“ The men, her husband and sons, leave for the quarry at seven o'clock sharp and return at five. What do they imagine she does all day? It makes her shiver to think of it, how not one pair of eyes can s… Carol Shields
“ Bookish people, who are often maladroit people, persist in thinking they can master any subtlety so long as it's been shaped into acceptable expository prose. Carol Shields
“ I remember that I did feel, starting my mini-tour, the resident anxiety you develop when you know you've been too lucky; at any moment, maybe next Tuesday afternoon, I would be stricken with something… Carol Shields
“ His voice, you might say, became the place where he lived, the way other people live in their furniture or gestures Carol Shields
“ The larger loneliness of our lives evolves from our unwillingness to spend ourselves, stir ourselves. We are always damping down our inner weather, permitting ourselves the comforts of postponement, o… Carol Shields
“ He knows very well what underlies the compulsive side of his nature; it is the wish to escape that which he can't comprehend, seeking safety in an unbendable estrangement. Carol Shields
“ Have you ever looked at, say, a picture or a great building or read a paragraph in a book and felt the world suddenly expand and, in the same instant, contract and harden into a kernel of perfect puri… Carol Shields
“ Boiled down, isn't love just a form of vanity? You know, the wish to be adored. To be the absolute center for someone else. Carol Shields
“ A thought comes into her head: that lately she doesn't ask herself what is possible, but rather what possibilities remain. Carol Shields
“ Anyone's childhood can be an act of disablement if rehearsed and replayed and squinted at in a certain light. . . Carol Shields
“ We are too kind, too willing--too unwilling too--reaching out blindly with a grasping hand but not knowing how to ask for what we don't even know we want. Carol Shields
“ I won't even mention the swift, transitory reward of lemon spray wax. Danielle Westerman and I have discussed the matter of housework. Not surprisingly, she, always looking a little dérisoire, believe… Carol Shields
“ Women were supposed to be strong, but they weren't really, they weren't allowed to be. Carol Shields
“ Open a book this minute and start reading. Don’t move until you’ve reached page fifty. Until you’ve buried your thoughts in print. Cover yourself with words. Wash yourself away. Dissolve. Carol Shields
