The Correspondent by Virginia Evans is a moving novel that reflects on the life of an inimitable woman named Sybil Van Antwerp. Told through Sybil’s letters and the responses she receives to them, the book explores life’s big themes: motherhood, ageing, grief and the complexities of human relationships. 

Narrated predominantly by a woman with a passion for putting pen to paper, the book perfectly captures the magic of the written word, making it a favourite of readers, writers and book clubs around the world. 

With no shortage of witty retorts, the book offers plenty of beautiful quotes that readers can carry with them, long after finishing the novel. Whether you add these to your journal, highlight them in the book, or simply revisit them to reminisce on the story, we hope you enjoy these moving quotes. 

The Correspondent quotes

1. When you rush you pen things you didn’t mean and you tire. It takes patience to say exactly what one means. 
2. Remember: words, especially those written, are immortal.
3. I know you think of me as your mother only, but please remember, inside I am also just a girl.
4. You get the one life. It’s awfully unfair, isn’t it?
5. Of course you are bored. The mind was not created for idleness.
6. We are born and grow through childhood in spring. We live those glorious, lively, interesting years of our twenties, thirties, forties in summer. We settle into ourselves in autumn, that cool but not yet cold time, rich and aromatic. And in winter we age (brutally) and die.
7. I know you know this, but I want to repeat that when someone(s) treats you poorly, it is a reflection of him or herself and the misery within the heart of them. It doesn’t help a bit to hear that when you’re young, but later it will.
8. How cruel life is only this long. Now that I see clearly, I’d like more time.
9. Grief (the biggest grief in the world) is like—What? What is it that happens to a person? I’ve always felt it is like a scream living inside me. 
10. There are complexities of human life that cannot be boiled down to black and white.
11. An e-mail can in no way replace a written letter.
12. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt at home in the world, but I’m not sure that’s unique. 

The book