Small Mercies

by Dennis Lehane

“You’re either a fighter or a runner. And runners always run out of road.”

They’re poor because there’s a limited amount of good luck in this world, and they’ve never been given any.

Her mother used to say that from the time a child took his first steps, every step after took him farther and farther away from his mother.

Change, for those who don’t have a say in it, feels like a pretty word for death. Death to what you want, death to whatever plans you’d been making, death to the life you’ve always known.

he considers the possibility that maybe the opposite of hate is not love. It’s hope. Because hate takes years to build, but hope can come sliding around the corner when you’re not even looking.