She was a prism through with sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum.
I’m here, Dr. Fein, because it upsets my mom that I’m having an impossible time with my life.” “Should it upset her?” “Not really. Life is impossible.
Canary light of oil lamps.
Wings of a half finished book across his chest.
We are not only the tellers of our stories, we are the stories themselves.
Lvov is a city like New York City in America. New York City, in truth, was designed on the model of Lvov.
I said, not knowing what the next words out of my mouth would be, but wanting them to be mine, wanting, more than I’d ever wanted anything, to express the center of me to and be understood.
In other words, if everyone wants to play Hamlet all at once, they couldn’t because there aren’t enough skulls.
I think and think and think, I’ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.
She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum.
Factory farmers talk about their desire to feed the world. That’s not what they’re doing. They’re feeding the world with really, really cheap stuff.
Words are capable of making experience more vivid, and also of organizing it. They can scare us, and they can comfort us.
I regret that it takes a life to learn how to live.
The more you love someone, he came to think, the harder it is to tell them. It surprised him that strangers didn’t stop each other on the street to say I love you.
It was not the feeling of completeness I so needed, but the feeling of not being empty.
You are the only one who has understood even a whisper of me, and I will tell you that I am the only person who has understood even a whisper of you.
I felt suddenly shy. I was not used to shy. I was used to shame. Shyness is when you turn your head away from something you want. Shame is when you turn your head away from something you do not want.
You can make great meals without meat that are, of course, much more healthy for the same price, but it takes a process of reeducation, just because Americans aren’t familiar with how to cook vegetables anymore.
The only way to overcome sadness is to consume it.
I’m a novelist, I’m not an activist. I’m not a non-fiction writer, I’m not a journalist. I’m not a foodie, I’m not even really an animal person, or an environmentalist. I did the best I could with this, but it’s not who I am.