#his

He lied all the time even when there was no need to lie [...] He needed a _history_, a sense of self. [Burnside on his father, p. 22] ↗

— John Burnside

#father #history #lies #family

Daniel chuckled. Whoever that poor girl was, he hoped his family was paying her well. And then, finally, she lifted her fingers from the keys as Daisy began her painful violin solo. He watched her exhale, stretching her fingers, and then . . . She looked up. Time stopped. It simply stopped. It was the most maudlin and clichéd way of describing it, but those few seconds when her face was lifted toward his . . . they stretched and pulled, melting into eternity. She was beautiful. But that didn’t explain it. He’d seen beautiful women before. He’d slept with plenty of them, even. But this . . . Her . . . She . . . Even his thoughts were tongue-tied. ↗

— Julia Quinn

#anne #daniel #julia-quinn #beauty

Is there some lesson on how to be friends? I think what it means is that central to living a life that is good is a life that's forgiving. We're creatures of contact regardless of whether we kiss or we wound. Still, we must come together. Though it may spell destruction, we still ask for more-- since it beats staying dry but so lonely on shore. So we make ourselves open while knowing full well it's essentially saying "please, come pierce my shell. ↗

— David Rakoff

#friendship #inspirational #npr #the-scorpion-and-the-tortoise #this-american-life

We have flattered ourselves by inventing proverbs of comparison in matter of blindness,--"blind as a bat," for instance. It would be safe to say that there cannot be found in the animal kingdom a bat, or any other creature, so blind in its own range of circumstance and connection, as the greater majority of human beings are in the bosoms of their families. Tempers strain and recover, hearts break and heal, strength falters, fails, and comes near to giving way altogether, every day, without being noted by the closest lookers-on. ↗

— Helen Hunt Jackson

#blindness #california #family #female-author #female-authors

Eating connects us to our histories as much as it connects our souls to our bodies, our bodies to the earth. ↗

— Evan D.G. Fraser

#earth #eating #food #history #soul

Leo couldn't deliver Mr. Martin Scorsese his Oscar with 'The Aviator', but I will go on record to say I will do so in 'The Departed'. ↗

— Anthony Anderson

#deliver #departed #go #his #i

This was long before the term 'single-parent family' came into use; back then it was a 'broken home'... ↗

— Julian Barnes

#history #time #family

The Scottish sun, shocked by having its usual cloudy underpinnings stripped away, shone feverishly, embarrassed by its nakedness. ↗

— Stuart Haddon

#history #scotland #short-story #the-bullet-in-the-box #family

How does a woman gain such wisdom in only twenty-nine years?” Gordon asked, escorting her across the lawns toward the mansion. “The same way a man does." “Which is?" Lady Keely cast him an ambiguous smile. “Either you are born with wisdom, my lord, or you make do without it... ↗

— Patricia Grasso

#wisdom #family

All family stories are important, just as all people are important, and they deserve to be passed along. ↗

— Karen Chamberlain

#memoir #naval-aviation #naval-history #war #family