Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the moment when his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward when you say to this person "the world today" or "life" or "reality" he will assume that you mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past. The world, through his unleashed emotions, imprinted itself upon him, and he carries the stamp of that passing moment forever.
John KnowlesBut I was used to finding something deadly in things that attracted me; there was always something deadly lurking in anything I wanted, anything I loved.
John KnowlesWhat I mean is, I love winter, and when you really love something, then it loves you back, in whatever way it has to love.
John KnowlesThis was the tree, and it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but they are absolutely smaller, shrunken by age. In this double demotion the old giants have become pygmies while you were looking the other way.
John Knowles