I’m not brave any more darling. I’m all broken. They’ve broken me.

Happiness is often presented as being very dull but, he thought, lying awake, that is because dull people are sometimes very happy and intelligent people can and do go around making themselves and everyone else miserable. He had never found happiness dull. It always seemed more exciting than any other thing and capable of as great intensity as sorrow to those people who were capable of having it.

No one should be alone in their old age, he thought.

Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.

My life used to be full of everything. Now if you aren't with me I haven't a thing in the world.

I used to play cello. My mother kept me out of school a whole year to study music and counterpoint. She thought I had ability, but I was absolutely without talent.

The rain will stop, the night will end, the hurt will fade. Hope is never so lost that it can't be found.