Gail

“But the fact of it was that I liked it out there, a ruin devoid of human vanities, clean of human illusions, an empty place reclaimed by the weather where a woman plays an organ to stop the wind's whining and an old man plays ball with a dog named Duke. I could tell you that I came back because I had promises to keep, but maybe it was because nobody asked me to stay. ”
― Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

“It's plain to you that at the time I write this, I'm not dead. But maybe by the time you read it.”
― Denis Johnson, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden

“The Outing

An outburst of anger near the road, a refusal to speak on the path, a silence in the pine woods, a silence across the old railroad bridge, an attempt to be friendly in the water, a refusal to end the argument on the flat stones, a cry of anger on the steep bank of dirt, a weeping among the bushes.”
― Lydia Davis, The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis

“Water is important to people who do not have it, and the same is true of control.”
― Joan Didion