Alice Munro Quotes

Do such moments really mean, as they seem to, that we have a life of happiness with which we only occasionally, knowingly, intersect? Do they shed such light before and after that all that has happened in our lives-or that we’ve made to happen-can be dismissed?

People live within winter in a way outsiders do not understand. They are watchful, provident, fatigued, exhilarated.

Hatred is always a sin, my mother told me. Remember that. One drop of hatred in your soul will spread and discolor everything like a drop of black ink in white milk. I was struck by that and meant to try it, but knew I shouldn’t waste the milk.

Country manners. Even if somebody phones up to tell you your house is burning down, they ask first how you are.

She had reached an age where she thought she could not stand to know any more…she pushed any discovery aside with embarassment.

I thought of my mother, who would publicly campaign for birth control but would never even think she needed to talk to me, so firmly was she convinced that sex was something no woman-no intelligent woman-would ever submit to unless she had to.