Quotes from Dorothea Benton Frank

What I wanted to do was to earn enough money to pay for my mother's house. When my mother passed away, I wanted to buy it from the rest of my family and keep the house in the family. That was the only reason I even attempted writing for money.

Here's my definition of a great beach read - a fabulous story that sucks me in like a black hole and when it's over, it jettisons my bones across the galaxy with a hair on fire mission to convince everyone I know that they must read that book or they will die.

A new year was a chance to start over. Maybe even, just maybe, there would be a peace on earth for one entire day.

God, middle age is an unending insult.

The first indication of menopause is a broken thermostat. It's either that or your weight. In any case, if you don't do something, you could be dead by August. God, middle age is an unending insult.

I don't always want to read serious fiction. But when I read fiction that's not serious, I don't want to read brain candy. Entertain me, for God's sake.

If you want to know why all writers are a little crazy read 'The Midnight Disease' by Alice W. Flaherty. She talks about the drive to write, writer's block, and the creative brain. I know what's wrong with me!

I think I've learned that if you want to be successful, you have to tell your story honestly and from your heart - and I think a healthy sense of humor doesn't hurt either.

All I can tell you is that every family on the planet is dysfunctional and we celebrate occasions as generously as we know how to do. We are all doing our best to appear grateful to have one another. Weren't appearances worth something?

Few people realize how much courage it takes in a community like ours to ignore the established taboos.

They say you only have so many breaths in your lifetime, and I think disappointments might be the same.

All the while I was trying to figure out if I knew anyone who had married and stayed in love for decades. I thought about Daddy and Momma. Daddy had loved Momma with a great passion. Everyone knew that. But, why? I knew why! The ugly truth was that he loved her because of how she made him feel, not because of who she was. Was that the nature of a man's love for a woman? Not what you bring to the table, but how you make him feel? I was drinking a cup

Once I figured out what I was going to do with my life, I was definitely going to get a dog. Maybe I'd get a rescue. I liked the idea of an older dog that was already broken in and just needed a loving home. The irony was, that wasn't too different from how I was feeling about myself.

I nearly clutched my bosom and gasped like Melanie from Twelve Oaks. But of course I didn't. ~ Dorothea Benton Frank, The Hurricane Sisters

Life's a gift, that's why they call today the present.

At some point you can no longer insist that your children do this or that. I had learned this lesson the hard way. You have to let them fall down and then you can help them get back up. But you have to let them become adults.

What he didn't know was that he always would and that in all those important moments that were yet to come to pass in his life, there would be a searing wound. Over time the wound would grow smaller, but it would never disappear.

When I close my eyes for the last time, an entire library of instructions for genuinely rewarding living will go with me.

Father Michaels' sermon was mercifully short. He had a reputation for three-minute homilies, tightly written, provocative and insightful. His words centered on the true meaning of Christianity. That is was all about love. Love of God, love of self, love of family, love of community. Love was a gift.

Okay. I could her deb wailing-in my head. This is the Lowcountry, Steve. That's how life goes around here.

Maybe it was what I needed too. For all those years I told myself

up mimosas and croissants at Billy's. No, no. In the Lowcountry it's got gravy on it—the

What was that old story about how women had a better chance of being abducted by aliens than they did getting married after forty?

I don't believe in God because somebody told me I have to or I'll burn in hell. I believe in God because I do. And if I can accept the whole concept of God, and I do, then why not Jesus too?