Harriet Doerr quotes:

You cannot just waste time. Otherwise you'll die to regret it.

I found I'm quite happy working on a sentence for an hour or more, searching for the right phrase, the right word. I compare it to the work of a stone cutter - chipping away at the raw material until it's just right, or as right as you can get it.

During your life, everything you do and everyone you meet rubs off in some way. Some bit of everything you experience stays with everyone you've ever known, and nothing is lost. That's what is eternal, these little specks of experience in a great, enormous river that has no end.

The minute he spoke Spanish, I said, "I'm home."

I have everything I need. A square of sky, a piece of stone, a page, a pen, and memory raining down on me in sleeves.

memories are like corks left out of bottles. They swell. They no longer fit.

One of the best things about aging is being able to watch imagination overtake memory.