Eric Hinkle

“Tucker is on a roll. It usually takes two beers for him to like himself but tonight he only needs half a can.”
― Peter Hedges, What's Eating Gilbert Grape

“The fox came to pay the birch tree a vist, bringing with him a book of poetry. He was wearing a dark blue suit fresh from the tailor's, and his light brown leather shoes squeaked slightly as he walked.”
― Kenji Miyazawa, Winds from Afar

“Yesterday on the street I passed the 100% perfect girl,' I tell someone.
'Yeah?' he says. 'Good-looking?'
'Not really.'
'Your favorite type, then?'
'I don't know. I can't seem to remember anything about her - the shape of her eyes or the size of her breasts.'
'Strange.'
'Yeah, strange.'
'So anyhow,' he says, already bored, 'what did you do? Talk to her? Follow her?'
'Nah. Just passed her on the street.'
She's walking east to west, and I west to east. [...] How can I approach her? What should I say?
'Good morning, miss. Do you think you could spare half an hour for a little conversation?' Ridiculous. I'd sound like an insurance salesman. 'Pardon me, but would you happen to know if there is an all-night cleaners in the neighborhood?' No, this is just as ridiculous. I'm not carrying any laundry, for one thing. Who's going to buy a line like that? Maybe the simple truth would do. 'Good morning. You are the 100% perfect girl for me.' No, she wouldn't believe it. Or even if she did, she might not want to talk to me. Sorry, she could say, I might be the 100% perfect girl for you, but you're not the 100% perfect boy for me. It could happen. And if I found myself in that situation, I'd probably go to pieces. I'd never recover from the shock. I'm thirty-two, and that's what growing older is all about.”
― Haruki Murakami, The Elephant Vanishes

“The proposition that we can look into another person's heart with perfect clarity strikes me as a fool's game. I don't care how well we think we should understand them, or how much we love them. All it can do is cause us pain. Examining your own heart, however, is another matter. I think it's possible to see what's in there if you work hard enough at it. So in the end maybe that’s the challenge: to look inside your own heart as perceptively and seriously as you can, and to make peace with what you find there. If we hope to truly see another person, we have to start by looking within ourselves.”
― Haruki Murakami, Hombres sin mujeres