Quotes from Carolyn Brown

Next the ruined panty hose came off. I removed my wide gold wedding band, tied it to the leg with the big hole, and carried it back to the bedroom. I stood on the bed and looped the hose around a blade on the ceiling fan. I hoped Drew would flip on the light switch and the thing would knock him upside the head.

No," she said, "she wanted to have used every bit of her energy, every second of her time, and have given every drop of her love away so that when she got to heaven, what had been her on this earth was all finished and done with.

Oh, honey, that's what friends are for—to share in the joys and half the sorrows." Dotty smiled.

Remembering only the good times was just as unhealthy as remembering only the bad ones—there was no closure in either.

voice, not Conway's. Abby

The weight on Emma's heart crumbled into tiny pieces. If Nancy had asked her how she felt, she would have said, "Like the darkness is gone.

late. She'd barely gotten comfortable

She starts out with pork-n-beans right out of the can, adds some kidney beans, a pound of bacon, and a pint of chopped-up ham, peppers, onions, and spicy barbecue sauce, but that's not her secret. It's a double shot of Jack Daniels and a tablespoon of red pepper flakes. That's her secret-and it makes the beans

Gossip is unfounded bullshit. Opinions are ours by rights of the Constitution.

Change was supposed to be good for the soul, and turmoil created patience, but sometimes accepting either wasn't easy.

Hannah asked. "Six cans or three quarts of canned tomatoes, two onions the size of a tennis ball, sixteen ounces of jalapeno peppers or one pint if you've canned them yourself, a tablespoon and a half of garlic powder, a teaspoon and a half of both black pepper and salt, and some cilantro chopped fine if you want. Makes a gallon," Sue said. "I found

Darlin', never doubt that my fears are every bit as big as yours, with commitment topping the list in big bold letters. Don't run away, Callie. I need you to stay, he whispered softly. I want to stay, she said just before he kissed her again.

Take the juice of one lime and add it to two cups of diced watermelon, one cup of diced and peeled cucumber, three or four sliced green onions, a couple of tablespoons of fresh cilantro that's been cut very fine, two teaspoons of jalapeno peppers cut up just as fine, or more if you want it hotter, and a teaspoon of sugar. It's the best thing in the world with fresh fried corn tortilla chips

Momma, I could live with the idea.

We can't go back and redo or undo the past, but we don't have to let it define us

There was nothing prettier in the whole world than a Texas sunset. Especially one where the earth looked flat, where the dirt and sky met each other and the sun simply fell off the side of the world. Oranges competed with yellows and pinks to put on a show more brilliant than a fresh new box of crayons.

Drag your feet a little. Heaven is timeless

Cyrus's momma thinks I'm a gift from God. I didn't have the heart to tell her if I was then God was guilty of handing out gag gifts, Joyce said.

In their years in Sugar Run, Texas, Tootsie and Smokey Colbert had had so many neighbors that they'd lost count. One by one, families in the four other houses on their block had moved in and moved away. Now, all were sitting empty.

you could have missed the pain, but you'd have had to miss the dance,'

Must be wicked, sexy thoughts about what I'd do with Toby Dawson if I could just peel those jeans off his body and jump his bones, then.-

what was in the past was best left there and that talking about it was like stirring a fresh cow pile with a wooden spoon. Didn't accomplish a thing, and only made the stink and the flies worse and the spoon useless for anything else. Then

looked like hammered owl crap.

Men are so frustrating; sometimes I think they really do come from Mars. That's the planet where they take boy babies' souls at birth to raise them with no feminine influence of any kind. They use John Wayne as the primary role model and make them mean and tough. Then they return their souls to them when they start puberty. That's why they are so obsessed with the female species at that time. After all, they've been living on Mars, where no such things exist.