Lizzie

“He had never imagined so clearly the consequences of mailing a letter—the impossibility of retrieving it from the iron mouth of the box; the inevitability if its steady progress through the postal system; the passing from bag to bag and postman to postman until a lone man in a van pulls up to the door and pushes a small pile through the letterbox. It seemed suddenly horrible that one's words could not be taken back, one's thoughts allowed none of the remediation of speaking face to face.”
― Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“Life does often get in the way of one's reading.”
― Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“...I tell myself it does not matter what one reads--favorite authors, particular themes--as long as we read something. It is not even important to own the books.”
― Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“You are not the first man to miss a woman's more subtle communication . . . They think they are waving when we see only the calm sea, and pretty soon everybody drowns.”
― Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand