The need to become a separate self is as urgent as the yearning to merge forever. And as long as we, not our mother, initiate parting, and as long as our mother remains reliably there, it seems possible to risk, and even to revel in, standing alone.

Being in love is better than being in jail, a dentist's chair, or a holding pattern over Philadelphia, but not if he doesn't love you back.

Losing is the price we pay for living. It is also the source of much of our growth and gain.

Absence makes the heart grow frozen, not fonder.

It is true that the present is powerfully shaped by the past. But it is also true that ... insight at any age keeps us from singing the same sad songs again.

Passionate investment leaves us vulnerable to loss. And sometimes, no matter how clever we are, we must lose.

For we lose not only by death, but also by leaving and being left, by changing and letting go and moving on.