Rolf Semien

“The gingko tree leans lazily against the facing wall or perhaps it supports it; Stephen cannot be sure. The dense ridges of its bark now appear like rippled sand with, here and there, pools left behind by the tide. The bark is pocked with white spots, holed and crinkled with age, seemingly dead but for the life sprouting in its leaves, so smooth, so green, so deep. How remarkable this tree is, how changeable, how mysterious its leaves and branches and trunk … how infinite. Stephen reaches for another pipe. The smoke rubs out his yesterdays and tomorrows. There is only now, this tree, this pipe. Another pipe, ah, another pipe.”
― Michael Tobert, Karna's Wheel

“What was it about the holidays that made your whole life feel out of control?”
― Kirsten Fullmer, Christmas in Smithville

“And so she went on, galloping through thickets of diphthongs, searching—I was sure—for the sound that would not disgrace her husband, and failing at every turn.”
― Thomas Keneally, The Dickens Boy: A Novel

“Gardening is easier and quicker when spacings are correct for different plants.”
― Charles Dowding, Charles Dowding's Skills for Growing