Virgil Wander Quotes

“Memory’s oldest trick is convincing us of its accuracy.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“He had the heartening bulk of the aging athlete defeated by pastry”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“This was maybe best of all. I never once expected to be someone's nice surprise.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“A person never knows what is next--I don't anyway. The surface of everything is thinner than we know. A person can fall right through, without any warning at all.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“I loved that kite, that cinnamon hound. We were old friends. I had soared and laughed with that kite. It got me out on the perimeter. I felt I had failed it somehow, and rune too, even though he would've offered the string to Leer, just as I had. Thinking it over I became a bit less angry, and more proud of the kite itself: it had refused to be flown by Leer one moment longer. It broke the line and caught the next gust out of town. A perilous beautiful move, choosing to throw yourself at the future, even if it means one day coming down in the sea.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“The evidence of my life lay before me, and I was unconvinced.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“It’s possible to perceive what is coming and still be dumbfounded when it happens.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“What makes a Samaritan good is the possibility of the lunge.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“Your tribe is always bigger than you think.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“At first I thought common nouns were hardest hit, coffee and doorway and so on, but it soon became clear that the missing were mostly adjectives.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“My sister comes on like a box of nails, but her devotion to the mythic is profound.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“They came one at a time or in shy small groups. I remember when sea-kindly showed up, a sentimental favorite, followed by desiccated and massive. Brusque appeared all by itself, which seemed apt; merry and boisterous arrived together. This would be a good time to ask for your patience if I use an adjective too many now and again—even now, some years on, they’re still returning. I’m just so glad to see them.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“trying to keep him from sinking into the marsh of incurious disapproval that swallows so many ancients.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“Why am I still surprised when it turns out there is more to the story?”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“The surface of everything is thinner than we know. A person can fall right through, without any warning at all.

Virgil Wander”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“Speculators make me nervous,” I managed to say in a slow soggy tone. “What needless suspicion,” he said. “To speculate is to imagine. To wonder.” At least I think that’s what he said, before a shape sank past in my murky sight—a watery shape, a descending turtle—and then I knew where I seemed to be, in my honest old Pontiac, ninety feet deep. There sure enough was the ovoid speedometer, there my drifting blue hand. A bit of my brain believed I was dead, believed in the peace, knew the wavery coffee shop was only the weak invention it turns out a corpse can summon. Relief rinsed through me, followed by a chiding phrase from the past—fight the good fight. Someone important had said that. Had I fought well? I didn’t know, but what did it matter? The fight appeared to be over. Then a merry laugh punctured the shadows.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“The man on the water stood forty yards out.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“It’s never been hard for me to fall in love, a quality that has yet to simplify one single day of my life.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“I experienced an unspooling sense of freedom—genuine antagonism is something I’ve rarely encountered, and it felt good to respond with honesty instead of obsequious scraping.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“My weary old ground was broken and watered, and what sprang up was a generalized longing.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“His sadness seemed complete. It had left him nothing, no proper enjoyment, no Saturday mornings. Sadness wore him like a tailored suit.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“Ann rolled her eyes. She had a marvelous eye roll, refined through long discipline, precise as acupuncture.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“One of the things Rune admired about Lucy was her impractical curiosity. She was writing notes in the margins.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“Although saying this, I realize it may have been illusory. Memory’s oldest trick is convincing us of its accuracy.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“I made a fist and held it out. It didn't look like much—not like a fist anyone would count on for protection. If war came seeking a person I loved, that undernourished fist was not going to be enough. I would have to put my whole body in the way”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“I wanted to hear about many small things, the smaller the better. I wanted to tell her small things in return.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“There is nothing wrong with being kissed on the cheek by a sweet round woman in a café after you have nearly died.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“It was wonderful and gauzy, going to sleep that way, like drifting in a small boat over a rippling sea.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“she had a name made to be embroidered on bowling shirts.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander

“Nadine,” said my voice. “You know how people daydream about the Bahamas, with the beaches and palm trees? I don’t know if they really do, no doubt it’s mostly advertising, but you’re the island I think about.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander