--Rainer Maria Rilke
They weren't penitent over what they'd attempted; their sorrow reached to the limits of their bodies and no further, all their anguish was in their skin.
--Ron Hansen, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
It was one of those humid days when the atmosphere gets confused. Sitting on the porch, you could feel it: the air wishing it was water.
--Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
And remember this: take the hard road, not the easy one. The road that leads to life is a hard one, and it passes through a narrow gate, but the road to destruction is easy, and the gate is broad. Plenty take the easy road; few take the hard one. Your job is to find the hard one, and go by that.
--Philip Pullman, The Good Man Jesus And The Scoundrel Christ
I don't know what sort of world she will live in and I have no fixed opinions concerning how she should live in it. I only know that if she does not come to value what is true above what is useful, it will make little difference whether she lives at all.
--Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses
Father Haynes: He is in God's hands, now.
Mrs. O'Brien: He was in God's hands the whole time. Wasn't he?
"Tree Of Life" 2011