Jane Hamilton

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It is books that are a key to the wide world; if you can't do anything else, read all that you can

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I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely than not the result of one stupendous error, or else an unfortunate accident. I hadn't learned that it can happen so gradually you don't lose your stomach or hurt yourself in the landing. You don't necessarily sense the motion. I've found it takes at least two and generally three things to alter the course of a life: You slip around the truth once, and then again, and one more time, and there you are, feeling, for a moment, that it was sudden, your arrival at the bottom of the heap

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Sometimes I couldn't figure it out, what all the living was for

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She could never be part of so much of his turbulent history, his youthful adventure, where life had been deeply felt

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Emma, Emma, Emma," I said, wishing I could somehow teach her to take the smaller blows of life in her stride