Mel Hill

“People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called *character,* a quality which, although approved in the abstract, sometimes loses ground to the other, more instantly negotiable virtues.... character--the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life--is the source from which self-respect springs.”
― Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

“The right ending is an open door you can't see too far out of. It can mean exactly the opposite of what you are thinking.”
― Michael Ondaatje, Coming Through Slaughter

“There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.”
― John Hersey, Hiroshima

“But sometimes the world disrobes, slips its dress off a shoulder, stops time for a beat. If we look up at that moment, it's not due to any ability of ours to pierce the darkness, it's the world's brief bestowal. The catastrophe of grace.”
― Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces