Quotes from Lori Lansens

How cruel it must be for a man to live past his soul.

We're seeing a decline in religion in North America but, I hope, a rise in individual spirituality. Whatever that means to people.

When we talk about God, I think what most of us mean is some greater thing, some higher power that can help us access our own strength or give us strength.

the only thing left to do is love

I have had, like most women, a lifelong preoccupation with my weight. My first published short story was a love story between an elderly man and a very young morbidity obese woman.

You're so dehydrated I can hear you blink.

There will be sway.

Her changing perception of time had altered the sum of her reflections.

As I grew older, I found I could surrender my own comfort so effortlessly it didn't qualify as sacrifice.

I wonder if all women secretly fantasize, like me, about what it would be like to be an extraordinary beauty and bitchy as you wanna be.

The beach was empty and dark but she couldn't hear her fear over the call of the surf.

Remy didn't suggest an ounce of discourtesy, but only had a different way of talking. It's something Chester'd learned, how a person's words did not always disclose the intention of his heart. He'd been called fine things by people who feared and loathed him, and slanderous things by people who thought well on him but were ignorant.

Ruby is my sister. And strangely, undeniably, my child.

On the farm, in our first-floor bedroom, my sister and I were sheltered in the essence of normal. We were not hidden, but unseen. The orange farmhouse was our castle, our kingdom the fields around, and the shallow creek that bisected our property the sea we crossed to find adventure.

The final picture in the album was of Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash, their black-and-white wedding photo. I hated that their picture came last, because it felt like they were saying goodbye.

AND ALL THE OTHER SOULS WHO GOT LEFT AND CURSED BY THOSE THAT SHOULD HAVE LOVED AND CARED.

Shelley says some people were born on third base and some people were born outside the ballpark, and the journey to home plate ain't the same for all. Wouldn't it be better for everyone to, like, find a way to get everybody in the game?

If you don't like something about yourself, change it. If you're okay with it, you gotta own it. There's nothing in between.

I believe it was the Lord...for who else could know your trouble and ours and bring us together in this right way?

You do good mothering.

I was three inches taller but he could smell my fear.

But Rose has been my sister. I think that's heroic.

I wondered who would teach me, or if a boy could learn on his won, what it means to be a man.

My father used to say there are two kinds of people. The notices and the noticed.