Quotes from Kristin Hannah

I am such a Pacific Northwest girl.

Sitting around and waiting for your muse is not the best choice.

When you're a mom, you learn about fear. You're always afraid. Always. About everything from cupboard doors to kidnappers to weather.

Finding your passion isn't just about careers and money. It's about finding your authentic self. The one you've buried beneath other people's needs.

Sometimes being a good friend means saying nothing.

Nina knew the power of black and white images. Sometimes a thing was its truest self when the colors were stripped away.

If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.

As mothers and daughters, we are connected with one another. My mother is the bones of my spine, keeping me straight and true. She is my blood, making sure it runs rich and strong. She is the beating of my heart. I cannot now imagine a life without her.

Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over.

A daughter without her mother is a woman broken. It is a loss that turns to arthritis and settles deep into her bones.

That was the thing about best friends. Like sisters and mothers, they could piss you off and make you cry and break your heart, but in the end, when the chips were down, they were there, making you laugh even in your darkest hours.

But love has to be stronger than hate, or there is no future for us.

Wounds heal. Love lasts. We remain.

I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I'd like to be known.

Some stories don't have happy endings. Even love stories. Maybe especially love stories.

Love. It was the beginning and end of everything, the foundation and the ceiling and the air in between.

That was what a best friend did: hold up a mirror and show you your heart.

To make real friends you have to put yourself out there. Sometimes people will let you down, but you can't let that stop you. If you get hurt, you just pick yourself up, dust off your feelings, and try again.

Perhaps that's why I find myself looking backward. The past has a clarity I can no longer see in the present.

I know that grief, like regret, settles into our DNA and remains forever a part of us.

Books are the mile markers of my life. Some people have family photos or home movies to record their past. I've got books. Characters. For as long as I can remember, books have been my safe place.

Today's young people want to know everything about everyone. They think talking about a problem will solve it. I come from a quieter generation. We understand the value of forgetting, the lure of reinvention.

I am a mother and mothers don't have the luxury of falling apart in front of their children, even when they are afraid, even when their children are adults.

And before you barrel through some idiotic Cosmo girl list of how-well-do-you-know-your-man questions, let me say that I don't know squat about him except that he kisses like a god and screws like a devil.