Shirley

“He’s been reading James Gleick, and repeats a passage to Ben by heart. “If only time could be seen whole, then you could see the past remaining intact, instead of vanishing in the rearview mirror.”
― Dani Shapiro, Signal Fires

“Passing sandbags is a personal thing. You're face-to-face with the person passing you the bag, as well as the person to whom you pass the bag. The line may be three hundred feet long. But it's not long for each individual. It's an intimate thing. A three-person activity. You take. You turn. You give. There is no doubt it's personal. And you get to know people. Not through conversation. But by the way they hand you the bag. The way they work. On some levels, it's a better relationship than any other I've had. There's no second-guessing. No petty games. The person receiving the bag doesn't need to ask you to receive it and the person giving you the bag doesn't expect anything in return...”
― Joe Blair, By the Iowa Sea: A Memoir

“The stars, rather than appearing distant and implacable, seemed to be signal fires in the dark, mysterious fellow travelers lighting a path; one hundred thousand million luminous presences beckoning from worlds away. See us. We are here. We have always been here. We will always be here.”
― Dani Shapiro, Signal Fires

“He's not good at this. Words aren't his thing. He's never been able to say what he feels. But people shouldn't make the mistake of leaping to the conclusion that he doesn't feel. He feels plenty”
― Dani Shapiro, Signal Fires