"A part of my appreciation for the good which moments bring has come from awareness and recognition. But it has also come from a correspnding sadness which arises from their passing. When something that can never quite be reenacted comes to an end (and all moments are that way), I feel a pensiveness within. This pensiveness gives my life a quality that might be best described as bittersweet. And those moments take on double meaning and richness - because they are here now - and because they will not always be."

“So imagine a fire going -- wood snapping the way it does when it’s a little green — the wind rattling the windows behind the curtains -- and one of those Chopin melodies that feel like sorrow and ecstasy all mixed together pouring from the keys -- and you have my idea of happiness. Or just reading, reading and lamplight, the sound of pages turning. And so you dare to be happy. You do that thing. You dare.”

Source : Steven Millhauser (2007). “The King in the Tree”, p.5, Vintage

“Why do we have to wait for special moments to say nice things or tell people we care about them?”

“I was young and fearless in those days, but always enjoyed riding at Cartmel. They used to call me 'Cartmellor', probably because I kept coming back on a stretcher.”

“Act averse to nasty language and partial to fruity tea.”

“My label is just "good farming", which isn't something you can put on a t-shirt.”

“If you are forced to describe things for someone else, it sharpens your senses. And also your sense of how hard it is to make the translation from the vibrant, multi-faceted world to a sentence that distils it.”

Source : "Ask the Author Live: Judith Thurman on Laura Ingalls Wilder". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. July 31, 2009.

“The only excuse for not coming to a class or a performance is death.”

Source : Stella Adler (2012). “Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights: Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee”, p.341, Vintage

“Being a dad has made me more aware of myself. I can see all of my virtues and flaws. They become glaringly clear when my daughter communicates with me in the same ways that I communicate with her. I can really tell where and when I went wrong.”