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Book: Snow Falling on Cedars
Quotes of Book: Snow Falling on Cedars

David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
Tourists reminded him of other places and elicited in him a prodding doubt that living here was what he wanted.
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David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
People appeared enormously foolish to him. He understood that they were only animated cavities full of jelly and strings and liquids."
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David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
The prospect of death in autumn, she said, was irrelevant next to its happy recognition of its participation in the life of the tree itself.
book-quote life gratefulness
David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
It ate at whatever was warm nearby, and then the coldness settled in permanently. You learned to live with it
book-quote love feelings emotion
David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
No one {Islanders} trod easily upon the emotions of another where the sea licked everywhere against an endless shoreline. And this was excellent and poor at the same time-excellent because it meant most people took care, poor because it meant an inbreeding of the spirit, too much held in, regret and silent brooding, a world whose inhabitants walked in trepidation, in fear of opening up...They could not speak freely because they were cornered: everywhere they turned there was water and more water, a limitless expanse of it in which to drown. They held their breath and walked with care, and this made them who they were inside, constricted and small, good neighbors.
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David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
They were taken from Anacortes on a train to a transit camp-the horse stables at the Puyallup fairgrounds. They lived in the horse stalls and slept on canvas army cots; at nine p.m. they were confined to their stalls; at ten p.m. they were made to turn out their lights, one bare bulb for each family. The cold in the stalls worked into their bones, and when it rained that night they moved their cots because of the leaks in the roof. The next morning, at six A.M., they slogged through mud to the transit camp mess hall and ate canned figs and white bread from pie tins and drank coffee out of tin cups.
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David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
The trick was to live here without hating yourself because all around you was hatred.
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David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
There were guys who prayed at Tarawa,' said Ishmael. 'They still got killed, Mother. Just like the guys who didn't pray. It didn't matter either way.
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David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
I can't tell you what to do, Ishmael. I've tried to understand what it's been like for you - having gone to war, having lost your arm, not having married or had children. I've tried to make sense of it all, believe me, I have - how it must feel to be you. But I must confess that, no matter how I try, I can't really understand you. There are other boys, after all, who went to war and came back home and pushed on with their lives. They found girls and married and had children and raised families despite whatever was behind them. But you - you went numb, Ishmael. And you've stayed numb all these years.
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David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
I'd rather know I can trust you. So before you read what's in that thing, tell me a story that squares with its details and exonerate yourself in my eyes. Tell me the story you should have told the sheriff right off the bat, when it wasn't too late, when the truth might still have given you your freedom. When the truth might have done you some good.
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David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
The trick was to live here without hating yourself because all around you was hatred. The trick was to refuse to allow your pain to prevent you from living honorably.
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David Guterson _ Snow Falling on Cedars
He had watched her, after all, mourn her husband's death and it had been for her in part the discovery that grief could attach itself with permanence - something Ishmael had already discovered. It attached itself and then it burrowed inside and made a nest and stayed. It ate whatever was warm nearby, and then the coldness settled in permanently. You learned to live with it.
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