28 September 2010

Quotes from American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld:


 "...and being a reader was what had made me most myself; it had given me the gifts of curiosity and sympathy, an awareness of the world as and odd and vibrant and contradictory place, and it had made me unafraid of its oddness and vibrancy and contradictions. "


"...what i wanted most fervently, was for her to understand that hard work paid off; that decency begat decency, that humility was not a raincoat you occasionally pulled on when you thought conditions called for it, but rather a constant way of existing in the world, knowing that good and bad luck touched everyone and none of us was fully responsible for our fortunes or tragedies. "

"Viewing a legacy as a few grand acts seems reductive.  Isn't your legacy not the one or two exceptional gestures of your life but the way you conducted yourself every day, year after year?"