"All the world began with a yes. One molecule said yes to another molecule and life was born. But before prehistory there was the prehistory of the prehistory and there was the never and there was the yes. It was ever so. I don’t know why, but I do know that the universe never began. Make no mistake, I only achieve simplicity with enormous effort."

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Source: Clarice Lispector (1989). “Soulstorm: Stories”, p.106, New Directions Publishing

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Clarice Lispector

Novelist, Short Story Writer

Clarice Lispector was a Brazilian writer known for her introspective novels and short stories that explore themes of identity, love, and existence.

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Clarice Lispector Novelist, Short Story Writer

"Putting my hand in someone else’s has always been my definition of happiness. Before I fall asleep, often - in that small struggle not to lose consciousness and go into the greater world - often, before I get up the courage to go into the vastness of sleep, I pretend that someone has my hand in theirs, and then I go, go to that enormous absence of form that is sleep. And when even after that I don’t have courage, I dream."

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