Carolina QuotesI had discovered that a person does not have to be this or be that or be anything, not even oneself. One is free. (2.12).
Walker Percy Connected to the Carolinas
Source
No citation is recorded for this quotation.
- work
- The Moviegoer (1961)
- year
- 1961
no citation recorded
Cite this record
“I had discovered that a person does not have to be this or b…” Walker Percy. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-609C6CB2B9. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/609c6cb2b9
More from Walker Percy
He could tell that the other expected him to be surprised, but it was not in him to be surprised because it was no more surprising to him when things did not fall out as they were supposed to than when they did.
To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair. The movies are onto the search, but they screw it up. The search always ends in despair. They like to show a fellow coming to himself in a strange place-but what does he do? He takes up with the local librarian, sets about proving to the local children what a nice fellow he is, and settles down with a vengeance. In two weeks time he is so sunk in everydayness that he might just as well be dead.
What struck him was not sadness or remorse or pity but the wonder of it. How can it be? How can it happen that one day you are young, you marry, and then another day you come to yourself and your life has passed like a dream? They looked at teach other curiously and wondered how they could have missed each other, lived in the same house all those years and passed in the hall like ghosts.