--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: And you can glance out the window for a…" description: "\"“And you can glance out the window for a moment, distracted by the sound of small kids playing a made-up game in a neighbor's yard, some kind of kickba..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/delillo-don-232153_kids-playing_and-you-can-glance-out-the-window-for-a_2833773.jpg" --- # And you can glance out the window for a moment, distracted… ![“And you can glance out the window for a moment, distracted by the sound of small kids playing a made-up game in a neighbor's yard, some kind of kickball maybe, and they speak in your voice, or piggyback races on the weedy lawn, and it's your voice you hear, essentially, under the glimmerglass sky…” quote by DeLillo Don](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/delillo-don-232153_kids-playing_and-you-can-glance-out-the-window-for-a_2833773.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/delillo-don-232153_kids-playing_and-you-can-glance-out-the-window-for-a_2833773.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fe6/delillo-don-232153_kids-playing_and-you-can-glance-out-the-window-for-a_2833773.jpg) > ““And you can glance out the window for a moment, distracted by the sound of small kids playing a made-up game in a neighbor's yard, some kind of kickball maybe, and they speak in your voice, or piggyback races on the weedy lawn, and it's your voice you hear, essentially, under the glimmerglass sky, and you look at the things in the room, offscreen, unwebbed, the tissued grain of the deskwood alive in light, the thick lived tenor of things, the argument of things to be seen and eaten, the apple core going sepia in the lunch tray, and the dense measures of experience in a random glance, the monk's candle reflected in the slope of the phone, hours marked in Roman numerals, and the glaze of the wax, and the curl of the braided wick, and the chipped rim of the mug that holds your yellow pencils, skewed all crazy, and the plied lives of the simplest surface, the slabbed butter melting on the crumbled bun, and the yellow of the yellow of the pencils, and you try to imagine the word on the screen becoming a thing in the world, taking all its meanings, its sense of serenities and contentments out into the streets somehow, its whisper of reconciliation, a word extending itself ever outward, the tone of agreement or treaty, the tone of repose, the sense of mollifying silence, the tone of hail and farewell, a word that carries the sunlit ardor of an object deep in drenching noon, the argument of binding touch, but it's only a sequence of pulses on a dullish screen and all it can do is make you pensive--a word that spreads a longing through the raw sprawl of the city and out across the dreaming bournes and orchards to the solitary hills. Peace.”” DeLillo Don ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The passage reflects on how ordinary moments and sensory details intertwine with language, turning words into portals that evoke memory, longing, and peace. **In simple terms:** Everyday sights and sounds become rich with meaning through words. Key Takeaway Notice how small details shape your thoughts. Themes language perception memory peace longing Mood contemplative poetic quiet Type Kids playing:1 Language:1 Longing:1 Peace:1 Pensive:1 Roman numerals:0 Time:0 Underworld:0 Words:1 Writing:1 Pensive Word:0 Make Pensive:0 Things Argument:0 When to use this quote - writing - reading - observing - contemplating Key Concepts sensory imagery metaphor reflection transcendence Questions to Reflect On - How do mundane details influence your emotional state? - What role does language play in shaping perception? A Different Perspective The flow may be overly poetic, obscuring a clear takeaway. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Kids playing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kids-playing/) [Language](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/language/) [Longing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/longing/) [Peace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/peace/) [Pensive](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pensive/) [Roman numerals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/roman-numerals/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) [Underworld](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/underworld/) [Words](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/words/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) ## Related quotes > [Object-oriented design is the roman numerals of computing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rob-pike/object-oriented-design-is-the-roman-numerals-of-computing/) [Rob Pike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rob-pike/) > [“Underlying all this activity—in the customhouses, on the wharves, in every place of business—were numbers. 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The professor…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-allen-paulos/a-german-merchant-of-the-fifteenth-century-asked-an-eminent-professor/) [John Allen Paulos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-allen-paulos/) > [I have no statistics to prove it, but I'm sure the American workplace will be adversely affected on Monday, the day after XXIV. The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-klein/i-have-no-statistics-to-prove-it-but-i-m-sure-the-american-workplace/) [Robert Klein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-klein/) > [It's the Roman numeral for 10. 5/5/89 is my birthday: 5 plus 5 is 10, and this is my tenth year since I got…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chris-brown/it-s-the-roman-numeral-for-10-5-5-89-is-my-birthday-5-plus-5-is-10/) [Chris Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chris-brown/) > [Do you think Arabs are dumb? They gave us our numbers. Try doing long division with Roman numerals.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kurt-vonnegut/do-you-think-arabs-are-dumb-they-gave-us-our-numbers-try-doing-long/) [Kurt Vonnegut](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kurt-vonnegut/) > [How do you write zero in Roman numerals?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-carlin/how-do-you-write-zero-in-roman-numerals/) [George Carlin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-carlin/) > [“XVXVI, or 10-5-10-5-1, yielded H-E-H-E-A, which, unless she wanted to show her derisive laughter, made no sense.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laurie-r-king/xvxvi-or-10-5-10-5-1-yielded-h-e-h-e-a-which-unless-she-wanted-to/) [Laurie R. King](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laurie-r-king/) > [She doesn't understand the concept of Roman numerals. She thought we just fought in world war eleven.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joan-rivers/she-doesn-t-understand-the-concept-of-roman-numerals-she-thought-we/) [Joan Rivers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joan-rivers/) > [“Speaking of plunging into war, do you know why I think George W. Bush is so pissed off at Arabs? They brought us algebra.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kurt-vonnegut/speaking-of-plunging-into-war-do-you-know-why-i-think-george-w-bush/) [Kurt Vonnegut](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kurt-vonnegut/) > [Programming graphics in X is like finding the square root of PI using Roman numerals.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-spencer/programming-graphics-in-x-is-like-finding-the-square-root-of-pi-using/) [Henry Spencer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-spencer/) > [Basic Hoes Twitter Name, LICK My This, EAT My That, Roman Numerals, Pretty This, Bad That, Minaj This, Monroe That Or Barbie This.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christian-heggs/basic-hoes-twitter-name-lick-my-this-eat-my-that-roman-numerals/) [Christian Heggs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christian-heggs/) > [You should always aim to be your own mouse, Lieam. In fact...you already are. You are not so quick to jump into danger as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-petersen/you-should-always-aim-to-be-your-own-mouse-lieam-in-fact-you-already/) [David Petersen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-petersen/) ## More Kids playing quotes > [“I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all… I'm standing on the edge of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-d-salinger/i-keep-picturing-all-these-little-kids-playing-some-game-in-this-big/) [J.D. 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Or was I miserable because I listened…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-hornby/what-came-first-the-music-or-the-misery-did-i-listen-to-music-because-2/) [Nick Hornby](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-hornby/) [Browse all 79 Kids playing quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kids-playing/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“And you can glance out the window for a moment, distracted by the sound of small kids playing a made-up game in a neighbor's yard, some kind of kickball maybe, and they speak in your voice, or piggyback races on the weedy lawn, and it's your voice you hear, essentially, under the glimmerglass sky, and you look at the things in the room, offscreen, unwebbed, the tissued grain of the deskwood alive in light, the thick lived tenor of things, the argument of things to be seen and eaten, the apple core going sepia in the lunch tray, and the dense measures of experience in a random glance, the monk's candle reflected in the slope of the phone, hours marked in Roman numerals, and the glaze of the wax, and the curl of the braided wick, and the chipped rim of the mug that holds your yellow pencils, skewed all crazy, and the plied lives of the simplest surface, the slabbed butter melting on the crumbled bun, and the yellow of the yellow of the pencils, and you try to imagine the word on the screen becoming a thing in the world, taking all its meanings, its sense of serenities and contentments out into the streets somehow, its whisper of reconciliation, a word extending itself ever outward, the tone of agreement or treaty, the tone of repose, the sense of mollifying silence, the tone of hail and farewell, a word that carries the sunlit ardor of an object deep in drenching noon, the argument of binding touch, but it's only a sequence of pulses on a dullish screen and all it can do is make you pensive--a word that spreads a longing through the raw sprawl of the city and out across the dreaming bournes and orchards to the solitary hills. 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