It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive. Arrival often brings nothing but a sense of desolation and disappointment.

She believed, of course ... because without something to believe in, life would be intolerable.

Grief 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.

She 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.

Grief 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.

It was better not to get too close to another person. The closer you got, the more likely you were to get hurt.

I wasn't good enough. I had a little talent but not enough. There is nothing more discouraging than having just a little talent.