The Widower's Tale Quotes

“Ready how? Who's ever ready for anything important?”
― Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale

“Well, yes, there were quite a lot of books throughout, tumbling out of haphazardly placed bookshelves, stacked beneath chairs, beside beds, even in the bottoms of a closet or two. But I was never a "collector." My love of books is a love of what they contain; they hold knowledge as a pitcher holds water, as a dress contains the mystery of a woman's exquisite body. Their physicality matters--do not speak to me of storing books as bytes!--but they should not inspire fetishistic devotion.”
― Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale

“You have not truly met someone until you have looked him or her in the eye as a soul with a place in your future.”
― Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale

“Ira felt as if he'd contracted an all-over emotional itch, as if he'd put on a sweater made of spiritually abrasive wool- but to take it off would leave him dreadfully cold.”
― Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale

“The peak of a mountain, he says, is always a perilous place to stand, no matter how sweeping the view.”
― Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale

“My love of books is a love of what they contain; they hold knowledge as a pitcher holds water, as a dress contains the mystery of a woman’s exquisite body. Their physicality matters—do not speak to me of storing books as bytes!”
― Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale

“responsible for their triumphs as well as their failures. She also told him, as if it were a well-known law of nature, like gravity or centripetal force, that creative thinking blossomed in what others might see as idleness.”
― Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale

“Some might have referred to Vince, Buck and Calvin as "ordinary fellows" or "salt of the earth". Such terms are merely code for men who've led lives in which boyhood dreams become a luxury, a whim, before boyhood even comes to an end.”
― Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale

“Carrying a plate on which she'd placed a sandwich made with burlap bread, she looked over my shoulder.”
― Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale

“Our neighbors had always thought us vaguely mad to swim in the pond—someone had seen a snapping turtle more than once—but Poppy and I scoffed at their timidity.”
― Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale

“When the girls were small, I heard Poppy tell one of her friends, “I don’t see how you could ever have a favorite when there are just two: one will always and forever be your first, the miracle baby, the one who paves the way, strikes out for adventure—the intrepid one, the one who teaches you how to do what nature intended all along—and the other, oh the other will always be your baby, your darling, the one you surprised yourself by loving just as desperately much as you loved the first.” Pursuant”
― Julia Glass, The Widower's Tale