A wedding is for daughters and fathers. The mothers all dress up, trying to look like young women. But a wedding is for a father and daughter. They stop being married to each other on that day.
Orpheus said the mind is a slide ruler. It can fit around anything. Show me your body, he said. It only means one thing.
I hate parties.And a wedding is the biggest party of all.All the guests arrived and Orpheus is taking a shower.He’s always taking a shower when the guests arrive so he doesn’t have to greet them.Then I have to greet them.
Do you not think, Mrs. Givings, that snow is always kind? Because it has to fall slowly, to meet the ground slowly, or the eyelash slowly— And things that meet each other slowly are kind.
Motherhood is a predicament. How to live fully inside of it with any grace?
I wonder how it is that we are all connected despite our tremendous differences.
Certain brands of guilt can be inculcated in a secular way but other brands of guilt can only be obtained with reference to the metaphysical.
I’ve never been in love, never in my life.Oh, I’ve dreamed of love, dreamed endlessly, day and night,but my soul is like a fine piano that’s locked,and the key is lost.
What silly little things sometimes take on meaning in life, suddenly, out of nowhere. And you know they’re little nothings, and you laugh at them, but all the same, you go on feeling them, you can’t stop…
When you read a novel, it seems that everything is clear, trite and understandable. But when you yourself fall in love, you understand that nobody knows anything and everyone must decide for themselves.
When you snatch happiness in little bits, fits and starts, and lose it, like me, you become coarse, little by little, you become hateful.
I have loved enough women to know how to paint.If I had loved fewer, I would be an illustrator; if I had loved more, I would be a poet.
That is why they have poets—to classify all the degrees of love. It is for scientists to classify the maladies arising from the want of it.
I always thought there would be more interesting people at my wedding.
Orpheus never liked words. He had his music. He would get a funny look on his face and I would say what are you thinking about and he would always be thinking about music.