James Jones Life Quotations

Up until then it had only been himself. Up to then it had been a private wrestle between him and himself. Nobody else much entered into it. After the people came into it he was, of course, a different man. Everything had changed then and he was no longer the virgin, with the virgin's right to insist upon platonic love. Life, in time, takes every maidenhead, even if it has to dry it up; it does not matter how the owner wants to keep it. Up to then he had been the young idealist. But he could not stay there. Not after the other people entered into it.

If I never meet you In this life Let me feel the lack A glance from your eyes Then my life Will be yours

The simple beauty of August's words struck me profoundly. The lines just seemed to have a life of their own leading me along as I read it.