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Every single person is vulnerable to unexpected defeat in this inmost emotional self. At every moment, behind the most efficient seeming adult exterio...more

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In those days I coercedOracular assuranceIn my favour out of every sign.

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That's the paradox: the only time most people feel alive is when they're suffering, when something overwhelms their ordinary, careful armour, and the ...more

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And that's how we measure out our real respect for people—by the degree of feeling they can register, the voltage of life they can carry and tolerate—...more

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He could not stand. It was notThat he could not thrive, he was bornWith everything but the will –That can be deformed, just like a limb.Death was more...more

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That’s the paradox: the only time most people feel alive is when they’re suffering, when something overwhelms their ordinary, careful armour, and the ...more

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Everybody tries to protect this vulnerable two three four five six seven eight year old inside, and to acquire skills and aptitudes for dealing with t...more

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The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated. And the ...more

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I think it was Milosz, the Polish poet, who when he lay in a doorway and watched the bullets lifting the cobbles out of the street beside him realised...more