The Gap of Time

by Jeanette Winterson

Whites find it harder to believe in something to believe in.

What is memory anyway but a painful dispute with the past?

Forgiveness is a word like tiger—there’s footage of it and verifiably it exists but few of us have seen it close and wild or known it for what it is.

I don’t regret it but I can’t forgive it. I did the right thing but it was wrong.

Books change the way people think about the world.” “Not if they don’t read them, they don’t,” said Leo.

“Is it because she’s a Jew or is it because she’s a woman?” “Is what?” “Is the reason I can’t control her.” “Why would you want to control her? She’s great for the business and she’s great for you. You need someone who stands up to you.”

“There’s an old saying,” said Pauline. “What’s past help should be past grief.” “That’s Shakespeare,” said Tony. “The Winter’s Tale,” said Pauline.

Perhaps it began when the moon splintered off from the earth, pale, lonely, watchful, present, unsocial, inspired. Earth’s autistic twin.

“He loves books,” said Perdita. “Yeah. He does. When you’ve finished a book you can put it away and it doesn’t ask to see you again.”

Forgiveness. There are only three possible endings to a story—if you put aside And They All Lived Happily Ever After, which isn’t an ending, but a coda. The three possible endings are: Revenge. Tragedy. Forgiveness.