You don't care what people think. You don't see your beloved's faults, the slight stinginess, the bit of carelessness, the occasional streak of meanness. You don't mind that he is beneath you socially, educationally, financially, and morally--that's the worst, I think, deficient morals. (Saving Fish From Drowning)

Secrets are kept from children, a lid on top of the soup kettle, so they do not boil over with too much truth.

I saw what I had been fighting for: it was for me, a scared child.

how can the world in all its chaos come up with so many coincidences, so many similarities and exact opposites?

No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.

A psychiatrist does not want you to wake up. He tells you to dream some more, to find the pond and pour more tears into it. And really, he's just another bird drinking from your misery.

And below the heimongmong, all along the ground, were weeds already spilling out over the edges, running wild in every direction.