Quotes from Joan Bauer

You don't understand how much light you have until the lights go out.

Difficult relationships come into our lives for a reason. No one would choose them, certainly. But if we let them, they can teach us how to be flexible with others and more forgiving.

New places always help us look at life differently

I had taken the photograph from afar (distance being the basic glitch in our relationship), using my Nikon and zoom lens while hiding behind a fake marble pillar. I was hiding because if he knew I'd been secretly photographing him for all these months he would think I was immature, neurotic and obsessive. I'm not. I'm an artist. Artists are always misunderstood.(Thwonk)

It isn't the problems along the way that make us or break us. It's how we learn to stand and face them that makes the difference.

Mom put dense cheddar bread into a bag for a man who said this was his wife's favorite - he'd driven all the way from New Jersey to buy it because today was their anniversary. Several women in the store jabbed their husbands on hearing this. I hung my head - Peter Terris wouldn't cross the street to buy me a Twinkie.

It was bad enough not having a boyfriend for New Year's Eve. Now I had to cope with Valentine datelessness, feeling consummate social pressure from every retailer in America who stuck hearts and cupids on their windows by January second to rub it in. (Thwonk)

Have you ever noticed that it takes a textbook dozens of pages to say what normal people can cover fast? Example: What was the full impact of World War II? Clear-cut teenage answer: we won.

Everything's got a purpose, really - you just have to look for it. Cats are good at keeping old dogs alive. Loss helps you reach for gain. Death helps you celebrate life. War helps you work for peace. A flood makes you glad you're still standing. And a tall boy can stop the wind so a candle of hope can burn bright.

Cope or die.

My father always told me that in this world we are going to make a truckload of mistakes, but the best mistake we can ever make is to err on the side of mercy

I don't do normal. I have a reputation to uphold. (Thwonk)

When you can carry five full dinner platters on your left arm, you should be able to vote, even if you're not eighteen.

I had expected the well to be full for some reason. Not that it had ever been before. I kept looking for signs of water in the dark insides. I heard my bucket clank as it hit Against the walls that held nothing. I look at the bucket that came up empty And made a decision that changed my life. I will keep my bucket and find another well.

Like my grandmother always said, 'you never know the blessings that come from suffering.

Sometimes the best thing that can happen to a person is to have a puppy lick your face.

They marched. Not for themselves. They marched to remember the ones who didn't make it back. They marched because seeing so much loss can teach you about life. they marched because we're all fighting a war whether we know it or not...a war for our minds and souls and what we believe in.

He stood up, put the tree back under the grow light. 'There. That's what's going to happen to us. It's called grafting. Taking something from one place and fixing it to another until they grow together. We didn't start from the same tree, but we're going to grow together like we did.

Sometimes just getting up in the morning and standing at the gate can bring the gate down.

If you worry about every little thing you're going to have one thoroughly miserable life.

You need a negative charge and a positive one to get something moving. We've got the negative; we're going to find the positive if it kills us.

Know why I plant trees?" "No." "I like thinking that they'll be here long after I'm gone. All those fine memories pushing up to the sky.

it's a complete rush to get what you've been hoping for - to get it so full and complete that it fills your senses.

Teenagers are like bees at night, I think. We don't like waking up and we don't always get with the program immediately, but once we figure out our mission, we'll see it through.