"The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof."

"The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away."

"She kept swimming out into life because she hadn't yet found a rock to stand on."

"Listen. Slide the weight from your shoulders and move forward. You are afraid you might forget, but you never will. You will forgive and remember."

"Everything you're sure is right can be wrong in another place."

"But kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won't be needed in the long run."

"God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves."

"Listen. To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know. In perfect stillness, frankly, I've only found sorrow."

"I’ve seen how you can’t learn anything when you’re trying to look like the smartest person in the room."