Quotes About Understanding

Helen is one of those people who never say anything, not because she's shy but because she's learned—in a way I always mean to—that if you don't say anything, you make people far more nervous and self-conscious and careful around you than if you do. People like me, we just rush into the vacuum of silence people like Helen float around in; we blather and dither and yakyakyak, and people like Helen just sit there and smile into the wind.

I am led to the proposition that there is no fiction or nonfiction as we commonly understand the distinction; there is only narrative." From

Vera looked at me, and her eyes filled with tears. She does this sometimes, especially when I'm being hateful and difficult; she responds by having all the feelings I'm refusing to have. Now she reached over and took my hand, and we both began to cry.

I can't believe they don't understand that what I'm doing is Much More Important. I'm reading the most wonderful book.

Try flying any plane with a baby if you want a sense of what it must have been like to be a leper in the fourteenth century.

If you're looking for the full deal, the till-death deal, then look at me. No one's ever going to love you, stick by you, understand how you work the way I do. (Malcolm Kavanaugh)

You don't fix a man the way you do a fault in a pipe or a leak in a roof. You take him as he is, Mary Brenna, or you don't take him at all...adjustments can't be all made on one side, darling, else the balance goes off and what's being built just falls down.

Knowledge is a great gift, and the thirst to seek it even greater. Use what you know...Head and heart...You are not made to give greater weight to one than the other.

And since I'm marrying into the Quartet, I have certain privileges and duties. If you're sleeping with Laurel—" "I'm not sleeping with Laurel. We're dating." "Right, and the two of you are just going to hold hands, admire the moon, and sing camp songs." "For a while. Minus the singing.

But when two people feel something, they ought to respect that enough to figure it out

Did they know - the young and fearless - what a miraculous thing it was to have all of anyone?

Parker: She believed, absolutely, that each person, each heart, had a counterpart—had a mate. A rightness. She'd always believed it, and understood that unshakable belief was a reason she was good at what she did.

It's called male bonding. You'll never get it. I believe women are as capable as men, deserve equal pay—and that one day, should be sooner than later, in my opinion, the right woman can and should be leader of the free world. But you can't understand the male bonding rituals any more than men can understand why the vast majority of women are obsessed with shoes and other footwear.

It's never simple." Avery slid an arm around Hope's waist. "It shouldn't be. Because being with someone should matter enough to be at least a little bit complicated.

When I left, it was for you. Coming back was for you. There's nothing you can say, nothing you can do that would make me leave you again.

It's about us. It's about trust.

Love didn't run on logic. It didn't follow neat lines or a list of priorities.

I think those who have impact and influence over us are often unaware.

The man that put that hurt look in your eyes, could be worth everything, or nothing at all.

Told you not to tell her." "That's not how I work things. That's not how you build a relationship." "Build a relationship." Ryder snorted as he sent the drill whirling again. "You've been reading again." "Blow me.

How the hell do I know what pisses a woman off?...Nobody knows because it can be any damn thing. It's an unsolved mystery. And the next day, that any damn thing is fine, and it's some other damn thing. No man knows.

Happy Fuller: Somehow you always love in a special way the one who gives you the most grief.

I hope that's true, because I figured out why I'd never finished it, what I was waiting for. I was waiting for you, Clare. For them. For us. I want to finish it up for you, for them, for us.

Knowing isn't always believing.