"Knowing that everything comes to an end is a gift of experience, a consolation gift for knowing that we ourselves are coming to an end. Before we get it we live in a continuous present, and imagine th..."
- Tobias Wolff
"And I learned that it's a bad idea to curse if you're in trouble, but a good idea to sing, if you can."
"Had he learned nothing from all those years of teaching Hawthorne? Through story after story he’d led his boys to consider the folly of obsession with purity – its roots sunk deep in pride, flowering ..."
"In a world where the most consequential things happen by chance, or from unfathomable causes, you don't look to reason for help. You consort with mysteries... They have been killed in place of you - i..."
"We are made to persist.that's how we find out who we are."
"I recognized no obstacle to miraculous change but the incredulity of others. This was an idea that died hard, if it ever really died at all."
"Real maturity is the ability to imagine the humanity of every person as fully as you believe in your own humanity."