Insomnia

June 10, 2019 Clarice Lispector Quote Sleep

Obscene nightmares beneath the sick winds.

Clarice Lispector suffered from insomnia most of her life. In Água Viva she alludes to it in the most vivid terms:

“…I have obscene nightmares beneath the sick winds.”

“The problem is that the curtain over the window of my room is defective. It is stuck and doesn’t close. So the full moon enters and phosphoresces the room with silences, it is horrible.”