The best sentences I read in 2022
What is a highlighter but a tiny machete?
My favorite sentences I read in 2022. Bon appétit.
ON TASTES: "I drink low-fat milk and Chardonnay—but not together." —Alex Trebek, The Answer Is...
ON TENDENCIES: "I do things on whims." —Alex Trebek, The Answer Is...
ON FAMILY DYNAMICS: "The role of family id" —Philip Roth, The Counterlife
ON OCCUPATIONS: "I'm a hackette." —Philip Roth, The Counterlife
ON SLUMPS: "waterlogged spiritually" —Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge
AN ANSWER TO "WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO IN EUROPE?": "Loaf," he said." —Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge
A CHARMING METAPHOR FOR PEN & PAPER: "broom and dustpan" —Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
A NEAT NOTION: "It is strange that the volcano should mirror [Italian pine trees'] shape, as though a country could have a family of forms, just as it has a distinct language and race of people." —Rachel Cusk, The Last Supper
A VIABLE BUMPER STICKER: "Everybody is a nun. (Tout le monde est une nonne.)" —J.D. Salinger, “De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period”
A RELATABLE SENTENCE: "The wind smoked more of the cigarette than he did." —Leo Tolstoy, "Master and Man"
A MORE RELATABLE SENTENCE: "Looks like I have to," said Aloysha with a laugh, and then he began to cry." —Leo Tolstoy, "Aloysha the Pot"
I COULDN’T HAVE SAID IT BETTER: "Life is and: the accidental and the immutable, the elusive and the graspable, the bizarre and the predictable, the actual and the potential, all the multiplying realities, entangled, overlapping, colliding, conjoined—plus the multiplying illusions! ...Is an intelligent human being likely to be much more than a large-scale manufacturer of misunderstanding?" —Philip Roth, The Counterlife
I WOULD DO WELL TO REMEMBER: "Enough is as good as a feast." —Charles Portis, True Grit
I CONCUR: "...he considered it healthy to use a public urinal at least once a week." —Blake Bailey, Philip Roth: The Biography
I WISH: "She has her charming moments, which it is often worth waiting for." —Phillip Roth, as quoted in Philip Roth: The Biography
GOOD GOAL: "mental exuberance and spirit of rebellion" —Angela O'Donnell, Fiction Fired by Faith: Flannery O'Connor
GOOD NEWS FOR THE WICKED: "You can handle only a certain amount of virtue, as much as your personality can bear, and no more." —Philip Roth, as quoted in Philip Roth: The Biography
GOOD COLOGNE: "But he smelled like violets and rain." —Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona
GOOD ADVICE: "Take your clothes off and sleep in your underwear,” his father had advised him. “You’ll go to sleep much faster and have a deeper sleep.” —Philip Roth's dad Herman, as quoted in Philip Roth: The Biography
ON CHRISTIAN COMEDY: "a predisposition towards joy and an appreciation of the play of paradox that governs human life, and it also suggests the literary term "comedy", a genre wherein circumstances at the beginning of a play that threaten impending disaster are reversed." —Angela O'Donnell, Fiction Fired by Faith: Flannery O'Connor
ON SIGNORE ASSISI: "Francis preaches to the birds, and the birds listen respectfully." —Rachel Cusk, The Last Supper
ON IDYLLIC WEEKENDS: "Saturdays in spring were given over to softball games between the poetry and prose writers." —Blake Bailey, Philip Roth: The Biography
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: "He had a special feeling for what he called the "correct miscalculation," for he believed that mistakes were often as revealing as the right answers." —Yoko Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor
AND MY FAVORITE LINE OF 2022…
🥁
AN APT APERÇU ON GENTILES ON CHRISTMAS: "It was as though they were symbolically feasting upon, communally devouring, a massive spiritual baked potato." —Philip Roth, The Counterlife
