Life & Wisdom Quote by Janet Fitch

Fitch’s line lands like a small act of rebellion: a demand that life be tasted, not consumed. “Life should always be like this” sounds innocent until you notice the insistence in “should” - an argument with reality disguised as a sigh. She’s not describing a moment; she’s trying to hold it in place, as if naming it could keep the world from speeding up again.

The second sentence does the real work. “Like lingering over a good meal” frames pleasure as a practice, not a reward. Lingering implies time you choose to spend “wasting,” attention you refuse to optimize. In a culture trained to treat meals as fuel and leisure as something you earn, Fitch turns slowness into a moral stance. The meal is also social and sensory: warmth, conversation, appetite, the body allowed to be present. It’s an image of abundance without extravagance - not a banquet, just “good,” which is crucial. The fantasy isn’t luxury; it’s permission.

As a novelist, Fitch understands the psychology of the pause: you don’t cling to joy because it’s perfect, you cling because you know it’s temporary. The ellipsis is the tell - a breath, a hesitation, the speaker reaching for a metaphor that can carry what direct language can’t. Underneath the coziness is a sharper anxiety: life rarely cooperates. The line works because it admits that, then quietly refuses to accept it.