dialogue prompts from tove ditlevsen's copenhagen trilogy.
everything written in books is a lie.
my father was a scoundrel and a drunkard, but at least he wasn't a socialist.
thank you for coming, despite all this horror.
decent people don't sleep with the light on.
i was ____ years old when disaster struck us.
there was something special about you.
there's no law or justice left in this country.
childhood is long and narrow, like a coffin, and you can't get out of it on your own.
each childhood has its own smell. you don't recognize your own, and sometimes you worry that it's worse than others'.
i thought when i was grown up, my mother would finally like me.
none of the grownups can stand the song in my heart, or the garlands of words in my soul.
you're not putting on airs.
what was the last sentence i said?
you play dumb, but you're not dumb at all.
you shouldn't pretend to be something you're not.
you grow while you're asleep.
i don't give a damn how it's pronounced.
you can never be alone in this damn house.
you sometimes have to lie to bring out the truth.
i'm nothing to brag about.
your memories are different from mine.
get out. i never want to see you again.
we're all going to die, you know.
i wanted to surprise you.
when i get mad, i always say something i regret.
you don't look like you can cook.
you're too critical. you can't afford to be that way.
i'm so tired of my family.
why don't we talk a little first?
you've gone from the frying pan into the fire.
what other way out did i have?
people always want to use each other for something.
you're temperamental enough for ten.
you should never expect anything from life. then, you're never disappointed.
i don't understand much about literature.
we have something together: not much, but something.
sometimes you get very distant, and i can't reach you.
you never say a single word about yourself.
stop crying. ____ isn't worth it.
you need a circle of friends. you're so alone in the world.
i felt happy. i felt loved.
are you a little bit crazy about me?
i'm going to have a baby.
i'm no good. you deserve someone better.
why do you want to be normal and regular? everyone knows you're not.
i think i can only like other people if they're interested in me.
i'm a monster. why do you want to have anything to do with me?
i don't want anything to happen to me that i don't want.
i don't know what i ever saw in _____.
you're betting on the wrong horse.
i think i'm in love with you, but it's probably no use.
that's one of my problems. i don't dare to show how i feel.
who can ever understand someone else's love?
talking makes me so tired.
you're hiding something. something terrible.
if i've done anything wrong, i'll be punished for it.
do you remember how happy we were?
we each have to salvage what we can.
you can't expect to abandon a person and then find them in the same place when you return.
you're just as pretty as the day i first saw you.
people aren't meant to be alone.
i always thought all that talk about love at first sight was a lie.
the law of love gives us the right to hurt other people.
i was born at the wrong time.
that's the terrible thing about love: you lose interest in other people.
you look like a gazelle who's decided to be eaten by a lion.
nothing looks as foolish as other people in love.
what compelled me was stronger than my fear.