Quotes from The Piano Tuner

Daniel Mason ·  312 pages

Rating: (9.4K votes)


“The conversations rests uneasily; one doesn't expect good-byes to be burdened by such trivialities. This is not how it is in the books, he thinks, or in the theater, and he feels the need to speak of mission, of duty, of love. They reach home and close the door and he doesn't drop her hand. Where speech fails, touch compensates.”
― Daniel Mason, quote from The Piano Tuner


“White. Like a clean piece of paper, like uncarved ivory, all is white when the story begins.”
― Daniel Mason, quote from The Piano Tuner


“At times I wonder if the reason I have lost track of time is that I will know when to return not by a date, but when an emptiness is filled.”
― Daniel Mason, quote from The Piano Tuner


“being needed was not the same as being accepted.”
― Daniel Mason, quote from The Piano Tuner


“good piano tuner must have knowledge not only of his instrument but of “Physics, Philosophy, and Poetics,” so that Edgar, although he never attended university, reached his twentieth birthday with more education than many who had.”
― Daniel Mason, quote from The Piano Tuner



“that being needed was not the same as being accepted.”
― Daniel Mason, quote from The Piano Tuner


“One learns a lot if others assume you are deaf to their tongue.”
― Daniel Mason, quote from The Piano Tuner


“war. A balanced peace is a poor fertilizer for promotion.”
― Daniel Mason, quote from The Piano Tuner


About the author

Daniel Mason
Born place: The United States
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“Like the first breath of living wind to the sailor becalmed and starving, I felt hope stir.”
― Mary Stewart, quote from The Last Enchantment


The Waking

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.”
― Theodore Roethke, quote from The Collected Poems


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