History is the gradual instant

Though the contradictions of war seem sudden and simultaneous, history stalks before it strikes. Something tolerated soon becomes something good.

I'm naive enough to think that love is always good no matter how long ago, no matter the circumstances.

Even as a child, even as my blood-past was drained from me, I understood that if I were strong enough to accept it, I was being offered a second history.

Important lessons: look carefully; record what you see. Find a way to make beauty necessary; find a way to make necessity beautiful.

History is the gradual instant

Hold a book in your hand and you're a pilgrim at the gates of a new city.