I read this book quite a few years ago when I was in a book group, and although it wasn't a favorite at the time, I keep going back to some excerpts from it:
We certainly don't know how old we are unless we remind ourselves.
I suppose it takes age to be more interested in absurdities than being right.
In heaven we will only speak in music because of the hundreds of unmanageable languages on earth.
Children need paths to explore, to take bearings on the earth in which they live.... If we excavate childhood, we remember the paths first, things and people second -- paths down the garden, the way to school, the way round the house, corridors through the bracken or long grass. (Harrison attributes this to Chatwin, maybe he is referring to the novelist Bruce Chatwin, but I'm not sure.)
"Just do your art and be good to people," he added. "It's that simple?" I asked. "That's really hard as you probably already know."
It takes a great deal of strength to keep January out of the soul and I've failed this year.
It somewhat chills me to think that I have no real possessions excepting my memories and dreams.
Only our dreams gave life any coherence.
With age I need not make judgments about their comparative merits, having lost the impulse to be right.
Bad is bad and you let it go. Good you cherish as it whizzes by.
Yes, the book is a bit long...but so many gems inside! I think it is worth a re-read on my part to put these beloved nuggets back in context. (I read books from the library mostly, so copy out the portions I want to save. Do I have a special file for these notes? You betcha!)
I am not entirely sure yet how I will organize my anthology: by writer? by book? by topic? Another element in my life that's evolving.
Have a great holiday weekend!
Recent Comments