Diane Chamberlain Quotes

Two more women sat, ready to judge her. She thought of all the times she'd imagined her audition for Juilliard. The people in front of her were not Juilliard professors, but

It's hard to move on if you don't forgive," he said. "It's like trying to dance with a lead weight on your shoulders. The anger can weigh you down forever.

seen that quick alteration of her features

her mouthing the words, 'That's my Daddy.'" Ben

There was something real breakable about Mary Ella and I was always afraid if I touched her in the wrong spot, she'd crack.

It seemed like all she did these days was wait.

Mrs Forrester said you could ruin a thing by wishing for something else. If you're having fun at the beach, like we are, but you spend all your time here wishing you could be here all the time, you're wasting the time you're here.

Every family has a story, and I love that those stories are etched in sand rather than granite. That way we can change them. We can bury the lies and embrace the truth. And we can move forward.

Somebody's appearance doesn't always match what's going on inside him. You can't look at a guy's face and see his demons.

Perhaps now that she'd told the story, it would lose its power over her. She hoped she would never have to repeat it to anyone ever again.

There are too many silly rules in our lives," she said, "and our lives are far too short to pay attention to them.

Two flights of steps bordered either side of the Hill from Hell. I didn't know who constructed them or when, but it was sometime before I was born. Maybe even before Daddy was born. In one stretch, the steps were made of large semiflat stones. In another, wood. In a third, slate. All of them were in terrible disrepair, but it was still easier to climb them than to try to walk up the dirt road itself, especially since Stacy and I were weighed down with our backpacks, slices of pie in Tupperware containers, bottles of Pepsi, and a bunch of cassette tapes. We stopped halfway up to catch our breath. I really didn't need to, but I could tell Stacy was not used to trudging up hills.

Was it possible to love people you had never met, I wondered...

He looked through the bars thoughtfully, then back at me. "I'll never forget how she went to you after Lois's funeral that day," he said. "She's a very intuitive little girl, and that moment told me something about you."
"It did?" I asked.
He nodded. "It told me you're someone worth fighting for," he said.

I had the feeling if I hadn't been there,

You got dealt some crappy cards. But you're the one who has to decide how to play them.

He spoke in incomplete sentences, as though he had so much he wanted to say that he needed to leave out some of the words to save time.

It was so unlike her not to be able to sleep. No matter what was going on, she was usually out the second her head hit the pillow.

Facing her fear turned out to be the only hard part.

Growing up in a household where something is terribly wrong, you feel the weight of that mysterious something even though it's unspoken. It eats at you. Confuses you. It leaves you wondering if your view of the world will ever make sense.

She was many things, but a liar was not one of them.

My life sucked, and it would catch up to me, and I'd just crack.

I think the important thing about making a decision is just to make it. Otherwise you can go nuts thinking about the pros and cons.

Working two part-time jobs and doing round-the-clock research was a snap compared to full-time motherhood, she said.

You and me," I said,"we both got the same kind of hurt inside us."
She nodded, and suddenly, just like that, I knew I could trust her with my life.

Five GOP representative candidates this session have shocked me to my soul at how blatant they have trivialized rape. My prayers were answered in their defeat!

Sister, you know that?" he asked. "She could beat me

went wrong with Celia, too, she

Ben sat numbly on the sofa at first, then walked into the kitchen

When it comes to making a decision, look at both sides, listen to your heart, then pick one and dive in.

You're supposed to help people, even if it's hard to do. Especially if it's hard to do.

If you have a friend, a good friend, a woman you love, and you learn she's done something abominable, do you stop loving her?

It's not my mind that's sick... It's my soul. ...and there aren't any drugs that are gonna fix that.

More often than not, family stories turn out to be etched in sand rather than granite. Even the parts we think are true - even the parts about ourselves - crumble

The cost of doing something would be terrific; the cost of doing nothing even greater.

The box was beginning to feel like another person in my house, a person with too much power for the space she took up.

When you see a picture of the ocean, it's cut off at the edges. You know it goes on and on to the right and on and on to the left, but you never really know how it feels to see that until you actually do see it.

Carry the confidence.

Sometimes, though, you could do the right thing and still feel sick with doubt.

Richards and Maureen Sherbondy, also contributed their ideas at various points in the story, as did my sister, Joann Scanlon, and my assistant,

You could block things from your mind for years at a time. You could make them go away because you know that if you let them in, the pain could nearly kill you.

Warren Hirsh graciously answered my endless questions. Thank you to my brother,

right. It's hopeless,

...justice comes in many forms.

One thing I was absolutely sure of was his love. Love made any problem solvable.

All the love in the world doesn't put food on the table.

Feelings are never right or wrong," she said after a moment. "They just are.

To their cars in the driveway. I smiled, watching

They're threatened by you,' she said. 'You chose to do something they'd never have the gumption to choose for themselves. Being their own person.

Justice Denied
Thousands of women, probably more
I cannot reach them behind justice doors
Many stay silent, barred just like me.
Haunted by demons, faces unseen.
Still by the hundreds, they continue to serve
Duty and country, active and reserve.
Thankless, forgotten through America's wars
Scarred like their brethren, treated as foes.
Volunteered to go to the shores.
Died like the others, shamed to the core.
Where is the dignity, long since denied?
Lost in the White House of Justice Denied
Women in service since beginning of time
Often they're treated like victims in crime.
Where is their voice, silence throughout the years?
It's dead in the Senate and House, with their tears!

The hostility and venomous response the topic of sexual trauma and rape in the military brings up, especially with men from my Era, is revealing. This opposition speaks to their guilt and toward the truth that stays hidden.

And I knew I would nevr have that everything's-right-in-my-world feeling again.

It's just that I've learned that somebody's appearance doesn't always match what's going on inside him. You can't look at a guy's face and see his demons. - Travis from The Good Father

We got the message that day. We could be friends at home. But out in the world, we didn't know each other.

Religion seems to have twisted the idea of God into a way to control people.

I said I was afraid and she told me to think about a time I felt brave and take that feeling into the situation with me. It worked. It helped."
Corinne leaned away from the Plexiglas, horrified.
"Of course, since that time, I've learned much more about the technique," her mother said. "I've learned to make it much more elegant, but the basics are still the same. Take that old calm, confident feeling with you into the new situation. I used it or a variant of it with clients all the time." She knit her eyebrows, looking hard at Corinne. "I used it for evil during the kidnapping," she said. "Now you can use it for good.

No matter how many people care about you, she thought, if you can't be open with them about who you truly are, you're still alone.

People ... ladies, I mean ... they dye their hair sometimes," I explained to him. "So one day they have red hair and another day they have brown hair. It doesn't matter," I said. "They're still the same lady.

I'd been a terrific student. I hadn't wasted a moment of my time in school, and I knew plenty about healing the troubled mind. But no one had taught me a thing about healing the soul

It's amazing what you'll do for your child, isn't it?

Seeing his face light up when I told him. He was so happy

saw the accident and she saw his spirit fly