She said Robert Joyner had killed himself with a gun. And then I asked why, and then she told me that he was getting a divorce and was sad about it.' 'Lots of people get divorces and don't kill themselves,' I said. 'I know,' she said, excitement in her voice. 'That's what I told her.

It seems to me that all the things we keep in sealed boxes are both alive and dead until we open the box, that the unobserved is both there and not.

I like this world. I like drinking champagne. I like not smoking. I like Dutch people speaking Dutch.

I just want the pleasure of noticing these things at a safe distance.

I can almost imagine a happiness without her, the ability to let her go, to feel our roots are connected even if I never see that leaf of grass again.'

One of the others shouted a translation: "The beautiful couple is beautiful.

What matters to you defines your mattering.