Defending Jacob

by William Landay

good friendships require complementary personalities, not identical ones.

no one worth knowing can be quite known, no one worth possessing can be quite possessed—but

Predisposition is not predestination.

An emotion is a thought, yes, an idea, but it is also a sensation, an ache in your body. Desire, love, hate, fear, repulsion—you feel these things in your muscle and bones, not just in your mind.

I have an idea that this is what enduring love really means. Your memories of a girl at seventeen become as real and vivid as the middle-aged woman sitting in front of you. It is a happy sort of double vision, this seeing and remembering. To be seen this way is to be known.

Damage hardens us all. It will harden you too, when it finds you—and it will find you.