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Peter sighed. He turned the palms of his hands up as though to guess at rain. Anna knew him, theme and choreography. The sunshiny spring afternoon seeped through his fingers. He looked up at the witnessing heavens to keep what he could. He dropped his arms and let the rest go.

— Grace Paley The Little Disturbances of Man (1959)

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More quotes by Grace Paley

With a few grasping, kind words and a modern gimmick, she hoped to breathe eternity into a mortal matter, love.

The Little Disturbances of Man (1959)

I brought up lonesomeness again, and not being understood at all except by some women everybody hated.

The Little Disturbances of Man (1959)

Plot, the absolute line between two points which I've always despised. Not for literary reasons, but because it takes all hope away. Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life.

Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974)

For happiness, she also required work to do in this world and bread on the table.

Midrash on happiness (1990)

It is still hard to believe that a man who sends out the Ten Commandments every year for a Christmas card can be so easy buttoning and unbuttoning.

The Little Disturbances of Man (1959)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Grace Paley (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.