Quotes from John Edward Williams

Deliberately, as if committing himself to something, he stepped forward and walked down the path to the porch and knocked on the front door.

Una guerra no sólo mata a unos cuantos miles o a unos cuantos cientos de miles de jóvenes. Mata algo en la gente que no puede recuperarse nunca. Y si alguien pasa por suficientes guerras, pronto todo lo que queda es el bruto, la criatura que nosotros —usted y yo, y otros como nosotros— han sacado del fango».

They had forgiven themselves for the harm they had done each other, and they were rapt in a regard of what their life together might have been.

As he got to know her better, he learned more of her childhood; and he came to realize that it was typical of that of most girls of her time and circumstance. She was educated upon the premise that she would be protected from the gross events that life might thrust in her way, and upon the premise that she had no other duty than to be a graceful and accomplished accessory to that protection, since she belonged to a social and economic class to which protection was an almost sacred obligation.

No deseaba morir, pero había momentos, como cuando Grace se marchó, en que lo ansiaba impaciente, como uno espera el momento de un viaje que no tiene especial deseo de emprender. Y como cualquier viajero, sentía que había muchas cosas que tenía que hacer antes de irse, si bien no recordaba cuáles.

She was worn and tense and there were dark shadows under her eyes; he wished that he could do something to ease her pain and knew that he could not.