"The curious are always in some danger. If you are curious you might never come home"
About this Quote
Winterson is a novelist of thresholds: gender, desire, belief, language, family. Her work often treats the stable categories we inherit as provisional stories, and curiosity is the engine that wrecks them. That`s the subtext here: once you start probing the official narrative - of a relationship, a religion, a nation, a body - you may lose access to the old map. "Come home" doubles as a promise society dangles to keep you compliant: explore, but not too far; change, but remain recognizable.
The intent isn`t to scold. It`s to name the price of serious attention. Winterson pitches curiosity as an ethical and artistic posture: the refusal to accept handed-down meanings. The danger isn`t melodrama; it`s social, emotional, even economic. Curiosity can cost you belonging, family peace, the easy fiction that everything you were told fits. The line works because it dignifies that risk without romanticizing it: curiosity doesn`t guarantee enlightenment, only departure.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wanderlust |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Winterson, Jeanette. (2026, January 16). The curious are always in some danger. If you are curious you might never come home. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-curious-are-always-in-some-danger-if-you-are-83131/
Chicago Style
Winterson, Jeanette. "The curious are always in some danger. If you are curious you might never come home." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-curious-are-always-in-some-danger-if-you-are-83131/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The curious are always in some danger. If you are curious you might never come home." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-curious-are-always-in-some-danger-if-you-are-83131/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.











