What's agitating about solitude is the inner voice telling you that you should be mated to somebody, that solitude is a mistake. The inner voice doesn't care about who you find. It just keeps pestering you, tormenting you.
Charles BaxterWhen youโre in love you donโt have to do a damn thing. You can just be. You can just stay quiet in the world. You donโt have to move an inch.
Charles BaxterThe point is that although love may die, what is said on its behalf cannot be consumed by the passage of time, and forgiveness is everything.
Charles BaxterBecause it is the Midwest, no one really glitters because no one has to, it's more of a dull shine, like frequently used silverware.
Charles BaxterThe problem with love and God, the two of them, is how to say anything about them that doesnโt annihilate them instantly with the wrong words, with untruth. . . . In this sense, love and God are equivalents. We feel both, but because we cannot speak clearly about them, we end upโwordless, inarticulateโby denying their existence altogether, and, pfffffft, they die.
Charles Baxter