I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely than not the result of one stupendous error, or else an unfortunate accident. I hadn’t learned that it can happen so gradually...

…you have to learn where your pain is. You have to burrow down and find the wound, and if the burden of it is too terrible to shoulder, you have to shout it out; you...

I have always thought that work is as common and fine as air, something that we become a part of. I am drawn to the out of doors, to the ordinary pleasures of everyday work....

He wondered if somewhere far off, defying the laws of science, Mitch’s two screams were still echoing, if those vibrations had traveled into space, if they moved on and on like rays in a light-year....

I have given up on speech with the Rev; there is no use explaining that you have to learn where your pain is. You have to burrow down and find the wound, and if the...

Emma, Emma, Emma,” I said, wishing I could somehow teach her to take the smaller blows of life in her stride.

Wait.” Walter went to the basket, taking what was a gray sleeve, drawing it out fro the middle of the heap. “Oh,” He said. He held the shapeless wool sweater to his chest. Joyce had...

Sometimes I couldn’t figure it out, what all the living was for.

It is books that are a key to the wide world; if you can’t do anything else, read all that you can.