Quotes About Understanding

was funny how she'd always thought she had ample supplies of empathy; it turned out that to be truly empathetic she had to experience it.

do. Madeline saw Nathan smile fiercely at the

Every relationship has its quixotic rules. You just had to follow them.

You put up with little things in a relationship and then … the little things gradually get bigger.

Hindsight,' said her father. 'It's always just a fraction too late.

Her husband was a patient man, but she had noticed a glazed look on his face as she'd talked, admittedly for quite a long time,

your husband tells you about finding a corpse, you can't then immediately follow it with, "Fancy some pasta?

sounded so sure of herself, as if she knew Lars

it," finished Susi. "It's almost worth it." Celeste met Susi's raccoon eyes. "Yes." The blandness of Susi's gaze said nothing at all except, Got it. She wasn't being kind and maternal, and she wasn't reveling in the delicious superiority

I'll tell you something, something important. Write this down. You ready?' 'Yes, yes, I'm ready.' 'Love is a decision.' 'Love is a decision?' 'That's right. A decision. Not a feeling. That's what you young people don't realise. That's why you're always off divorcing each other. No offence, dear.

It felt as if Gemma had moved up to a higher, more complex level of human emotions that Lyn couldn't even hope to understand. She didn't know the rules. She didn't know the right thing to say to make it better. It was like Gemma possessed a secret, terrible knowledge that Lyn could only clumsily guess at.

She reminds herself that everyone has thoughts they wouldn't care to share with the world.

Once you knew everything there was to know about someone, you were generally ready to divorce them.

Bisexuals are like agnostics, trying to have it both ways.

She'd learned that with her daughters. Don't say a word. Don't ask a question. Give them enough time and they'll finally tell you what's on their minds. It was like fishing. It took silence and patience. (Or so she'd heard.

Friendship is the only cure for hatred, the only guarantee of peace. —

I think perhaps we've all learned to be a little kinder to one another. And to document everything. Everything.

Hindsight, it's always just a fraction too late.

Teenagers!" said Hank. "All the parenting articles say, Talk to them, listen to them! But how can you when they seem to find it physically painful to even look at you?

The only recognition you got for surviving a night like that came from other mothers. Only they understood the epic nature of your trivial achievements.

I'm not going to ask you to carry this too, if you can't carry it.

there was something in your children that could bring out the child in yourself. Nothing and nobody could aggravate you the way your child could aggravate you.

Other people's problems always seemed so surmountable, and other people's children so much more biddable.

Why try to slot fractured families into neat little boxes in this day and age?