{
  "type": "quote",
  "site": {
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    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
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  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-smiley/the-greenlanders/and-then-he-saw",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-smiley/the-greenlanders/and-then-he-saw.json",
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  "id": "7212e722-c39c-4f3f-9a4e-732211c9a8b3",
  "slug": "and-then-he-saw",
  "text": "And then he saw what he was, an old man, ready to die, pressed against the Greenland earth, as small as an ash berry on the face of a mountain, and he did the only thing that men can do when they know themselves, which was to weep and weep and weep.",
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  "author": {
    "name": "Jane Smiley",
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  "book": {
    "title": "The Greenlanders",
    "slug": "the-greenlanders",
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  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "old age",
      "slug": "old-age",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/old-age"
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    {
      "name": "self-knowledge",
      "slug": "self-knowledge",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge"
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    "name": "Wikiquote",
    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jane_Smiley#The_Greenlanders_(1988)",
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      "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
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  "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:25",
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    {
      "id": "f91a9365-89c9-4162-b93c-f9222cb30938",
      "slug": "my-mind-is-like",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-smiley/the-greenlanders/my-mind-is-like",
      "text": "My mind is like a room where the door swings free in the breeze, and many visitors come and go and stay and vanish as they will.",
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      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
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          "name": "thinking",
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      "source": {
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      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:25"
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    {
      "id": "c8334f4a-f1ed-4a4d-b41d-d5a433bfe196",
      "slug": "still-others-reflected",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-smiley/the-greenlanders/still-others-reflected",
      "text": "Still others reflected on how quickly the food could be snatched from a man's table, or the child from a woman's breast, or the wife from a man's bedcloset, that no strength of grasp could hold these goods in place. And others remarked to themselves how sweet these goods were, in spite of that, and saw that pleasure lost in every moment is pleasure lost forever.",
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      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
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      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "transience",
          "slug": "transience",
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        {
          "name": "pleasure",
          "slug": "pleasure",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pleasure"
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      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jane_Smiley#The_Greenlanders_(1988)",
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          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
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      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:25"
    },
    {
      "id": "ba1a2a52-ab2e-45f1-a3c1-9c97caa21ff4",
      "slug": "it-was-always",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jane-smiley/the-greenlanders/it-was-always",
      "text": "It was always and ever hard to tell with women why they chose one way and not another.",
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}