How intimately a book is related to the tree and it’s rings, she thinks. The layers of time, preserved, for all to examine.

The boy stepped Outside, and he did not die.

How easy it is for life to become tiny. How cleanly the world falls away. The subway platform in Toronto. That was the first. Will was a toddler then. Even today, “safe” in her bedroom, Diane still couldn’t summon the incident in her mind without panic spreading in her like laughter in a crowd. She knew she’d brushed against true madness that day because it was huge and blunt and screaming.

Watching the people you love get hurt is part of the deal.

Being brave is never easy. That’s why it’s good for you.

What is raising a child except lying? It begins with the first shhhh... everything is going to be... and only gets worse from there.

It’s not a prison if you’ve built it yourself... It’s a fortress.

Take heart, she seems to say. The world has been on the brink of ending before. The dust has always been waiting to swallow us. People have always struggled and suffered. Your poverty is not shameful. It is not a failure of your character. Life, by its very nature, is precarious. And your struggles are never for nothing.

In celebrating Shostakovich, it's difficult to decide which works not to do. I've decided on two concertos ? the one for cello that Giora conducts and the First Piano Concerto.

Not only does Mahler make it possible for the listener to visualize a time and place, but even more important is his ability to make you experience the feeling of being there.