“Mother: “He used to say that you could lock me in a closet and I’d still get something out of it. I… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“I was shaking when I asked my mother, “Do you think you eat enough?” She was silent for a long time until… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“Mother: “I couldn’t stand his friends from medical school. They were all pompous and awkward. They knew how to memorize but they… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“He hears his mother and his sister-in-law talk about how lonely it is to be married to a musician, how many nights… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“Mother: “I’m amazed that more people don’t commit suicide. They just keep on living. It’s so hard and they just keep doing… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“My mother was in the bathtub crying and I was standing outside the door waiting, just in case she decided to slip… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“Mother: “Rumi wrote that…roughly…the only thing that will be with you to your grave is your work. Only your work will speak… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“Mother (over and over again): “What you have to understand about men is that they aren’t like us. They don’t have feelings.”… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“She talks to herself as she hollows out a stoneware bowl. She is saying something about containment. She talks to her dogs… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“Sometimes he gives a little flourish with his fingers that makes me wonder if all his movements are a quiet performance.” — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“I pause when the man at the register lays down a red carnation with my change, says quietly, “This is for you,” and turns… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“Sonata,” he says, “means ‘sounding together.’ It is an argument in which one theme is presented in opposition to another and they struggle until… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“I think I remember him saying that the problem with a tire fire is that it can smolder for years, burning quietly but uncontrollably.” — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
Wealthier countries have the luxury of entertaining fears the rest of the world cannot afford. — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“as Jean-Paul Sartre put it, “Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.” What” — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
A trust-in the sense of a valuable asset placed in the care of someone to whom it does not ultimately belong-captures, more or less,… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“When he says, “Why can’t you follow a recipe?” I am hurt, because I know that he is not just asking why I can’t… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“We had been arguing for hours and it was dark in the room. We sat silently on the couch, I was tapping my foot… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
I thought, how would I feel if my son gave one of those [underprivileged] kids chicken pox? For him it's not a terrible thing.… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“Mother: “He used to say that you could lock me in a closet and I’d still get something out of it. I guess that’s… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
“I was shaking when I asked my mother, “Do you think you eat enough?” She was silent for a long time until she said… — Eula Biss Copy Share Image
