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1b1fed6
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She didn't know how to hate her mother yet, but every time she left her father crying in the airport she came that much closer to figuring it out.
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parenting
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Ann Patchett |
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d7de186
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She put no stock in dreams. To her they were just a television left on in another room.
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Ann Patchett |
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4fbaa3e
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Kentucky, a state whose capital I did not know. I had never wondered about Kentucky, never imagined it as a girl the way I had New York or Houston or Paris. No one I knew had ever been to Kentucky, or was planning on going, and so I thought it would be the last place anyone would look for me. "Tell"
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Ann Patchett |
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e2d4dc6
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Maybe once he wished I was his daughter, because it was plain that my news was hard for him to hear.
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Ann Patchett |
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06eae33
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Whenever I kissed a boy in school, cut a day of classes, argued with my mother, over what I can't remember, it was not God's forgiveness I sought, but his. He was the one I told.
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Ann Patchett |
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4adda3f
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I don't want to wind up some old woman who talks to her rabbit," she said to Rabbit,"
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Ann Patchett |
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e942c45
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The idea that she would have the opportunity to get over something thrilled her. The
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Ann Patchett |
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792b85f
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Katsumi Hosokawa - (he) believed that life, true life, was something that was stored in music.
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bel-canto
life
music
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Ann Patchett |
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425d8cc
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You wouldn't believe all the nice people I've met at chemotherapy," she"
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Ann Patchett |
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479d3cb
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She has a point," Cousins said. He never would have stood back here making sandwiches, though he felt he could use a sandwich, that he wanted one, and so he poured himself another drink."
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Ann Patchett |
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dbbf993
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Just do me a favor first--go find the baby. Find out who has her. If I go out there now everybody's going to want to start talking and it'll be midnight before I find her. Take a quick walk around, would you do that? Make sure some drunk didn't leave her in a chair." "How will I know it's your baby?" Cousins asked. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen a baby at the party, and surely with all these Micks there were bound to be plenty..
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Ann Patchett |
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c1e0851
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you also have to find him or her at a time in life when you're able to listen to, trust, and implement the lessons you receive. The
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Ann Patchett |
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bc69b9b
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I think that what influences us in literature comes less from what we love and more from what we happen to pick up in moments when we are especially open. For
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Ann Patchett |
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5b045cf
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Because while Leo Posen appeared to be perfectly sober, she would be that he seemed that way regardless of how much he had drunk. Some men were like that. They went from sober to more or less dead without intermediate steps.
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Ann Patchett |
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ee03037
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Other CEOs were shown fly-fishing in Scottish rivers or piloting their own Learjets into Helsinki. Mr. Hosokawa was photographed at home in the leather chair he sat in when he listened, a Nansei EX-12 stereo system behind him.
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Ann Patchett |
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58e9571
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Stories are based in conflict, and when the conflict is resolved the story ends. That's because for the most part happiness is amorphous, wordless, and largely uninteresting.
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Ann Patchett |
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b3dff99
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She did have friends, she had just made a decision to stay home and experiment with dying.
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Ann Patchett |
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1e24c0d
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Instead of following her original plan to have an abortion, she and Fode had decided to conduct a radical social experiment they called Having the Baby, and because of the outcome of that experiment, she had dropped out of school.
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Ann Patchett |
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9a907d1
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Cal!' Beverly called out over the crowd... But Cal looked back at her as if it were some weird coincidence that his name was Cal and this complete stranger had said something to someone who was also named Cal. He turned away. Jeanette stood just beside her, looking at the strap of her little shoulder bad, staring at it. Had anyone had this child tested?
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Ann Patchett |
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dee1afe
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What would it mean to kiss the lips that had held such a sound?
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Ann Patchett |
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df21960
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You may have heard the news that the independent bookstore is dead, that books are dead, that maybe even reading is dead--to which I say, Pull up a chair, friend. I have a story to tell.
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Ann Patchett |
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a3fad47
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It would be possible to overlook just about anything if you were trained to constantly strain forward to see the power and the glory that was waiting up ahead. What a shame it would have been to miss God while waiting for Him. The
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Ann Patchett |
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26711d5
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Nebraska was white, a page as still as fallen snow. It was not crosshatched with roads, overrun with the hard lines of interstate systems. It was a state on which you could make lists, jot down phone numbers, draw pictures.
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Ann Patchett |
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942ef99
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Novel writing, I soon discovered, is like channel swimming: a slow and steady stroke over a long distance in a cold, dark sea. If I thought too much about how far I'd come or the distance I still had to cover, I'd sink.
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Ann Patchett |
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1da4a03
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You do a good job of this," Milton said, keeping his eyes towards the river. "I admire your patience."
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Ann Patchett |
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1cabe61
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There are in life a few miraculous moments when the right person is there to tell you what you need to hear and you are still open enough, impressionable enough, to take it in. When
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Ann Patchett |
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402ddaa
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But these last months had turned him around and now Gen saw there could be as much virtue in letting go of what you knew as there had ever been in gathering new information. He worked as hard at forgetting as he had ever worked to learn.
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Ann Patchett |
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df8a16c
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The host country was mad for soap operas, and yet the President's unwavering devotion to his television set was so potentially embarrassing his cabinet would have gladly traded it in for an indiscreet mistress.
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Ann Patchett |
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8214f2e
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Had she done something with her life no one would be asking her to make them cappuccino, and had she done something with her life she would be perfectly happy to make them cappuccino, because it would not be her job. She would make the coffee because she was a gracious and helpful person.
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Ann Patchett |
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84f1da9
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Time passed and I had a harder and harder time remembering why Karl wasn't my type, or remembering what my type had been. It was as if we were growing into one another. He was smart and kind. My family loved him, I loved him. He encouraged me in everything I did. His answer to every question was yes. He was proud of me, and he never found a way to undermine my success or spoil a happy moment (a quality, I will tell you, that is hard to come..
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Ann Patchett |
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40385e9
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Does this raise or lower, then, the everyday importance of art? Does something which exists on the edge have no true relevance to the stable center, or does it, by being on the edge, become a part of the edge and thus a part of the boundary, the definition which gives the whole its shape? (excerpted letter from Lucy Grealy)
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Ann Patchett |
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6d5d2a5
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whisper about, the one who finds out years later, just by accident, that she is not herself at all.
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Ann Patchett |
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f26ea99
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The gawk was full of brazen curiousity, pity, and fear, every unattractive human emotion rolled into one unflattering facial expression.
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Ann Patchett |
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abac6c3
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The art of writing comes way down the line, as does the art of interpreting Bach. Art stands on the shoulders of craft, which means that to get to the art you must master the craft. If you want to write, practice writing. Practice it for hours a day, not to come up with a story you can publish, but because you long to learn how to write well, because there is something that you alone can say.
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Ann Patchett |
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4fa8287
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When Lucy believed that there were actually things in the world that were worse than what had happened to her, she could pull herself up on this knowledge like a rope. When she lost sight of it, she sank.
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Ann Patchett |
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f5382a4
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His own children were not members of the Clemson incoming freshman class, but two of his nieces and a nephew were. On the news, he outlined his problems with the summer-reading committee's selection. "The book talks in graphic terms about pornography, about fetish, about masturbation, about multiple sex partners . . . The book contains a very extensive list of over-the-top sexual and antireligious references. The explicit message that this ..
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Ann Patchett |
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ed83882
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If Kumar had his way they would leave for Fiji every year just before Thanksgiving and not return until the New Year rang in and the decorations came down. They would swim with the fishes and lie on the beach eating papaya. On the years they were tired of Fiji they would go to Bali or Sydney or any sunny, sandy place whose name contained an equal number of consonants and vowels.
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holidays
travel
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Ann Patchett |
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a5b7c05
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Lelia gave a dharma talk about letting go of self-definition: I can't do this because of what happened to me in my childhood; I can't do that because I am very shy; I could never go there because I'm afraid of clowns or mushrooms or polar bears. The group gave a gentle, collective laugh of self-recognition. Teresa found the talk helpful, as she had been having an extended interior dialogue during meditation about how septuagenarians from To..
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meditation
self-definition
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Ann Patchett |
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539892b
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Question Eight: Self-righteousness is an insidious spiritual disease which is a betrayer of the gospel of grace and a great hindrance to evangelism. What is self-righteousness? Why is it such a hindrance to evangelism? How does the gospel of grace enable us to repent of our self-righteousness and free us to share the gospel with compassion? Maybe I was all right with it for a while. I read their answers, too, and in those answers Lucy and J..
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Ann Patchett |
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3180f98
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I slept like his sister would have, without trouble or dreams.
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Ann Patchett |
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be382e4
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She would not attend the dinner (she did not eat before she sang) but would arrive at the end of the meal and perform six arias with her accompanist.
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Ann Patchett |
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3637b48
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demand absolute cooperation and attention." Roughly two-thirds of the guests looked frightened, but a scattered third looked both frightened and puzzled. These were the ones leaning towards the man with the gun, instead of away from him. These were the ones that did not speak Spanish. They whispered quickly to their neighbors. The word atencion was repeated in several languages. That word was clear enough. General Alfredo had anticipated hi..
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Ann Patchett |
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658815a
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the curacao and the Vandermint sat
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Ann Patchett |
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15a1e53
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In our friendship I had spent a lot of time telling Lucy to pull herself up, to get over the past and move on. That was my role, the best of my Catholic education in action, and I didn't worry about it because I knew that she had other friends, friends who were as close to her as I was, who were more tender. She had practical friends and emotional friends, friends with big houses to crash in and friends who were good for wild fun, and she k..
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Ann Patchett |