“For need can blossom into all the compensation it requires. To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow. For when does a berry break upon the tongue as sweetly as when one longs to taste it, and when is the taste refracted into so many hues and savors of ripeness and earth, and when do our senses know any thing so utterly as when we lack it? And here again is a foreshadowing-the world will be made whole. For to wish for a hand on one's hair is all but to feel it. So whatever we may lose, very craving gives it back to us again. Though we dream and hardly know it, longing, like an angel, fosters us, smooths our hair, and brings us wild strawberries.”

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Originally said in English.

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About Marilynne Robinson

American novelist and essayist of the late 20th and 21st centuries, Marilynne Robinson is best known for her meditative fiction and nonfiction exploring faith, morality, and the American landscape. Her work often blends intellectual depth with lyrical prose, examining the intersection of belief and human experience.

More from Marilynne Robinson (155 quotes) →
"For need can blossom into all the compensation it requires. To crave…" — Marilynne Robinson | Daily Quotes