Chris Cleave
Chris Cleave
Chris Cleaveis a British writer and journalist...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionWriter
girl looks stories
Even for a girl like me, then, there comes a day when she can stop surviving and start living. To survive, you have to look good or talk good. But to end your story well-- here is the truth-- you have to talk yourself out of it.
ears whispering world
In my world death will come chasing. In your world it will start whispering in your ear to destroy yourself. I know this because it started whispering to me when I was in the detention center.
people wonder easy
People wonder how they are ever going to change their lives, but really it is frighteningly easy.
beautiful girlfriend heart
I think my ideal man would speak many languages. He would speak Ibo and Yoruba and English and French and all of the others. He could speak with any person, even the soldiers, and if there was violence in their heart he could change it. He would not have to fight, do you see? Maybe he would not be very handsome, but he would be beautiful when he spoke. He would be very kind, even if you burned his food because you were laughing and talking with your girlfriends instead of watching the cooking. He would just say, 'Ah, never mind'.
mean thinking dying
A scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. A scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.
moving grief tongue
This is the forked tongue of grief again. It whispers in one ear: return to what you once loved best, and in the other ear it whispers, move on.
doctors giving meals
Psychiatry in this place is like serving an in-flight meal in the middle of a plane crash. If I wanted to make you well, as a doctor, I should be giving you a parachute, not a cheese-and-pickle sandwich.
men faces your-face
If your face is swollen from the severe beatings of life, smile and pretend to be a fat man.
wreckage built
I am a woman built upon the wreckage of myself.
soul world fit
I know that the hopes of this whole human world can fit inside one soul.
mean differences two
There's what people say, and there's what people mean, and I like to explore the difference between the two.
fun thinking psychology
Studying psychology is fun because you're always looking for the same things I think a writer should be looking for, which is the story behind the story.
athlete years different
It's extremely hard for athletes to accept what's happened to them sometimes. It's hard to be beaten by a small margin, and I've spoken with athletes who, for years afterward, have been tormented by the knowledge that, had they done something ever so slightly different, they could have been one-ten-thousandth of a second quicker.
beautiful thinking stronger
I think that there's something extremely beautiful about the Olympic ideal and its motto - 'Swifter, higher, stronger' - it's such a beautiful motto, and it celebrates everything which is the antithesis of death and dissolution and entropy.