The heart makes its choices without weighing the consequences. It doesn’t look ahead to the lonely nights that follow.
I’m a dinosaur, he thought, lumbering through a world where truthtellersare despised.
I know there’s evil in the world, and there always has been. But you don’t need to believe in Satan or demons to explain it. Human beings are perfectly capable of evil all by themselves.
Only by the shuddering of the bed did Toby realize the girl was sobbing. Molly herself made no sound; it was as though her grief was trapped in a jar, her cries inaudible to anyone but her.
Evil doesn’t die. It never dies. It just takes on a new face, a new name. Just because we’ve been touched by it once, it doesn’t mean we’re immune to ever being hurt again. Lightning can strike twice.
Ha! Kids! You have no idea what you put your parents through, either. Wait till you have your own, you’ll see. That’s when you’ll know what it really feels like.” .. “What what feels like?”…”Love,” said Angela.
He looked at her, and she couldn’t contradict him. Nor could she offer any false reassurance. Silence, at least, was honest.
Some people just couldn’t commit to their own health. Instead they wasted their energy worrying about things they could do nothing about.
No matter how much you try to maintain order in your life, no matter how careful you are to guard against mistakes, against imperfections, there is always some smudge, some flaw, lurking out of sight. Waiting to surprise you.
When you shine a bright light, a secret loses all its power.
The Christmas tree, twinkling with lights, had a mountain of gifts piled up beneath it, like offerings to the great god of excess.
‘I am a bad mother.’ Every Christmas, this is what I think because the holiday season fills me with such anxiety. I’m sure that other mothers are happily baking cookies, decorating trees, and finding perfect gifts for everyone.
One of the best Christmas presents I ever got was the globe that I now keep right beside my desk.
I was a writer first, and knew I’d be a storyteller at age seven. But since my parents are very practical, they urged me to go into a profession that would be far more secure, so I went to medical school.
I met my husband, Jacob, in medical school. We married and went to live in Hawaii where his family lived. It was very beautiful, but I wasn’t used to being on an island and needed wide open spaces. Eventually we moved to Maine, New England.
I think what medical training does is it gives you the language, the tools to look up facts. I think medical training gives you a sense of how to approach a problem, how to look at symptoms and go down the list of what it might be.