All these lives," she said. "All the stories we never know." (125)

I suspect the most we can hope for, and it's no small hope, is that we never give up, that we never stop giving ourselves permission to try to love and receive love.

Traits don't change, states of mind do.

I actually see myself in all my characters. In order to imagine what it feels like to be another person I have to use my own experiences and responses to the world.

The facts didn't matter. Their stories mattered, and each of their stories belonged to each of them alone.

Had they known at these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not. People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it.

You surely know that in the course of a long marriage it is not unusual for a husband or a wife to develop a crush on someone else.

I'm so interested in the fact that we really don't know anybody. We think we know the people close to us, but we don't, we really don't.

In a way, I'm very interested in writing about Maine, because I think Maine represents its own kind of history. It's the oldest state, and it's the whitest state.

People like to think the younger generation's job is to steer the world to hell. But it's never true, is it? They're hopeful and good - and that's how it should be.

Or maybe, he thought, returning to the boxes, it was part of being Catholic--you were made to feel guilty about everything

When your vision is clear for your life, goals, and dreams, the confidence and assurance gained bear fruit to joy and peace.

Your kindness, beauty, and simplicity remind me the stories about angels, and I was told they are just legends and myths.

The great leading objects of the federal government, in which revenue is concerned, are to maintain domestic peace, and provide for the common defense.

Careful, love. Prices aren't the only things I can cut in half!

I've been fighting my whole life.

Kring is the mantra of power. "Kring" should only be repeated when you are in deep meditation.

A new year reminds us that regardless of how often we fail or miss the mark, God freely offers opportunity to begin anew.

The attack on the truth by war begins long before war starts and continues long after a war ends.

I started acting as a child in Community Theatre but I didn't do any serious stuff. It was all musicals like 'Annie' and 'Wizard of Oz.' I was always in the chorus.

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult