Life, as the most ancient of all metaphors insists, is a journey; and the travel book, in its deceptive simulation of the journey'...s fits and starts, rehearses life's own fragmentation. More even than the novel, it embraces the contingency of things.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The torrent of the reaching shade Broke shadow into all its parts,... What then had been of shadow made Found exigence in fits and starts....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Suffering is by no means a privilege, a sign of nobility, a reminder of God. Suffering is a fierce, bestial thing, commonplace, un...called for, natural as air. It is intangible; no one can grasp it or fight against it; it dwells in time--is the same thing as time; if it comes in fits and starts, that is only so as to leave the sufferer more defenseless during the moments that follow, those long moments when one relives the last bout of torture and waits for the next.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
And the purpose of the many stops and starts will be made clear: Backing into the old affair of not wanting to grow... Into the night, which becomes a house, a parting of the ways Taking us far into sleep. A dumb love.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
And I, whose childhood Is a forgotten boredom,... Feel like a child Who comes on a scene Of adult reconciling, And can understand nothing But the unusual laughter, And starts to be happy.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Another appealing aspect to having grandparents is that they do help, to give [your child] a sense of continuity--of his place in ...the world and in the generations. Not only do grandparents help him intellectually to comprehend that there are parents of parents, but they also aid him in understanding where he fits in the succession of things. Even a very young child can begin to feel a sense of rootedness and history.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
He turns agen and drives the noisy crowd And beats the dogs in noises loud.... He drives away and beats them every one, And then they loose them all and set them on. He falls as dead and kicked by boys and men, Then starts and grins and drives the crowd agen; Till kicked and torn and beaten out he lies And leaves his hold and cackles, groans, and dies.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The point of the dragonfly's terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows,... is not that it all fits together like clockwork--for it doesn't ... but that it all flows so freely wild, like the creek, that it all surges in such a free, finged tangle. Freedom is the world's water and weather, the world's nourishment freely given, its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Perhaps you can tell me why in this country nobody ever does anything. Nobody ever writes any music or starts any revolutions or f...alls in love. All anybody ever does is to get drunk and tell smutty stories.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »