You could never read everything. Completion or mastery were beside the point. All that counted were those occasions when you picked up a book and opened it and its words attached themselves to that moment and transfigured it, and then the moment passed.

Tessa Hadley

The Quiet House

The New Yorker 

February 2, 2026

Death is the moment when somebody comes and says: You know those three things that you’ve always thought of? They’re not true. You’re not permanent, you’re not the most important thing and you’re not separate. 

George Saunders

The New York Times

January 10, 2026