the mother's first job is to raise a daughter strong enough to outlast her.

I know now that we never get over great losses; we absorb them, and they carve us into different, often kinder, creatures.

Like a starfish, the heart endures its amputation.

Old dogs can be a regal sight. Their exuberance settles over the years into a seasoned nobility, their routines become as locked into yours as the quietest and kindest of marriages.

Maybe this is the point: to embrace the core sadness of life without toppling headlong into it, or assuming it will define your days.

What they never tell you about grief is that missing someone is the simple part.

memory is both the curse of grief and the eventual talisman against it; what at first seems unbearable becomes the succor that can outlast pain.

Hope in the beginning feels like such a violation of the loss, and yet without it we couldn't survive.

The real hell of this," he told her, "is that you're going to get through it.

the territory of grief ... is both cruel and commonplace.

That she was irreplaceable became a bittersweet loyalty: Her death was what I had now instead of her.

Her power was a wrenching thing, starless black and sorrow, but my magic was something more...it was hope.

Everything you read, becomes a part of your life.

Beauty is not just a white girl. It's so many different flavors and shades.

... the deep experience of the lonely climb on the mountain of success brings a wealth beyond power to compute. To you all suffering is understandable and your heart opens wide in sympathy.

At that time a lot of young men didn't want to go to the war and kill. This guy that I fell in love with was one of those so he escaped to Canada and I followed him.

In a political struggle of class against class, organization of trade unions is the most important weapon.

God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her through the night with a light from above.

It's hard to put into words. Gorillas are not complainers. We're dreamers, poets, philosophers, nap takers.

I didn't even know what I did in 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape'. I just went off with whatever I felt instinctually without a second thought.

There is, by God's grace, an immeasurable distance between late and too late.