The knowledge of death seemed present in both sisters—it was something about the way they carried themselves, something that had broken too soon and had not mended, marking them in spite of their lightheartedness.
Jhumpa Lahiri
Related His heart had been broken. And now all these years later, it seemed to him that the most horrible f... STEPHEN KING But she has gathered that Americans, in spite of their public declarations of affection, in spite of... JHUMPA LAHIRI Their humble dwellings were of their own rearing; it was they themselves who had broken in their lit... HUGH MILLER Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over. RICHARD CARLSON No one should let yesterday use up too much of today. Easy to say, hard to live. ANDREA HAIRSTON None of them, not even he, seemed to realize they weren't just physical beings, that God had left a ... FRANCINE RIVERS Those were her best days, although there was always something feckless about her, something so slack... ANGELA CARTER Make every day count... Even when you think it's the worst day of your life; for you never know when... SOLANGE NICOLE Even as we live with the knowledge that each day might be our last, we don’t want to believe it. SHARON SALZBERG Most German perpetrators were never punished or rewarded for their behavior, but they had learned so... FERN SCHUMER CHAPMAN They all had stories. They had mothers or fathers, sisters or lovers. They weren't alone in the worl... NAOMI NOVIK Now is the only time we have, and the only time we have any control over. RICHARD CARLSON The teachers were focused on helping these students. The students benefited from hands-on teaching a... MICHAEL N. CASTLE We had our chances in the beginning, we didn't put them in. It was poor marking on us on the corner ... NEIL ROBERTS He felt Death reaching out to him. But all of a sudden there was something else, too: words. Words t... CORNELIA FUNKE But then again, he hadn’t really been looking, had he? Both Valarie and Lori claimed that there wa... NICHOLAS SPARKS Or maybe they just accept that it's wrong in God's eyes, although not in their own, and they'll worr... CRAIG GROESCHEL It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by peopl... EUDORA WELTY ...he seemed to grasp a deep understanding of the unfolding drama in which he had been caught. He se... GENE EDWARDS They were all talking about this amongst themselves - but it was not something that they shared with... WILL LEITCH I dated all these girls and ended up not liking them and thought to myself, 'What was it that al... WALE Chess lied to herself every day; it was just something she did, like taking her pills or making sure... STACIA KANE According to the prophecy a child was going to come along that would be part human and part robot an... KATHRYN DAVIS Life is neither a glorious highlight reel nor a monstrous tragedy. Every day is a good day to live a... KILROY J. OLDSTER Mindfulness is observing the beauty of every moment unfolding before us. AMIT RAY We present artists that are a part of something larger than themselves. They come representing a com... JULIA OLIN It gave them something to do and it took their mind off the way Yuxia was driving, which, had they p... NEAL STEPHENSON But the biggest clue seemed to be their expressions. They were hard to explain. Good-natured, friend... ROBERT M. PIRSIG There was something distinctly American about it all, a fundamental difference in perspective and pl... SUNIL YAPA He was the only person making his way into the city; he met hundreds and hundreds who were fleeing, ... JOHN HERSEY I have always wished the present to resemble memory: because the present can be flat at times, and b... LYDIA MILLET That initial anger she had felt turned to sadness, and now it had become something else, almost a du... NICHOLAS SPARKS Call them robbers and cutthroats--were they not amiable enough when they had sufficient to fill thei... EIJI YOSHIKAWA To live in the present, you need to act or accept but never stay stuck. JOHN KUYPERS I found myself thinking that perhaps there was something inexorable about the way events unfolded, a... HANYA YANAGIHARA It was taken for granted that we had to make something of ourselves. Not much was said about it; it ... THURGOOD MARSHALL He, too, was in the grip of rage and rhetoric. I saw that, attractive though his side of the politic... TEJU COLE She had to fight to the death all the way to the line. It was something else. She ran with everythin... HEATHER QUARANTILLO I want them to remember the feeling they had when they completed something--some for the first time ... PAT DAVIS We fall back into the past, we jump ahead into the future, and in this we lose our entire lives. THICH NHAT HANH A person who lives truly in present time is dependent on oneself only not on sycophants’ people. ANUJ SOMANY Tomorrow is tomorrow. Future cares have future cures, And we must mind today. SOPHOCLES To him, even the momentary was momentous. G.K. CHESTERTON You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the... JAN GLIDEWELL The magician seemed to promise that something torn to bits might be mended without a seam, that what... MICHAEL CHABON All of these teeth had once been in real, live people. They had talked and smiled and eaten and sang... GABRIELLE ZEVIN She realized, when relationships failed to last, it was not because love was no longer present, but ... CHRISTINA WESTOVER I had traveled far, had circled the planet and studied my Torah, and at the very end of my search I ... DANIEL MENDELSOHN I have mended fences with both my sisters. But do I have their families on my side? Not easily. My o... MANUEL MOROUN What I was wrong about was not realizing that in my saying those things in the way I said them had p... GLENN LOURY Through the door at the end of the hall, Bushrod could see daylight. Gray and sullen it was, but day... HOWARD BAHR People respond to something which intrigues them instead of something that gives them all the inform... LORDE Everyone was talking about 'values voters' and how they asserted themselves, and it seemed like an o... DAN HARRIS We were sort of inept (in the second half) and their defense had something to do with it. That was t... BILL CARMODY As odd as it seemed, I learned that people may disappoint you, yes, but the one thing they also did ... HOLLY HOOD Divorce the past to marry the present and be blessed with a lovely child of future. ANUJ SOMANY For of what use is existence to the creature if it cannot know its Maker? How could men be reasonabl... ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA I had to do something or the horses would have broken their legs. HARVEY BROOKS Which showed that my interest in rock was not based in a vast knowledge of their work. It was about ... JANIS JOPLIN I knew what they were after; that I had alarmed the country all the way up, that their boats were ca... PAUL REVERE I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES There is no greater glory than to die for love. GABRIEL GARCíA MáRQUEZ Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal nasti... GABRIEL GARCíA MáRQUEZ She would defend herself, saying that love, no matter what else it might be, was a natural talent. S... GABRIEL GARCíA MáRQUEZ It was sort of something that I had wanted to do, but it was a surprise, ... It's a very interesting... JULIE KENT We are an aggressive team, that is the way we play. We sent them to the line and they just had more ... WARDIE SAIN It sparked something both of them have inside them, a desire and more importantly a pride. I think b... DAVE LEITAO For what was it about books that once finished left the reader in a bit of a haze and made them rere... KAMAND KOJOURI Suddenly she hated them all because they were different from her, because they carried their losses ... MARGARET MITCHELL In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they ha... DAISETZ T. SUZUKI Just because you believe something was true in the past does not mean it will be true in the future. JEFFREY FRY I was going to be a concert pianist, and when I was in high school, my parents were scared to death ... DAVID HYDE PIERCE it seemed, had some purpose, even if that purpose was just to ask for something. DAVE EGGERS You still could go to some industry or some university or the government and if you could persuade t... CLIFFORD D. SIMAK Letting go doesn’t just mean letting go of the past, but letting go of an unknown future; and embr... MICHELLE CRUZ-ROSADO In spite of where we were, how we had gotten here and why we had come, I felt that at this moment of... DEAN KOONTZ She is our best defensive player. Carly is very strong and aggressive and could play on a lot of boy... ART WEAVER [Medieval] Art was not just a static element in society, or even one which interacted with the vario... CONRAD RUDOLPH David was caught in a very uncomfortable position; however, he seemed to grasp a deep understanding ... GENE EDWARDS It was clear then, so painfully clear, that people fell in love to find something in themselves that... CATHERINE LACEY Where I used to think that this life would be good. And I would do things that I thought that I shou... SOMETHING CORPORATE In that telling, there were things that were exposed about Dr. King. It cut through me in a way I (h... JOHN ADAMS In a world where people are too languid to make something of themselves out of effort, I sell them h... E.A.A. WILSON It seemed to me pretty plain, that they had more of love than matrimony in them. OLIVER GOLDSMITH It seemed I'd always been chasing after something, anything that moved -a car, a bird, a blowing lea... BOB DYLAN I hit .400 or something the rest of the way. I was crushing the ball. Everybody seemed to think it h... JARROD SALTALAMACCHIA Rice had a young team last year, and their season ended in disappointment. Tulane had an experienced... CARSON KAINER Most lawyers are very deferential to judges, whether they like it or not, because they have to pract... FRANK CONLEY These ivy league students are in the upper echelon of the college boards and had great opportunity i... MICHAEL N. CASTLE I think because both of my parents were essentially salespeople, and Italian-Americans, I always see... BOB COLACELLO … and that’s why they leave, isn’t it? Because they have to see themselves in the context of s... KAMILA SHAMSIE For each other, at each other: Sisters can be either or both. The same could be said of people in an... DEBORAH TANNEN Master said, God had given men reason, by which they could find out things for themselves; but He ga... ANNA SEWELL It is not alone the fact that women have generally had to spend most of their strength in caring for... ANNA SPENCER It is not alone the fact that women have generally had to spend most of their strength in caring for... ANNA GARLIN SPENCER Back when we was in school in Mississippi, we had Little Black Sambo. That's what you learned: A... B. B. KING They were an awesome team. They had a strong sweeper and a strong forward. We had Sam (Miller) marki... COREY JOHNSON They had battled and bloodied one another, they had kept secrets, broken hearts, lied, betrayed, exi... ROBIN WASSERMAN She wanted to walk slowly and smell the wafting perfumes of bouquets that men had bought for their s... ANNA GODBERSEN Right. I look fine. Except I don't,' said Zora, tugging sadly at her man's nightshirt. This was why ... ZADIE SMITH
More Jhumpa Lahiri
The more I feel imperfect, the more I feel alive. JHUMPA LAHIRI Isolation offered its own form of companionship JHUMPA LAHIRI That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. JHUMPA LAHIRI I feel partly American, but I have an ambiguous relation with both America and India, the only two c... JHUMPA LAHIRI A lot of my personality was informed by feeling very different in the world I grew up in, feeling th... JHUMPA LAHIRI The essential dilemma of my life is between my deep desire to belong and my suspicion of belonging. JHUMPA LAHIRI I think, like any artist or any writer, I just want to have that pure freedom of expression and of t... JHUMPA LAHIRI All American fiction could be classified as immigrant fiction. JHUMPA LAHIRI When you live in a country where your own language is considered foreign, you can feel a continuous ... JHUMPA LAHIRI Winning the Pulitzer is wonderful and it's an honor and I feel so humbled and so grateful, but I... JHUMPA LAHIRI My parents had an arranged marriage, as did so many other people when I was growing up. My father ca... JHUMPA LAHIRI Language and identity are so fundamentally intertwined. You peel back all the layers in terms of wha... JHUMPA LAHIRI I have two young children, and I will say that motherhood is its own peak, just like in the process ... JHUMPA LAHIRI Immersing myself in Shakespeare's plays, reading them closely under the guidance of a brilliant,... JHUMPA LAHIRI In graduate school, I decide to write my doctoral thesis on how Italian architecture influenced Engl... JHUMPA LAHIRI I think it's the small things, the smaller episodes and details that I linger on and try to draw... JHUMPA LAHIRI You can't have a hit every time. The main thing is to keep on working and not be afraid to take ... JHUMPA LAHIRI He told me he was working as an interpreter in a doctor's office in Brookline, Massachusetts, wh... JHUMPA LAHIRI I think that what I have been truly searching for as a person, as a writer, as a thinker, as a daugh... JHUMPA LAHIRI This story is based on a gentleman who indeed did... used to come to my parents' house in 1971 f... JHUMPA LAHIRI I find it really liberating to be in a place where I am a foreigner in every way. I've lived wit... JHUMPA LAHIRI On the screen I saw tanks rolling through dusty streets, and fallen buildings, and forests of unfami... JHUMPA LAHIRI The first sentence of a book is a handshake, perhaps an embrace. JHUMPA LAHIRI Language, identity, place, home: these are all of a piece - just different elements of belonging and... JHUMPA LAHIRI I've gained a lot from James Joyce, Tolstoy, Chekhov and R. K. Narayan. While writing, I try to ... JHUMPA LAHIRI It took me a long time to even dare to envision myself as a writer. I was very uncertain and hesitan... JHUMPA LAHIRI From the beginnings of literature, poets and writers have based their narratives on crossing borders... JHUMPA LAHIRI Surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a p... JHUMPA LAHIRI I speak English. I grew up speaking Bengali. This is the normal, the known, the obvious composition ... JHUMPA LAHIRI I don't know Bengali perfectly. I don't know how to write it or even read it. I have an acce... JHUMPA LAHIRI It didn't matter that I wore clothes from Sears; I was still different. I looked different. My n... JHUMPA LAHIRI Pack a pillow and blanket and see as much of the world as you can.You will not regret it. JHUMPA LAHIRI Writing has certain advantages; film is another way to tell a story. An experienced filmmaker will t... JHUMPA LAHIRI Most people trusted in the future, assuming that their preferred version of it would unfold. Blindly... JHUMPA LAHIRI I think if you speak to any creative person, there's something so powerful - so intoxicating, if... JHUMPA LAHIRI On the technical side, I hope that my writing is evolving and maturing, ripening, deepening. JHUMPA LAHIRI I'm always intrigued by authors who say, 'This book took 17 drafts.' They're very cl... JHUMPA LAHIRI I have two passports because I have to have at least one, and I really don't know how I define m... JHUMPA LAHIRI I think there are a lot of misconceptions on both sides, the developing vs. the developed world, esp... JHUMPA LAHIRI I had been learning Italian for years. I always loved Latin, but Italian is a living language; I'... JHUMPA LAHIRI The urge to convert experience into a group of words that are in a grammatical relation to one anoth... JHUMPA LAHIRI Almost any American can connect on some level to a family background of having come across some ocea... JHUMPA LAHIRI It was important to me to become day-to-day fluent and functional in another language, and about 10 ... JHUMPA LAHIRI A lot of my upbringing was about denying or fretting or evading. JHUMPA LAHIRI In college, I used to underline sentences that struck me, that made me look up from the page. They w... JHUMPA LAHIRI In fiction, plenty do the job of conveying information, rousing suspense, painting characters, enabl... JHUMPA LAHIRI They were things for which it was impossible to prepare but which one spent a lifetime looking back ... JHUMPA LAHIRI Interpreter of Maladies is the title of one of the stories in the book. And the phrase itself was so... JHUMPA LAHIRI He saw that his mother was dwelling in an alternate time, a more bearable reality. JHUMPA LAHIRI Each day she removes a small portion of the unwanted things in people’s lives, though all of it, s... JHUMPA LAHIRI Descartes, in his Third Meditation, said that God re-created the body at each successive moment. So ... JHUMPA LAHIRI When Deepa poured Bela some water from the urn that stood on a little stool, in the corner of the ro... JHUMPA LAHIRI She had preferred being on the plane, detached from the earth, the illusion of sitting still. JHUMPA LAHIRI Time flowed for Bela in the opposite direction. The day after yesterday, she sometimes said. Pronoun... JHUMPA LAHIRI Plato says the purpose of philosophy is to teach us how to die. JHUMPA LAHIRI Isolation offered its own form of companionship: the reliable silence of her rooms, the steadfast tr... JHUMPA LAHIRI But he was no longer in Tollygunge. He had stepped out of it as he had stepped so many mornings out ... JHUMPA LAHIRI The imperfection became a mark of distinction about their home. Something visitors noticed, the firs... JHUMPA LAHIRI Writing down call numbers with short pencils, searching up and down aisles that would turn dark when... JHUMPA LAHIRI I don't know, he said, handing her the ticket. He'd been standing there all the while on the sidewal... JHUMPA LAHIRI Too much information, and yet, in her case, not enough. In a world of diminishing mystery, the unkno... JHUMPA LAHIRI Everything in Bela's life has been a reaction. I am who I am, she would say, I live as I do because ... JHUMPA LAHIRI Nor was her love for Udayan recognizable or intact. Anger was always mounted to it, zigzagging throu... JHUMPA LAHIRI There was the anxiety that one day would not follow the next, combined with the certainty that it wo... JHUMPA LAHIRI It was the English word she used. It was in English that the past was unilateral; in Bengali, the wo... JHUMPA LAHIRI ...learning was an act of rediscovery, knowledge a form of remembering. JHUMPA LAHIRI The future haunted but kept her alive; it remained her sustenance and also her predator. JHUMPA LAHIRI Most people trusted in the future, assuming that their preferred version of it would unfold. JHUMPA LAHIRI She learned that an act intended to express love could have nothing to do with it. That her heart an... JHUMPA LAHIRI War will bring the revolution; revolution will stop the war, JHUMPA LAHIRI With children the clock is reset. We forget what came before JHUMPA LAHIRI With her own hand she'd painted herself into a corner, and then out of the picture altogether. JHUMPA LAHIRI And yet he had loved her. A Bookish girl heedless of her beauty, unconscious of her effect. She'd be... JHUMPA LAHIRI Isolation offered its own form of companionship: the reliable silence of her rooms, the steadfast tr... JHUMPA LAHIRI For that story, I took as my subject a young woman whom I got to know over the course of a couple of... JHUMPA LAHIRI In a world of diminishing mystery, the unknown persists. JHUMPA LAHIRI I've always been searching to arrive at a certain voice that will probably elude me forever. JHUMPA LAHIRI I think about the structure, sure. I think about what's going to happen, and how it's going ... JHUMPA LAHIRI But she has gathered that Americans, in spite of their public declarations of affection, in spite of... JHUMPA LAHIRI On weekdays, as soon as she picked Bela from the bus stop and brought her home, she went straight in... JHUMPA LAHIRI While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new worl... JHUMPA LAHIRI Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each pe... JHUMPA LAHIRI I recently discovered the work of Giorgio Manganelli, who wrote a collection called 'Centuria,... JHUMPA LAHIRI I'm from Kingston, R.I., sort of on the University of Rhode Island campus - on the margins of th... JHUMPA LAHIRI Pet names are a persistent remnant of childhood, a reminder that life is not always so serious, so f... JHUMPA LAHIRI I love reading poetry, and yet, at this point, the thought of writing a poem, to me, is tantamount t... JHUMPA LAHIRI If certain books are to be termed 'immigrant fiction,' what do we call the rest? Native fict... JHUMPA LAHIRI If you look at my characters as a group, they all have a different relationship with the way that pl... JHUMPA LAHIRI Even printed, on pages that are bound, sentences remain unsettled organisms. Years later, I can alwa... JHUMPA LAHIRI I've inherited a sense of that loss from my parents because it was so palpable all the time whil... JHUMPA LAHIRI Imperfection inspires invention, imagination, creativity. It stimulates. The more I feel imperfect, ... JHUMPA LAHIRI Try to remember it always," he said once Gogol had reached him, leading him slowly back across the b... JHUMPA LAHIRI When you’re in love, you want to live forever. You want the emotion, the excitement you feel to la... JHUMPA LAHIRI You are still young, free.. Do yourself a favor. Before it's too late, without thinking too much abo... JHUMPA LAHIRI On a sticky August evening two weeks before her due date, Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen of a ... JHUMPA LAHIRI It imparts a certain momentum to nuclear negotiations with the US. France has played a significant r... DILIP LAHIRI There is a great deal of French interest in India now that must still be converted into action on th... DILIP LAHIRI