I went back to those graves not long afterward and found as I stood there that sadness was a very heavy thing. My body weighed twice what it had only a moment earlier, as if those graves were pulling me down toward them.
Arthur GoldenFinally the homeless eel marked its territory, I suppose, and the Doctor lay heavily upon me, moist with sweat.
Arthur GoldenIf you have experienced an evening more exciting than any in your life, you're sad to see it end; and yet you still feel grateful that it happened.
Arthur GoldenThe corridor couldn't have smelled more strongly of fish guts if we had actually been inside a fish.
Arthur GoldenFrom this experience, I understood the danger of focusing only on what isn't there. What if I came to the end of my life and realized that I'd spent every day watching for a man who would never come to me? What an unbearable sorrow it would be, to realize I'd never really tasted the things I'd eaten, or seen the places I'd been, because I'd thought of nothing but the Chairman even while my life was drifting away from me. And yet if I drew my thoughts back from him, what life would I have? I would be like a dancer who had practiced since childhood for a performance she would never give.
Arthur Golden