Michael Cunningham

“I remember one morning getting up at dawn, there was such a sense of possibility... And I remember thinking to myself: So, this is the beginning of happiness. This is where it starts. And of course there will always be more. It never occurred to me it wasn't the beginning. It was happiness. It was the moment. Right then.”

“There's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined.”

“That is what we do. We walk in circles.”

“What a thrill, what a shock, to be alive on a Tuesday.”

“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.”

“We throw our parties; we seek out the girls who fascinate us; we condemn ourselves to ruinous futures, the phantom loves of doomed companions.”

“I am living my life in a ridiculous way.”

“Better to die than to live in a world where there is no art.”

“It had seemed a tragedy, but now it seems like a great adventure.”

“There are still the flowers to buy.”

“It is possible to die of grief. I have seen it.”

“Here is the world, and you live in it, and are grateful. You try to be grateful.”

“We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep.”

“There is a beauty in the world, though it's harsher than we want it to be.”

“To be a man is to be a non-woman.”