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21 " Yasunari Kawabata wrote: “When speaking of those who take their own lives, it is always most dignified to use silence or at least restrained language, for the ones left most vulnerable and most deeply hurt by such an occurrence can feel oppressed by the louder assertions of understanding, wisdom and depth of remorse foisted upon them by others. One must ask: Who is best served by speculation? Who is really able to comprehend? Perhaps we must, as human beings, continue to try and comprehend, but we will fall short. And the falling short will deepen our sense of emptiness. "
― Howard Norman , I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place
22 " I was hurt, though I do not deserve to be. If you lie, you become the lie. "
― Howard Norman
23 " We don't often remember our lives in original chronologies, do we? More in associative patterns "
24 " I went into the kitchen. My mother joined us there, Margaret threw back three shots in a row. "Oh yes, to be sure, Margaret Handle," my mother said. "That's your way in times of trouble, isn't it?" "Not just at those times," Margaret said, pouring another shot. My mother began to cook furiously. "
― Howard Norman , The Bird Artist
25 " I NOTICE THAT IT TAKES PRACTICE, NO MATTER HOW CLEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ARE. PLUS WHICH THIS IS A LETTER "
26 " I bet he's hightailed it into Canada. Somewhere into Canada." "Let me put it this way. Basically, there's Canada and there's the United States of America, and Orkney, since he was a boy, never had one spark of interest in going to the latter. "
27 " any given moment can suddenly fill you with a sense of elegiac anticipation. "
― Howard Norman , The Ghost Clause
28 " Early on July 2, 1911, my father left with Lambert Charibon for Anticosti Island. Shortly after supper on the same day, my mother took up with Botho August. "
29 " I stand accused of bringing you more bad than good news. At times, and we are in such a time now, at times in human history, bad is disproportionate to good, and so I own up to the indictment. It's a fact of life, my Canadian brethren, that we cannot always control where the truth comes from, or how bad it turns out to be, or what it reveals about human nature. "
― Howard Norman , The Museum Guard