from october 26, 2011:rereading this book, now for at least the third time, i love it even more. there's something about it. the language, the sensuality, the otherworldliness, the honesty. i don't know if i can even name it. i just love it. This is a 5 star book this time around.some other quotes, although some of the ones below i marked again this read:"It is as if ideas are made of blocks. Rigid and hard. And stories are made of a gauze that is elastic. You can almost see through it, so what is beyond is tantalizing. You can't quite make it out; and because the imagination is always moving forward, you yourself are constantly stretching. Stories are the way spirit is exercised.""Laughter isn't even the other side of tears. It is tears turned inside out. Truly the suffering is great, here on earth. We blunder along, shredded by our mistakes, bludgeoned by our faults. Not having a clue where the dark path leads us. But on the whole, we stumble along bravely, don't you think?"from december 5, 2008:beautiful and engaging."The heady scent she wears rises full-blown into the sultry heat. All around her tension builds. She is the kind of woman who could provoke rain.""Of course, she said, from watching their mothers make pots, primitive man would assume G-d made men from clay. Though why, seeing their mother's work, they'd think G-d male, she could not grasp.""Let nothing stand between you and the dance of life.""Crossing is the point, she said. Crossing is life. Being on one side or the other of the river is beside the point.""The prisons are a contemporary plantation, and what is produced is produced by slave labor.""Everyone has suffered, she said. In childhood, I would say, everyone has suffered. It is self-evident.How, self evident? asked Susannah.Irene sighed. Look at the world, she said.Oh, said Susannah."
