Quotes from Kristin Hannah

The measure of a man comes down to moments, spread out like dots of paint on the canvas of a life. Everything you were, everything you'll someday be, resides in the small, seemingly ordinary choices of everyday life. It starts early, this random procession of decisions.

The children had been right that writing helped. Words

For all he knew, he was the first person to climb this jutting, dangerous slab of rock. That was what he loved about this sport. When you were high above the world, anchored to a bit of stone by a piece of metal and your own courage, there was no outside world. No worries, no stresses, no memories of what you'd lost. There was only the extreme beauty, the solitude, and the risk. He loved that most of all: the risk. There was nothing like imminent danger to make a man know he was alive.

it's better to be bold than meek.If you jump off a cliff at least you'll fly before you fall

Elsa stared at Rose for as long as she could, memorizing everything about her, but at last, she had no choice. It was time to leave this place, this woman, this home

My skin has the crinkled appearance of wax paper that someone has tried to flatten and reuse.

Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not; rather find strength in what remains behind. —WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, ODE: INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD

polenta cakes, which were delicious beneath a ladleful of soup

With enough land, a man could become rich.

Like lovers." *

The heat made people crazy. They woke from their damp bedsheets and went in search of a glass of water, surprised to find that when their vision cleared, they were holding instead the gun they kept hidden in the bookcase. Children cried out in their sleep, and even doses of liquid Tylenol couldn't cool their fevered skin. All over town, birds fell from phone wires and landed in pathetic, crumpled heaps on the thirsty lawns.

be asphyxiated.

Sabes lo que aprendí en los campos? Vianne la miró. —¿Qué? —Que no me pueden tocar el corazón. Que no pueden cambiar quién soy por dentro. Mi cuerpo…, eso lo rompieron los primeros días, pero mi corazón no. Vi, te hiciera lo que te hiciera, fue a tu cuerpo y tu cuerpo sanará.

They were so...larger than life, these Yanks, with their ready smiles and booming voices. And their gratitude. Not at all like the Brits, who thanked her with clipped words and cool voices and firm handshakes. She'd lost track of the times an American had hugged her so tightly she'd come off her feet.

I've been afraid since the moment they laid her in my arms. Every time she goes to school or to a friend's house or out on a date, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of what the world will do to my beautiful baby girl, afraid of what I will do to her. It never goes away, ever. You just live with it and love her and be there for her.

So they would try again in a new place, hoping geography would be the answer.

This is no place for anyone," Vianne

He wanted to tell her that when he painted, he felt her, remembered her, that it had started in rehab as occupational therapy and now it was his passion.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can look into a pair of eyes and see your whole future.

There's no fair in life and death.

The steady snip snip snip of the scissors seemed to hypnotize Ruby, that and the comforting familiarity of her mother's touch.

They'd spent most of one summer here, taking their separate, lonely lives and braiding them into a rope of friendship.

fighting the tidal wave of panic.

Maybe that was how it would be