43 quotes found
“If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead.”
“It is marvelous to be young on a big city street.”
“Know what a symbol is?...Shit that stands for shit.”
“This life of ours can feel an awful lot like waiting.”
“I couldn't have imagined how much more there was to lose.”
“My heart is shattered, an all that's left are jagged shards.”
“People have to snatch at happiness when they can, in this world. It is always easier to lose than to find...”
“It's painful to hold out hope for the things that once brought you joy. You have to find ways to make yourself forget.”
“I've come to think that's what heaven is - a place in the memory of others where our best selves live on." ,”
“I remember her words to me when I left school: Your mind will be your comfort. It is, sometimes. And sometimes it isn't.”
“Before we leave the gravesite, Mary sings Mother's favorite gospel hymn ...Mary's lovely voice rises and lingers in the air, and by the end of the song most of us are crying. I am too, though I sti...”
“Something inexorable seeds itself in the place of your origin. You can never escape the bonds of family history, no matter how far you travel.”
“The older I get, the more I believe that the greatest kindness is acceptance.”
“I learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable. I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. And now I feel, with a strange, deep certainty, th...”
“I ... am left with the lingering feeling that the places we go in our minds to find comfort have little to do with where our bodies go.”
“The smallest things get to her. It's as if she assumes everything will go right, and when it doesn't -- which, of course, is pretty often -- she is surprised and affronted.”
“She is so white-hot furious she can barely see. She stokes the fire of her hatred, feeding it tidbits about bigoted Dina and spineless mushmouth Ralph, because she knows that just beyond the rage i...”
“To get it all done I have to dim my brain, turn it down by notches like the flat-turn knob on a gas lantern, leaving only a nub of flame.”
“She has never tried to find out what happened to her family her mother or her relatives in Ireland. But over and over, Molly begins to understand as she listens to the tapes, Vivian has come back ...”
“So is it just human nature to believe that things happen for a reason to find some shred of meaning even in the worst experiences?" Molly asks when Vivian reads some of these stories aloud."It cer...”
“I think about all the ways Ive been perceived by others over the years: as a burden, a dutiful daughter, a girlfriend, a spiteful wretch, an inva”