When the Somalians were merely another hungry third world people, we sent them guns. Now that they are falling down dead from star...vation, we send them troops. Some may see in this a tidy metaphor for the entire relationship between north and south. But it would make a whole lot more sense nutritionally--as well as providing infinitely more vivid viewing--if the Somalians could be persuaded to eat the troops.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Part of a moon was falling down the west, Dragging the whole sky with it to the hills.... Its light poured softly in her lap. She saw And spread her apron to it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A beautiful sentence is beautiful, and a beautiful flower is beautiful, but their duration is nearly the same--a day, a century. N...othing dies more quickly than a style that is not supported by the solidity of strong thought. It shrivels up like a slackened hide; it falls in a heap like a rotten vine deprived of the tree it entwines. And if someone says that the vine keeps a tree with withered roots from falling down, I would agree. Style is also a force, but its value is that much more quickly diminished when it exhausts itself in preserving from annihilation the fragility which it embraces and sustains.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Understand me: I wish to be a man from somewhere, a moan among men. You see, a slave, when he passes by, weary and surly, carrying... a heavy load, limping along and looking down at his feet, only at his feet to avoid falling down; he is in his town, like a leaf in greenery, like a tree in a forest, argos surrounds him, heavy and warm, full of herself; I want to be that slave, Electra, I want to pull the city around me and to roll myself up in it like a blanket. I will not leave.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Now the runaways would run no more and never again would their hair be tangled into diamonds,... never again their shoes worn down to a laugh, never the bed falling down into purgatory to let them climb in after with their Lucifer kicking.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In my grandmother's house there was always chicken soup And talk of the old country--mud and boards,... Poverty, The snow falling down and necks of lovers.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It's this crazy weather we've been having: Falling forward one minute, lying down the next... Among the loose grasses and soft, white, nameless flowers.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind moan and watching for day through the whole long weary night; to... listen to the falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee of some old barn or rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are dismal things--but not so dismal as the wandering up and down where shelter is, and beds and sleepers are by thousands; a houseless rejected creature.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No two moments are any more alike than two snowflakes. Like snowflakes, they get that same look from being so plentiful and fallin...g so close together. But examine them closely and see the multiple differences between them. Each moment has its own task and capacity, and doesn't melt down like snow and form again. It keeps its character forever. so the great difficulty lies in trying to transpose last night's moment to a day which has no knowledge of it. That look, that tender touch, was issued by the mint of the richest of all kingdoms. That same expression of today is utter counterfeit, or at best the wildest of inflation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love, and like that colossal adventure it is an experie...nce of great social import. Even as the tranced swain, the booklover yearns to tell others of his bliss. He writes letters about it, adds it to the postscript of all manner of communications, intrudes it into telephone messages, and insists on his friends writing down the title of the find. Like the simple-hearted betrothed, once certain of his conquest, "I want you to love her, too!" It is a jealous passion also. He feels a little indignant if he finds that any one else has discovered the book, too.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »