You lose people sometimes, you know. You don't expect to, but then it happens and you can't get them back.

I had lost my mother and my father and my sister, and sometimes when I caught a glimpse of myself in a shop window, I wondered if perhaps I hadn't lost myself as well

People really could be one way outside, when inside they were torn to shreds, a fine white powder of grief and regret replacing blood and bones, and no one even noticed.

A lot of people don't know what to do about grief. I don't blame you for a thing.

She had been grief stricken as her father lay dying but now she felt weightless, the way people do when they're no longer sure they have a reason to be connected to this world.

she wanted to sit in the dark and whisper all of her fears into an ear which would hold every word like a silver shell.

Shelby has absolutely nothing inside of her. She's a black hole. A sinkhole. A whole lot of nothing. She's told Ben that, but he doesn't want to believe her. Who would have imagined he'd turn out to be such an optimist?

The only way to solace anyone who loved you in life is to be a good memory

I do not grieve in the abstract, but in the heart.

No one escapes a time in life when the arrow of sorrow, of anger, of despair pierces the heart. For many of us, there is the inevitable need to circle the wound. It is often such a surprise to find it there, in us, when we had assumed arrows so painful only landed in the hearts of other people. Some of us spend decades screaming at the archer. Or at least for longer periods than are good for us. How to take the arrow out of the heart? How to learn to relieve our own pain? That is the question.

The death of my father is probably the biggest thing that I ever faced. Daddy and I were best friends.

Try to see the joyful side of life. One must see the pain of life with clear eyes, and help all he can; but there is also lots of joy, and on should see that, too.