" I did not think of the story I would make about Alfrida ... but of the work I wanted to do ... The cries of the crowd came to me like big heartbeats, full of sorrows. Lovely formal-sounding waves, with their distant, almost inhuman assent and lamentation ... this was what I thought I had to pay attention to, this was how I wanted my life to be. "

― Alice Munro , Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, 1995-2014