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af76fae What we, or at any rate what I, refer to confidently as memory--meaning a moment, a scene, a fact that has been subjected to a fixative and thereby rescued from oblivion--is really a form of storytelling that goes on continually in the mind and often changes with the telling. Too many conflicting emotional interests are involved for life ever to be wholly acceptable, and possibly it is the work of the storyteller to rearrange things so that.. the-past revisionism revision William Maxwell
24f17d6 His sadness was of the kind that is patient and without hope. William Maxwell
d7e8036 It seemed like a mistake. And mistakes ought to be rectified, only this one couldn't be. Between the way things used to be and the way they were now was a void that couldn't be crossed. I had to find an explanation other than the real one, which was that we were no more immune to misfortune than anybody else, and the idea that kept recurring to me...was that I had inadvertently walked through a door that I shouldn't have gone through and co.. William Maxwell
38a7242 Who knows what oversensitive is, considering all there is to be sensitive to. William Maxwell
93996f9 I had inadvertently walked through a door that I shouldn't have gone through and couldn't get back to the place I hadn't meant to leave. William Maxwell
4b4db23 They looked at me, and were so full of delight in the pleasure they were giving me that some final thread of resistance gave way and I understood not only how entirely generous they were but also that generosity might be the greatest pleasure there is. kindness happiness generosity William Maxwell
41fb94d The reason life is so strange is that so often people have no choice, William Maxwell
a24881b My father represented authority, which meant--to me--that he could not also represent understanding. William Maxwell
6ef33ec Whether they are part of a home or home is a part of them is not a question children are prepared to answer. Having taken away the dog, take away the kitchen-the smell of something good in the oven for dinner. Also the smell of washing day, of wool drying in the wooden rack. Of ashes. Of soup simmering on the stove. Take away the patient old horse waiting by the pasture fence. Take away the chores that kept him busy from the time he got hom.. William Maxwell
b7c8abf Love, even of the most ardent and soul-destroying kind, is never caught by the lens of the camera. William Maxwell
506fef1 A gentleman doesn't have one set of manners for the house of a poor man and another for the house of someone with an income incomparable to his own. social-class William Maxwell
b26c641 There is nothing so difficult to arrive at as the nature and personality of one's parents. Death, about which so much mystery is made,is perhaps no mystery at all. But the history of one's parents has to be pieced together from fragments, their motives and characters guessed at, and the truth about them remains deeply buried, like a boulder that projects one small surface above the level of smooth lawn, and when you come to dig around it, i.. William Maxwell
3c9a8fb Without the heavy set aristocratic man snoring away on his side of the bed, without the fresh-eyed child whose hair ribbon needs retying; without the conversation at meals and the hearty appetites and getting dressed for church on time; without the tears of laughter or the worry about making both ends meet, the unpaid bills, the layoffs, both seasonal and unexpected; without the toys that have to picked up lest somebody trip over them, and .. William Maxwell
378b2dc What we, or at any rate what I, refer to confidently as memory - meaning a moment, a scene, a fact that has been subjected to a fixative and thereby rescued from oblivion - is really a form of storytelling that goes on continually in the mind and often changes with the telling. William Maxwell
f8e3e82 It seemed like a mistake. And mistakes ought to be rectified, only this one couldn't be. Between the way things used to be and the way they were now was a void that couldn't be crossed. William Maxwell
63ea5b0 Satin and lace and brown velvet and the faint odor of violets. That was all which was left to him of his love. William Maxwell
652e3c6 But he was careful. He didn't make a simple remark without rehearsing it beforehand. And he continually removed the expression from his face lest it be the wrong one, and give him away. He also avoided any strong light, such as the lamp on the kitchen table. Sometimes a weakness overcame him, his legs were unstrung, and he had to find some place to sit down, but this was easy enough to disguise. It was his voice that gave him the most troub.. William Maxwell
b712867 People often ask themselves the right questions. Where they fail is in answering the questions they ask themselves, and even there they do not fail by much. A single avenue of reasoning followed to its logical conclusion would bring them straight home to the truth. But they stop just short of it, over and over again. When they have only to reach out and grasp the idea that would explain everything, they decide that the search is hopeless. T.. truth searching-and-finding questioning William Maxwell
67b7eb5 It would have been a help if at some time Baptist preacher, resting his forearms on the pulpit and hunching his shoulders, had said On the other hand, how could any preacher, Baptist or otherwise, say this? god divine-providence deserve William Maxwell
866f9e2 Between the way things used to be and the way they were now was a void that couldn't be crossed. William Maxwell
68b561f Sometimes she goes out to work as a practical nurse, and comes home and sits by the kitchen table soaking her feet in a pan of hot water and Epsom salts. When she gets into bed and the springs creak under her weight, she groans with the pleasure of lying stretched out on an object that understands her so well. William Maxwell
fbf232d They had stopped shouting at each other and put their faith in legal counsel. With the result that how things could be made to look was what counted, not how they actually were. reality William Maxwell
2012c94 But to live in the world at all is to be committed to some kind of a journey. William Maxwell
75fb4d0 If the Lowland farmer spoke with an uncouth accent, dressed in rags, lived in a miserable hovel, and fed on the same grain he fed his animals, it was not because he was a savage but because the relentless marauding of the English left him with very little choice. As for why he didn't simply cut his throat, the answer is that he was a Presbyterian and did not expect much in the way of earthly happiness. farmers William Maxwell
d71b6d4 Ono sto mi, ili barem ja, samouvjereno smatramo sjecanjem - znaci, trenutak, prizor, cinjenicu koja je fiksirana i tako spasena od zaborava - ustvari je oblik pripovijedanja koje se trajno odvija u umu i cesto s kazivanjem mijenja. Ukljuceno je previse proturjecnih emocionalnih interesa da bi zivot ikada bio potpuno prihvatljiv, i mozda je pripovjedaceva zadaca preurediti stvari tako da se prilagode tom cilju. U svakom slucaju, govoreci o p.. William Maxwell
4a9aa04 For most people, having company for more than three of four days is a serious mistake, the equivalent to sawing a large hole in the roof and leaving all the doors and windows open in the middle of winter. Out of a desire to be helpful or the need to be kind, they let themselves in for prolonged spells of entertaining, forfeit their privacy and their easy understanding, knowing that the result will be an estrangement--however temporary--betw.. William Maxwell
98991c1 human thought is by no means as private as it seems, and all that you need to read somebody else's mind is the willingness to read your own. human-thought french William Maxwell
3d95ba4 It is impossible to say why people put so little value on complete happiness. value William Maxwell
d263adf When she gets into bed and the springs creak under her weight, she groans with the pleasure of lying stretched out on an object that understands her so well. William Maxwell
2bb69f0 But to live in the world at all is to be committed to some kind of a journey... On a turning earth, in a mechanically revolving universe, there is no place to stand still. Neither the destination nor the point of departure are important. People often find themselves midway on a journey they had no intention of taking and that began they are not exactly sure where. journey William Maxwell
dab369e There was also a wall vase with artificial flowers in it. The flowers were made of crepe paper dipped in wax. They did not resemble any actual flowers and there had been no attempt to convey a general truth, such as what a flower is or why there are such things as flowers, but merely to make one more disconcerting object. There were no magazines on the mission table. It was not part of the hospital's intention to offer entertainment or to m.. William Maxwell
53624ee The values and assumptions of that household I took in without knowing when or how it happened, and I have them to this day: The pleasure in sharing pleasure. The belief that is is only proper to help lame dogs to get over stiles and young men to put one foot on the bottom rung of the ladder. An impatient disregard for small sums of money. The belief that it is a sin against Nature to put sugar in one's tea. The preference for being home ov.. family-history William Maxwell
58e4010 At that period, rising in the world meant giving up working with your hands in favor of work in a store or an office. The people who lived in town had made it, and turned their backs socially on those who had not but were still growing corn and wheat out there in the country. What seemed like an impassable gulf was only the prejudice of a single generation, which refused to remember its own not very remote past. family-relationships wheat William Maxwell
f9c2598 You cannot go to the cemetery and ask to be enlightened on matters of this kind, though it would ease my mind considerably if you could. family-history William Maxwell
cdabdd5 The music of Beethoven's Fidelio always rises up in my mind when I think of that meeting in the forest, and my throat constricts with an emotion that is, I'm afraid, purely factitious--unless feelings are more a part of our physical inheritance than is commonly believed, in which case it is Mary Edie's joy, unquenchable, passed on, and then passed on again, generation after generation, along with the color of eyes and the shape of hands and.. fidelio William Maxwell
cf105df Mother, listen to me. Now's your chance, do you hear? I know that when I start to talk about what I really think and want and believe, something comes over you, some terrible fit of impatience, so that your knees twitch and you can't even sit still long enough to hear what I have to say. You listen to other people. Anybody but your own daughter you have all the patience in the world with. I've watched you. You know just what to say and what.. William Maxwell
eb34ba9 The world (including Drapervilleh is not a nice place, and the innocent and the young have to take their chances. They cannot be watched over, twenty-four hours of the day. At what moment, from what hiding-place, the idea of evil will strike, there is no telling. And when it does, the result is not always disastrous. Children have their own incalculable strength and weakness, and this, for all their seeming helplessness, will determine the .. parenting danger evil William Maxwell
5064ec9 With no sense of the passing of time, they held each other and lost themselves in the opening, unmasking tenderness that always comes after a satisfactory quarrel. William Maxwell
a5536c2 It was the unexpected that happened, always. William Maxwell
a1b3b3e If your first plan fails, try another!" - Napoleon Hill If" William Maxwell
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