Quotes from Diane Chamberlain

The real thing isn't always sunshine and roses and it's not always Ã¢â'¬Â¦ exciting or thrilling, but it's solid. That's the kind of thing that lasts.

still a part of her future as well as her past. But it was stupid and pointless to think about what might have been.

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

to their cars in the driveway. I smiled, watching

Sometimes coloring outside the lines can cost you," she said. "Only you can figure out if it's worth it.

I'd seen pictures of the wall online, but nothing prepared me fr seeing it in person. It was a deep scar in the earth and looked like a long black mirror reflecting the puffy white clouds, the blue sky, the trees and grass. It reflected the things people left at its base -- small flags and stuffed animals and photographs. And it reflected the faces of the people who stood in front of it, looking, pointing, weeping. It reflected me.

state that has denied opportunity for quality education for Negroes has no right to demand literacy as a prerequisite for voting

Okay." I smiled, although I was not doing okay at all. My calm exterior was an act. Inside, I was falling apart.

But I felt . . . I still feel . . . . lucky I had the chance to know you.' She puts her arm around my shoulders, very gently, and I can tell she thinks of me as an old lady who needs to be handled with care. She should see me do the shoulder stand in my yoga class.

I nod. It's the gentle class with the other septuagenarians, but I don't mention that.

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

I also needed to educate myself to North Carolina

even though I couldn't have him or touch him or talk to him or even look into his eyes. I needed his presence. I needed him close by. I

I had the feeling if I hadn't been there

I think people put on a show that they're good," I said. "Maybe they even start to, like, believe it themselves. But people are really... not evil, exactly, but they just care about themselves. They don't really care about who they step on. They just pretend like they do. You can't trust them. You really can't trust anyone.

You don't know nothing, that's what I figured out. You don't know nothing, but you act like god anyway.

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

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

But he had a story. I guess everybody did. People walked around with this thick dark film sticking to them and until you scratched it, you had no idea.

She's smart and full of business," she said, "and she sure knows how to get things done. You, though." She nodded. "You a real human being.

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

But the truth is, sometimes kids—and adults—seem to wait until their relatives are out of the room to go. It's like they don't want to distress them more than they have to.

Sometimes she dreamed about him. They were good dreams......Some days she could barely remember what he looked like. Other days, she found him in the face of every man she saw.

reckless, choice she had made.