Silly humans. Banging on a tub to make a bear dance when we would move the stars to pity.

There is still that singular perfection, and it's perfect in part because it seemed, at the time, so clearly to promise more.

What she wants to say has to do not only with joy but with the penetrating, constant fear that is joy's other half.

As writers we must, from our very opening sentence, speak with authority to our readers.

Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation resembles no book I've read before. If I tell you that it's funny, and moving, and true; that it's as compact and mysterious as a neutron; that it tells a profound story of love and parenthood while invoking (among others) Keats, Kafka, Einstein, Russian cosmonauts, and advice for the housewife of 1896, will you please simply believe me, and read it?

Sure, go ahead, simulate life, using only ink and paper.

I am beginning to understand the true difference between youth and age. Young people have time to make plans and think of new ideas. Older people need their whole energy to keep up with what’s already been set in motion.