Because, once alone, it is impossible to believe that one could ever have been otherwise. Loneliness is an absolute discovery. — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
I owe everything that I have done to the fact that I am very much at ease being alone. — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“I am vehemently grateful that, by whatever means, I learned to assume that loneliness should be in part pleasure, sensitizing and clarifying,… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
Somebody who had read Lila asked me, ‘Why do you write about the problem of loneliness?’ I said: ‘It’s not a problem.… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“There’s a lot under the surface of life, everyone knows that. A lot of malice and dread and guilt, and so much… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
Any human face is a claim on you, because you can't help but understand the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
People don't acknowledge loneliness in themselves, and don't appreciate its benefits, the reflection and attentiveness that come with it, the deepened acquaintance… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“My reputation is largely the creature of the kindly imaginings of my flock, whom I chose not to disillusion, in part because… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“I've shepherded a good many people through their lives, I've baptized babies by the hundred, and all that time I have felt… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
That's the strangest thing about this life, about being in the ministry. People change the subject when they see you coming. And… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“The peculiarities of my early education are one way in which being from the West has set me apart. A man in… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“But I’ve developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
For our purposes as human beings, the mind is the center of everything. — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“I think sometimes there might be an advantage in making people aware how worn and stale these old transgressions are. It might take some… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
There are two occasions when the sacred beauty of Creation becomes dazzlingly apparent, and they occur together. One is when we feel our mortal… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
My Calvinism persuades me that we are open to God, in the sense that we are not delimited, not organisms with fixed attributes in… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“You can know a thing to death and be for all purposes completely ignorant of it. A man can know his father, or his… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
I listen to Bach a great deal. In general I like to listen to hymns and liturgical music. — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“Every writer I know, when asked how to become a writer, responds with one word:Read.” — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“Faith for her was habit and family loyalty, a reverence for the Bible which was also literary, admiration for her mother and father. And… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
“The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.’ There are pleasures to be found where you… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
I sometimes am discouraged by what seems to be a sort of conventional disparagement of humankind. I think often people feel that they are… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
