In one sense, reading is a great waste of time. In another sense, it is a great extension of time, a way for one person to live a thousand and one lives in a single lifespan, to watch the great impersonal universe at work again and again That is why I read: I want everything to be okay. Thatโs why I read when I was a lonely kid and thatโs why I read now that Iโm a scared adult.
Mary RuefleThereโs a difference between being alone and being lonely. Writers know that. I have never met a writer who does not crave to be alone. We have to be alone to do what we do.
Mary RuefleIn our marginal existence, what else is there but this voice within us, this great weirdness we are always leaning forward to listen to?
Mary RuefleOnce I witnessed a windstorm so severe two 100-year-old trees were uprooted on the spot. The next day, walking among the wreckage, I found the friable nests of birds, completely intact and unharmed on the ground. That the featherweight survive the massive, that this reversal of fortune takes place among us โ that is what haunts me. I donโt know what it means.
Mary Ruefle