Quotes from Allegra Goodman

No, no, no. The Rabbi raised his hands. The loan is free. Just return the eighteen hundred after the IPO. If you want to give me anything more, then you decide however to repay me. Give to tzedakah--a gift to charity. Give to Bialystok Center. Or give nothing. This is an investment. Your are investing in Veritech. And I am investing in you.

I taught more than one hundred kids today—and some of them were listening

There is such a thing as reincarnation. If you teach long enough, the same kids keep coming back again.

He'd told her about his asphalt water lilies and his sidewalk Van Goghs

the morning, Sam is still sick, and Courtney has a headache

Halle thinks your imagination is something you can put on like a jacket or pick up like a spoon—but Sam's imagination is private! You don't use your actual imagination for homework. It's like telling wishes.

Some people tell lies about the past. Her dad tells lies about the future. He is always telling a new story.

This was her version of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll—dating a chalk artist, and teaching school.

Prophetic poetry has alway drawn me. . . . Prophecy is not ingratiating poetry, and I like that [Prophecy and Poetry, Out of the Garden ].

He could explain away the mechanical, but the inner workings of the soul eluded him

Only the carelessly youthful and naive could have the gall to think that surviving is blessing enough

Sometimes its like Nathaniel Hawthorne is trying to be deep.

She didn't think that she could sway the universe, but she hoped that you could nudge it with a prayer.

When I first enjoyed this superb view, one glowing April day, Jess read aloud, from the summit of the Pacheco Pass, the Central Valley, but little trampled or plowed as yet, was one furred, rich sheet of golden compositae, and the luminous wall of the mountains shone in all its glory. Then it seemed to me the Sierra should be called not the Nevada, or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light. Golden compositae, George thought. How easy it was to forget the mountains, just a drive away.

the only thing you care about is the beginning and the end. You can never be in the middle; you can never actually be with someone or learn something or get something done, because you're always starting and then leaving

Kids can tell when teachers are trying," Collin said. "It's like how dogs smell fear.

Teddy Shoes, where you could buy patent-leather pumps with a kitten heel in men's thirteen.

They lay together where they fell, and it was sweet and it was surprising, like waking up together in bed.

Jess herself had not eaten fowl or roast or even fish in years, but the books awakened memories of turkey and thick gravy, and crab cakes, and rib-eye roasts. Redolent of smoke and flame, the recipes repelled and also reminded her of pink and tender meat, and breaking open lobster dripping with sweet butter, and sucking marrow out of the bones.

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Frank Sinatra on the sound system. "Fly Me to the Moon.

My kids are tough," said Nina. He scoffed. "I work in Harvard Square. My art's been peed on.