“If not later, when?” My father liked it. “If not later, when?” It echoed Rabbi Hillel’s famous injunction, “If not now, when?” — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“My father laughed it off, saying I was too old not to accept people as they were.” — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“My father had never spoken of goodness this way before. It disarmed me.” — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“My father would never object. He might make a face at first, then take it back.” — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“With open arms, caro. Jokes were being bandied back and forth. You know our tradition, explained my mother, you must always come… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“We love only once in our lives, my father had said, sometimes too early, sometimes too late; the other times are always… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“We may never speak about this again. But I hope you’ll never hold it against me that we did. I will have… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
Losing his wealth, his home, the life he had built, killed my father. He didn't die right away; it took four decades… — Andre Aciman Copy Share Image
“My father, always the most indulgent among us, but also the most observant, had figured the cauboi out. “É un timido, he’s… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“We were, it finally dawned on me, the two shyest persons in the world. My father was the only one who had… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“He is right, there is no denying it,' said my father under his breath, as though mimicking the part of a cowered… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“But Later! was also a way of avoiding saying goodbye, of making light of all goodbyes. You said Later! not to mean… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Finally his voice came through. 'Elio,' he said. I could hear my parents and the voices of children in the background. No… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“My mother, who hated what she called his Americanisms , ended up calling him Il cauboi —the cowboy. It started as a… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“Intelligent? He was more than intelligent. What you two had had everything and nothing to do with intelligence. He was good, and… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“On our way we passed a shop where my mother always ordered flowers. As a child I liked to watch the large… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
“He took a breath. “We may never speak about this again. But I hope you’ll never hold it against me that we… — André Aciman Copy Share Image
Don't all writers have a hidden nerve, call it a secret chamber, something irreducibly theirs, which stirs their prose and makes it tick and… — Andre Aciman Copy Share
“I wanted him to remember the morning on Monet's berm when I'd kissed him not the first but the second time and given him… — André Aciman Copy Share
Rituals are how we step into our private field of dreams, a small Elysium all our own. Rituals are made not just for us,… — Andre Aciman Copy Share
“I desperately wanted to give him something. By contrast, taking seemed so bland, so facile, so mechanical.” — André Aciman Copy Share
Proust is interested in minutiae because life, as he sees it, is seldom ever about things but about our impression of things, not about… — Andre Aciman Copy Share
“Well, since you're not going to do anything with me—can you at least read me a story? I'd settle for that. I wanted him… — André Aciman Copy Share
“This is heaven.” And I wouldn’t hear him say another word for at least an hour. There was nothing I loved more in life… — André Aciman Copy Share
“He loved the sticky taste. What had I done? I told him and pointed to the bruised evidence sitting on my desk. “Let me… — André Aciman Copy Share
“When had they separated us, you and me, Oliver? And why did I know it, and why didn't you?” — André Aciman Copy Share
“As we were swimming back, he asked as though it were an afterthought, “Are you going to hold last night against me?” — André Aciman Copy Share
“To be with you. To be with you, Oliver. With or without my bathing suit. To be with you on my bed. In your… — André Aciman Copy Share
“I thought I could ever want another living soul, gently, softly, and, with the kindness one Jew extends to another, work his way into… — André Aciman Copy Share
“Oliver: But there's the catch: you're still twenty years younger than those gathered around you, which is why I can be twenty-four in a… — André Aciman Copy Share
I cannot write if there is a sense of plenitude. I have to hypothesize that there is a loss. — Andre Aciman Copy Share
