Writing is work, but it's also a compulsion, and once you get your characters on paper, you can't abandon them. You have to respond to them.
Rosamunde PilcherShe thought of the last couple of years: the boredom, the narrowness of existence, the dearth of anything to look forward to. Yet now, in a single instant, the curtains had been whipped aside, and the windows been thrown open onto a brillant view that had been there, waiting for her, all the time. A view, moreover, laden with the most marvellous possibilities and opportunities.
Rosamunde PilcherShe believed, of course ... because without something to believe in, life would be intolerable.
Rosamunde PilcherThings happen they way they're meant to. There's a pattern and a shape to everything...Nothing happens without a reason...Nothing is impossible...(Page 180).
Rosamunde PilcherThey will come, not to paint the bay and the sea and the boots and the moors, but the warmth of the sun and the colour of the wind. A whole new concept. Such stimulation. Such vitality.
Rosamunde PilcherOther people's houses were always fascinating. As soon as you went through the door for the first time, you got the feel of the atmosphere, and so discovered something about the personalities of the people who lived there.
Rosamunde PilcherHappiness is making the most of what you have, and riches is making the most of what you've got.
Rosamunde PilcherI wasn't good enough. I had a little talent but not enough. There is nothing more discouraging than having just a little talent.
Rosamunde PilcherShe put out her hand and touched his forearm, as she would have touched some piece of porcelain or sculpture, just for the sheer animal pleasure of feeling its shape and curve beneath her fingertips.
Rosamunde PilcherShe remembered him smiling, and realized that time, that great old healer, had finally accomplished its work, and now, across the years, the face of love no longer stirred up agonies of grief and bitterness. Rather, one was left feeling simply grateful. For how unimaginably empty the past would be without him to remember.
Rosamunde PilcherGrief was like a terrible burden, but at least you could lay it down by the side of the road and walk away from it. Antonia had come only a few paces, but already she could turn and look back and not weep. It wasn't anything to do with forgetting. It was just accepting. Nothing was ever so bad once you had accepted it.
Rosamunde PilcherAnd the wicked thing is, that when we're really upset, we always take it out on the people who are closest and whom we love the most.
Rosamunde PilcherLife is so extraordinary. Wonderful surprises are just around the most unexpected corners.
Rosamunde PilcherIt was better not to get too close to another person. The closer you got, the more likely you were to get hurt.
Rosamunde PilcherIt is better to travel hopefully than to arrive. Arrival often brings nothing but a sense of desolation and disappointment.
Rosamunde PilcherThere's a war on. We don't know how anything's going to end. We just have to grasp each fleeting moment of joy as it whizzes by.
Rosamunde PilcherGrief is a funny thing because you don't have to carry it with you for the rest of your life. After a bit you set it down by the roadside and walk on and leave it.
Rosamunde PilcherBeyond the pain, life continues to be sweet. The basics are still there. Beauty, food and friendship, reservoirs of love and understanding. Later, possibly not yet, you are going to need others who will encourage you to make new beginnings. Welcome them. They will help you move on, to cherish happy memories and confront the painful ones with more than bitterness and anger.
Rosamunde Pilcher