The Seventy Percent, by Yiyun Li
Character and action impinge upon one another, in life as in fiction. A person’s inherent character shapes his or her choices. The opposite is also true: character rises out of choice and action. Interaction between a given personality and a situation of conflict that arises, provoking choice and action—consequently revealing, changing, or deepenin
... See moreKurt Vonnegut • Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style
He has a gift for reconsideration. Reconsideration is hard; it takes courage. We have to deny ourselves the comfort of always being the same person, one who arrived at an answer some time ago and has never had any reason to doubt it.
George Saunders • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo
These people who read so many articles and listened to so many lectures did not take the time and trouble to strengthen themselves against fear, to combat the dread of death within themselves; they moved spasmodically on through life and had no belief in a tomorrow.
Hermann Hesse • The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi) A Novel
of being sentenced to at least twenty years in prison. And yet he hesitated. “I’d have to think about exactly what that meant,” he said after a long pause.