quote · Legacy record
At such times Daddy, Mummy and Margot leave me cold. I wander from one room to another, downstairs and up again, feeling like a songbird whose wings have been clipped and who is hurling himself in utter darkness against the bars of his cage. "Go outside, laugh, and take a breath of fresh air," a voice cries within me, but I don't even feel a response any more; I go and lie on the divan and sleep, to make the time pass more quickly, and the stillness and terrible fear, because there is no way of killing them.
At such times Daddy, Mummy and Margot leave me cold. I wander from one room to another, downstairs and up again, feeling like a songbird whose wings have been clipped and who is hurling himself in utter darkness against the bars of his cage. "Go outside, laugh, and take a breath of fresh air," a voice cries within me, but I don't even feel a response any more; I go and lie on the divan and sleep, to make the time pass more quickly, and the stillness and terrible fear, because there is no way of killing them.
Approximate author period: c. 1937 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Anne Frank
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1937 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1929 to 1945; Wikidata Q4583, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4583 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 169880; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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