And then this happened. And then this other thing happened. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you about the time this happened. I should've had this book over for a cup of coffee and a chat.

Fire's tears were real now, and there was no helping them, for there was no time. Everything was moving too fast. She crossed the room to him, put her arms around him, clung to him, turning her face...

But now, you are twain, you are cloven apart. Flesh of his flesh, but heart of my heart.

Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.

I stumbled away. I pressed the back of my hand to my mouth and just looked at him. What was that? His chest rose and fell heavily. A kiss. Why? Why? He laughed. His blue eyes suddenly looked so sad....

They laughed at him, but they didn't know, they didn't know about all the nice things he had. No one knew. No one. Only someday he'd see somebody different, somebody to give his things to, somebody...

Half a year - maybe. Something like that. Rita did not look away. Part of her job was to help people look at what was coming. Dying could be lonely. A nurse was often an easier person to talk to than...

I knew that our time together was almost over, I asked her if she liked sports, she asked me if I liked chess, I asked her if she liked fallen trees, she went home with her father, the center of me...

As soon as another person becomes important to us, so that we feel in our lives the gravitational pull of his existence, we are to a certain extent astonished by his individuality. From time to time...

They can print statistics and count the populations in hundreds of thousands, but to each man a city consists of no more than a few streets, a few houses, a few people. Remove those few and a city...

When I prayed, I connected with my parents, with whom I otherwise would not be able to connect anymore, and I connected with the sensation that we are all children who have lost our parents,...

Loafe with me on the grass - loose the stop from your throat; Not words, not music or rhyme I want - not custom or lecture, not even the best; Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.

and getting dressed we talk about what else there might be to do, but being together solves most of it, in fact, solves all of it

Jimmy looked back over at his wife, and Celeste could feel the tenderest of aches in the look. She could feel another teardrop piece of Jimmy's heart detach and free - fall down the inside of his...

Her face was a map I'd like to trace. I'd love to see where it would take me. And I'd love to see where she had been.

Two people can be in the same room and still be gone.

"I saw that you can't do anything for anybody. We can't save each other. Or ourselves." "What have you left, then? Isolation and despair! You're denying brotherhood, Shevek!" the tall girl cried....

There is always someone somewhere in the world waiting for someone else; whether in the middle of the desert or deep within the greatest cities. When those two people meet and their gazes intertwine,...

It was not a musical voice, and yet it affected him like music.

Not only serve the meal, they offer to cut the meat.

- Why have I lived, Lucía? Before dying I have to find out why I am in this world. It's true what you say, I have been so numb for so long that I wouldn't know where to start living again....

Beautiful people blossomed forth from out of the polyglot, people who really had a lot to them, only it had been smothered by all the eternal social games that had been set up. Suddenly they found...

We become neighbors when we are willing to cross the road for one another. There is a lot of road crossing to do. We are all very busy in our own circles. We have our own people to go to and our own...

You are not like the others. I've seen a few. I know. When I talk to you, you look at me. Last night, when I mentioned the moon, you looked at it. The others never would. The others would turn away,...

Hold me, Gerty, hold me, or I shall think of things.

But the old cripple never knew the joy of cradling a child in his own arms.