The belief that life was hard and often its worst battles were fought in private, that it was possible to walk through fear and come out scorched but still breathing.

The flaw is the thing we love.

The truth, or success, of any writer's story lies partly in its specificity and its emotional honesty.

Grief is what tells you who you are alone.

The only education in grief that any of us ever gets is a crash course.

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

Near the end I asked him one night in the hospital corridor what he thought was happening, and he said, "Tell her everything you haven't said," and I smiled with relief. "There's nothing," I said. "I've already told her everything.