The collection / 9 fragments

The living archive

Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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01Undated

Nature is subtle and complex.

Marlene Van Niekerk / quote

02Undated

..we all have to do things in this life that we don't like..

Marlene Van Niekerk / quote

03Undated

...a butterfly is like the soul of a person, it dries out in captivity.

Marlene Van Niekerk / quote

04Undated

Everything is important. To the smallest insect, even the mouldering tree, the deepest stone in the drift.

Marlene Van Niekerk / quote

05Undated

First smile!! An unseasonal little shower of rain fell here, and a lot of butterflies drowned, so we put them in the sun and they came back to life, and flew up and then Agaat SMILED!

Marlene Van Niekerk / quote

06Undated

Marriage is holy and it's private.

Marlene Van Niekerk / quote

07Undated

In a state of pseudo-death you restore your substance.

Marlene Van Niekerk / quote

08Undated

And I will close my eyes and prepare myself so that they can unscrew my head and allow the map to slip into my lacunae. So that I can be filled and braced from the inside and fortified for the voyage. Because without my world inside me I will contract and congeal, more even than I am now, without speech and without actions and without any purchase upon time.

Marlene Van Niekerk / quote

09Undated

Well, I am something, Ma, you hissed, I am not nothing, I am somebody and I know what I want from life and I know what to do to get it. I will provide for myself.

Marlene Van Niekerk / quote