“Another thing about Oscar is that he wasnt afraid of anyone. And he always made up his own mind, no matter what other people said. Theyre two of the best things I remember about him now.He wasnt ju...”

“Oscar had a straightforward, dimpled, happy smile. It was one of the hundreds of great things about him.And after that we were best friends. It had been as simple and inevitable as the striking of ...”

“What am I going to do without you, Oscar?Youll be fine, I answered. You could probably do some time away from me. Im a pain in the neck. Youre always saying so.Youre right, she said. Itll be great ...”

“I dont remember now who took the photo of us, but Ive had it in my room for years. Were leaning out of our windows and were laughing at each other with joyfulness purer than anything to do with the...”

“I know what you might be thinking here on your own, but those thoughts wont last for ever, I said. You wont always feel like this. This will pass. Homer will be here for you, and the sun will rise ...”

“Id never have predicted I would lose touch with him before, that is, I did. I thought I had my reasons. But it turns out that they werent good reasons. It turns out that you should never lose cont...”

“So many words get lost. They leave the mouth and lose their courage, wandering aimlessly until they are swept into the gutter like dead leaves. On rainy days, you can hear their chorus rushing past...”

“You can listen to silence, Reuven. I've begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own. It talks to me sometimes. I feel myself aliv...”

“Whoever is going to listen to the philosophers needs a considerable practice in listening.”