An Unfinished Story

Living, as distinct from literary, speech is continually interrupted, and there is never a single thread.

What can happen in twenty-four hours may outlast a century.

Silence can be like a hand extended.  (Or, of course, under different circumstances, a hand cut off.)

Write by hand with a knuckle bleeding.  Like this blood underlines some of the words.

Every story is about an achievement, otherwise there’s no story.

Hope today is a contraband passed from hand to hand and from story to story.

from John Berger’s Bento’s Sketchbook (Verso 2011)