Quotes from Elizabeth Berg

But in spite of my great desire for intimacy, I've always been a loner. Perhaps when the longing for connection is as strong as it is in me, when the desire is for something so deep and true, one knows better than to try. One sees that this is not the place for that.

There are some things you never say good-bye to

Just one look and then I knew that all I longed for long ago was you

I would make an anonymous call and say, this is someone who cares, do you know what kind of children you have?

For all it's problems and difficulties, life is mostly a wonderful experience, and it is up to each person to make the most of each day. I hope you are successful in your life, but look to the heavens and the earth and especially to other people to find your real wealth. Wherever I am, wherever you go, know that my love goes with you.

The light is amber, the air still; the daylilies have folded in on themselves. Soon, the hooded blue of dusk will fall, followed by the darkness of night and the sky writing of the stars, indecipherable to us mortals, despite our attempts to force narrative upon them.

I remove my wedding rings and put them in the jewelry box. So many others have done this. I am not the only one. I am not the only one. But here, I am the only one.

You know before you know, of course. You are bending over the dryer, pulling out the still-warm sheets, and the knowledge walks up your backbone. You stare at the man you love and you are staring at nothing; he is gone before he is gone.

The seasons tell us, everything in organic life tells us, that there is no holding on; still, we try to do just that. Sometimes, though, we learn the kind of wisdom that celebrates the open hand.

I got tears in my eyes, but they were not the crying kind, they were just the kind that show you your body agrees so much with what your mind just said.

This is one rule about mixing boys and girls: that a date always comes first.

Actors, painters, dancers, comedians, even just ordinary people doing ordinary things, what are they without an audience of some sort? See, that's what I do. I am the audience. I am the witness, I am the great appreciator that's what I do and that's all I want to do. I worked for a lot of years. I did a lot of things for a lot of years. Now, here I am in the rocking chair, and I don't mind it, Lucille. I don't feel useless. I feel lucky.

When you take the small roads you see the life that goes on there, and this makes your own life larger.

Oh, Arthur, no one even sees you when you get old except for people who knew you when you were young.

People who don't feel cared for are not always comfortable being cared for.

Everybody makes mistakes, sometimes even before we get up in the morning. We can't help but make mistakes. The important thing is to keep trying. And to apologize when you need to.

I think, actually, that none of us understands anyone else very well, because we're all too shy to show what matters the most. If you ask me, it's a major design flaw. We ought to be able to say, Here, look what I am. I think it would be quite a relief.

No one wants to mother more vigilantly than a woman who is childless and wishes she wasn't.

I thought of the priest who'd told me that many religions hold that it is easier to be closely connected to people we love after death than before.

Remember me in your dreams, as I will you.

hiraeth, a Welsh word that means a homesickness for a home you cannot return to, or that maybe never was; it means nostalgia and yearning and grief for lost places.

Abstracts are real and time is a lie, it cannot be measured when one moment can expand to hold everything.

You must never check for a person's pulse using your thumb, or you'll feel your own heartbeat. Actually, I plan on doing that if I'm the one who's here when Ruth dies. I plan on giving her my heartbeat before I let her go.

She put her hand over her heart. Oh boy. It hurts. It's a real pain. Right here.