Quotes from Kristin Hannah

There is only the fight to recover what has been lost And found and lost again and again: and now under conditions That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss. For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business." —T. S. Eliot, from "East Coker

Memories didn't live on streets or in cities. They flowed in the blood, pulsed with your heartbeat.

There was a pain that came with constant disapproval; a sense of having lost something unnamed, unknown

You're not alone, and you're not the one in charge...Ask for help when you need it, and give help when you can. I think that is how we serve God - and each other and ourselves - in times as dark as these.

some hurts were like a once-broken bone. In the right weather, they could ache for a lifetime.

She refused to let one man's prejudice hurt them after all they'd been through to get here. She was angry that Loreda and Ant had experienced such baseless prejudice, but life was full of such injustice.

She had gone to him then, taken him in her arms and held him until he could breathe again. To her, it had been second nature, caring for him when he was hurting. But now she saw what she had never dared to see before: this love of hers was one-sided. She was the one who took care; he was the one who took.

There's no substitute for talking to the people you love. Thinking about them, dreaming about them, wishing things were different Ã¢â'¬Â¦ all of these are the beginning. But someone has to make the first move. I

the way they lived, the dreams they'd lost, the future they'd so blindly believed in. For the children who would grow up not knowing Jean. Her humor, her gentleness, her steel, her hopes for them.

That's one of my major themes in Firefly Lane—that we need to accept that we are good enough, that all we can do is our best.

And when we let the media choose our heroes for us, we are lost already.

Reviewers claimed that she could see a way through any emotional conflict; more often than not, they mentioned the purity of her heart. But they were wrong. It was the impurity in her heart that made her successful. She was an ordinary woman who'd made extraordinary mistakes. She understood every nuance of need and loss.

Claire knew she loved her daughter too much; it was dangerous to need another human being so desperately, but Claire had never known any other way to love.

city becomes one long line. Everything is disappearing, especially politeness. Rations are consistently being cut, and often there is no food to be had, even with a ration card. Vera, like everyone else, is tired and hungry and afraid.

For the first time, her romantic novels made sense; she realized that the landscape of a woman's soul could change as quickly as a world at war.

Vianne worried about her constantly, but there was nothing to be done about worry; it had to be borne.

All my life I've been told to make no noise, don't want too much, be grateful for any scrap that came my way. And I've done that. I thought if I just did what women are supposed to do and played by the rules, it would Ã¢â'¬Â¦ I don't know Ã¢â'¬Â¦ change. But the way we're treated…" "It's unfair," he said. "It's wrong," she said. "This

You're afraid of love, but you've got so much of it to give.

she fought back the only way she knew how—by caring for her fellow prisoners and helping them to stay strong.

My grandfather was a Texas Ranger. He used to tell me that courage was a lie. It was just fear that you ignored." She looked at him. "Well, I'm scared.

Vianne didn't hesitate. She knew now that no one could be neutral—not anymore—and as afraid as she was of risking Sophie's life, she was suddenly more afraid of letting her daughter grow up in a world where good people did nothing to stop evil, where a good woman could turn her back on a friend in need.

On paper, did she and Mama even exist? And what if he found them anyway?

In Paris, with a glass of wine in your hand, you can just be.

The minute he saw her, he understood what had been missing from his life. It was hokey, he knew, and sentimental and sappy, but that didn't make it any less true. What he'd been longing for, without even realizing it, had been that elusive, magical mixture of friendship and passion that he'd only ever found with her.