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61 " I wanted to love and to be loved. "
― Zadie Smith , On Beauty
62 " Thirty years - almost all of them really happy. That's a lifetime, it's incredible. Most people don't get that. But maybe this is just over, you know? Maybe it's over... "
63 " Travel had seemed the key to the kingdom, back then. One dreamed of a life that would enable travel. Howard looked through his window at a lamp-post buried to its waist in show supporting two chained-up, frozen bikes, identifiable only by the tips of their handlebars. He imagined waking up this morning and digging his bike out of the snow and riding to a proper job, the kind Belseys had had for generations, and found he couldn't imagine it. This interested Howard, for a moment: the idea that he could no longer gauge the luxuries of his own life. "
64 " Most of the cruelty in the world is just misplaced energy. "
65 " He promised them a class that would challenge their own beliefs about the redemptive humanity of what is commonly called 'Art'. 'Art is the Western myth,' announced Howard, for the sixth year in a row, 'with which we both console ourselves and make ourselves. "
66 " A carefully preserved English accent also upped the fear factor. "
67 " She could not do distress. Anger was so much easier. And quicker and harder and better. If I start crying, I’ll never stop –you hear people say that; Kiki heard people say it all the time in the hospital. A backlog of sadness for which there would never be sufficient time "
68 " Nobody can cast themselves out. "
69 " Like many academics, Howard was innocent of the world. He could identify thirty different ideological trends in the social sciences, but did not really know what a software engineer was. "
70 " When you are guilty, all you can ask for is a deferral of the judgement. ‘Whatever, "
71 " He's one of those people, thought Howard, who looks like one quality very much, and the quality in this case is 'noble'. Howard didn't much trust people like that, so full of one quality, like books with insistent covers. "
72 " He asked questions, he was interested and interesting, he rarely spoke of himself. He had a calm voice for the worst accidents and emergencies. "
73 " He had not seen her since that afternoon. And with the miracle that is male compartmentalization he had barely thought of her either. "
74 " am so angry at you right now. "
75 " grass can be seen, although it is important not to "
76 " There is a breed of Tuesday in January in which time creeps and no light comes and the air is full of water and nobody really loves anybody "
77 " Fewer American flags [in Brooklyn] than in Florida but more than in San Francisco. "
78 " begins with you walking towards a huge pit. The pit is on the other side of a precipice, which you cannot see over until you are right at its edge. Your death is awaiting you in that pit. You don’t know what it looks like or sounds like or smells like. You don’t know whether it will be good or bad. You just walk towards it. Your will is a clarinet and your footsteps are attended by all the violins. The closer you get to the pit, the more you begin to have the "
79 " And were they still like that, she wondered--these new girls, this new generation? Did they still feel one thing and do another? Did they still only want to be wanted? Were they still objects of desire instead of--as Howard might put it--desiring subjects? "
80 " Kiki began to giggle. Now Howard let go of Zora and held his wife instead, gripping he from behind. His arms could not go entirely around her, but still they walked in this manner down the small hill towards the gates of the park. This was one of the little ways in which eh said sorry. They were meant to add up each day. "