The Friend

by Sigrid Nunez

If reading really does increase empathy, as we are constantly being told that it does, it appears that writing takes some away.

Ackerley had experienced to the fullest the kind of mutual unconditional love that everyone craves but most people never know.

Dogs are not merely untouched by evil. They are celestial beings, angels incarnate, furry guardian spirits sent to watch over and help people live.

You do it to get attention and to advance yourself in the world, you don’t do it to make the world a more just place.

What we miss—what we lose and what we mourn—isn’t it this that makes us who, deep down, we truly are. To say nothing of what we wanted in life but never got to have.