The Piano Tuner

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.

White. Like a clean piece of paper, like uncarved ivory, all is white when the story begins.

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.

being needed was not the same as being accepted.

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.

that being needed was not the same as being accepted.

One learns a lot if others assume you are deaf to their tongue.

war. A balanced peace is a poor fertilizer for promotion.