French have a phrase: 'mutilé de guerre'. Do you know it? 'I was mutilated by war.' I spend my day in the company of those mutilated by life, mostly beyond repair. I have always held to the belief that there are times, not times, moments, when the right word, emotion, single touch, might heal. I have held this though I know the workings of the world will not permit these... these words or emotions. There will be no grand gestures or interventions. They are all images seen through a glass darkly amidst my own decline. Did I mention I have been drinking?”

Explore more quotes:


About the author

This page was created by our editorial team. Each page is manually curated, researched, collected, and issued by our staff writers. Quotes contained on this page have been double checked for their citations, their accuracy and the impact it will have on our readers.

Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.

Kendra Syrdal is a writer, editor, partner, and senior publisher for The Thought & Expression Company. Over the last few years she has been personally responsible for writing, editing, and producing over 30+ million pageviews on Thought Catalog.