The unknown words remind me that there's a lot I don't know in this world. - Jhumpa Lahiri

He regretted only one thing: that he had not met her sooner, that he had not known her every day of his life.

Because in the end to learn a language, to feel connected to it, you have to have a dialogue, however childlike, however imperfect.

The best sentences orient us, like stars in the sky, like landmarks on a trail. They remain the test, whether or not to read something. The most compelling narrative, expressed in sentences with which I have no chemical reaction, or an adverse one, leaves me cold. In fiction, plenty do the job of conveying information, rousing suspense, painting characters, enabling them to speak. But only certain sentences breathe and shift about, like live matter in soil. The first sentence of a book is a handshake, perhaps an embrace. Style and personality are irrelevant. They can be formal or casual. They can be tall or short or fat or thin. They can obey the rules or break them. But they need to contain a charge. A live current, which shocks and illuminates.