Quotes from Luanne Rice

But now I know—the best of us waste our time repenting, forgiving everyone but ourselves.

Stevie thought about how people have to find their own ways to the light. People take as long as they take, and there wasn't any use trying to rush them.

Justice was its own art, shining light into the shadows, complex yet ultimately as simple as can be: bringing balance, making things right.

I think life is supposed to be beautiful. We're supposed to try to make it that way . . . Sad, terrible things happen, but it's up to us to plant flowers. To bring forth the beauty.

old age homes could look bright but feel gloomy—a place where old people went to die. And that the Sun Center was the opposite—a place where old people go to live.

She always said that flowers were incidental; if we loved the earth, we couldn't help but bring forth beautiful things.

Recognize that every child needs a sanctuary.

It still had electricity and running water, the stove worked, the coffee maker could still brew, the refrigerator kept food cold. But the house had become a phantom. It was no longer living and breathing, surrounding the family and making them feel safe. It wafted along, an untethered spirit, drained of everything it once had been.

We die alone, the saying went. But Susannah had never believed it. Not when you come from a close family, not when you are surrounded by love.

She put others first, and she never felt the need to shine." "But she did shine," Sam said. "People loved her." "That was her secret," Dana said, picturing her sister's smile. "She shined from within.

she'd looked it up and read the definition ("deprived of the possession or use of something; lacking something needed, wanted, or expected")

You have to have your head in the clouds to shoot for the stars

You have to make yourself whole—no one else can.

To quote Martin Buber, 'All real living is meeting.

liked the way Jane smiled at her—as if Jane was looking for and seeing the very best in Chloe. Not like teachers, always correcting you, trying to improve you, and not like parents, just waiting for you to do the next wrong thing, so they could shake their heads and let you know how disappointed they were in you. . . .

she remembered some of the joy art used to bring her.

Jane seemed to just like her. She liked her without wanting anything in return:

Some apple varieties, such as Jonagold, Stayman, Winesap, and Mutsu, produced sterile pollen, and could never be used as pollenizers. Yet pollen from other varieties could be used to pollinate those pollen-sterile trees. Really, the honey bee did all the work.

Anthropology was the study of humanity. Susannah's interest lay in the way human beings related to each other and their environments at various periods of history.

time did heal all wounds. Well, not completely. But after a fashion. Time put a big Band-Aid on them. So that life could go on.

As Dr. Robert Hare stated on page one of Without Conscience, "Everybody has met these people, been deceived and manipulated by them, and forced to live with or repair the damage they have wrought. These often charming—but always deadly—individuals have a clinical name: psychopaths. Their hallmark is a stunning lack of conscience; their game is self-gratification at the other person's expense. Many spend time in prison, but many do not. All take far more than they give.

the boat in

the belief they didn't need their

Never judge your friends by what makes them different," she had said. "Gender, color, none of that matters. It's who they—and you—are inside that counts.