"When I was little I always thought I was marked out, special, on the verge of something momentous. I used to tingle with anticipation"
About this Quote
That “tingle” is doing a lot of work: it’s the bodily memory of a childhood promise that never had to cash out. Kendal frames her younger self not as talented, exactly, but as pre-selected by fate, “marked out” like a character in a story who can sense the plot approaching. The syntax keeps stacking qualifiers - special, on the verge, momentous - until you feel the swelling pressure of expectation. It’s an actress’s way of describing an origin myth: before the training, before the auditions, there was the private conviction that the spotlight was already circling.
The subtext is less triumphal than it first reads. “Always thought” quietly admits the possibility of delusion, or at least of a very common childhood narcissism that feels, from the inside, like destiny. That tension is the quote’s engine: the bittersweet gap between the intoxicating certainty of becoming and the adult knowledge that “something momentous” isn’t scheduled, it’s constructed, and sometimes it never arrives in the form you imagined.
For an actress of Kendal’s generation, that anticipation also lands in a specific cultural weather. Mid-century Britain sold aspiration as both romance and discipline: you were allowed to dream big, but only if you could make it look effortless later. The line captures that pre-fame electric hope while hinting at its cost. To live “on the verge” is to keep your life in a permanent waiting room, mistaking readiness for arrival.
The subtext is less triumphal than it first reads. “Always thought” quietly admits the possibility of delusion, or at least of a very common childhood narcissism that feels, from the inside, like destiny. That tension is the quote’s engine: the bittersweet gap between the intoxicating certainty of becoming and the adult knowledge that “something momentous” isn’t scheduled, it’s constructed, and sometimes it never arrives in the form you imagined.
For an actress of Kendal’s generation, that anticipation also lands in a specific cultural weather. Mid-century Britain sold aspiration as both romance and discipline: you were allowed to dream big, but only if you could make it look effortless later. The line captures that pre-fame electric hope while hinting at its cost. To live “on the verge” is to keep your life in a permanent waiting room, mistaking readiness for arrival.
Quote Details
| Topic | Youth |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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