Henry Roth

“Life is nothing but an occassional burst of laughter rising above the interminable wail of grief.”
― Henry Roth

“His mother called them his gems and often asked him why he liked things that were worn and old. It would have been hard to tell her. But there was something about the way in which the link of a chain was worn or the thread on a bolt or a castor-wheel that gave him a vague feeling of pain when he ran his fingers over them. They were like worn shoe-soles or very thin dimes. You never saw them wear, you only knew they were worn, obscurely aching”
― Henry Roth, Call It Sleep