The answers we seek aren't always the answers we want, are they? But knowing the truth is what helps us sleep at night.

There is how we were before, and how we are now, and the time between is spent choosing which doors to open, and which to close.

You ain’t dead yet, so you ain’t done.

Miles and years become suddenly invisible when you find yourself back where you started from, as if you've learned nothing and you are once again the person you once were.

Every woman should have a daughter to tell her stories to. Otherwise, the lessons learned are as useless as spare buttons from a discarded shirt. And all that is left is a fading name and the shape of a nose or the color of hair. The men who write the history books will tell you the stories of battles and conquests. But the women will tell you the stories of people's hearts.

Great tragedy gives us opportunities for great kindness.

Death and loss, they plague you. So do memories. Like the Mississippi's incessant slap against the levees, they creep up with deceptive sweetness before grabbing your heart and pulling it under.