Quotes About Absence

Her mother was still more of a presence than an absence in her life. Juliet supposed that one day in the future it would be the other way round, but she doubted that would be an improvement.

Ursula found herself dwelling on Hugh's death, his absence more than his death.

How do you know he's dead?' 'Because he's not breathing

When Theo returned along St. Andrews Street the girl with the custard-yellow hair was no longer there and he worried that she might never be there again. Because that was how it happened: one moment you were there, laughing, talking, breathing, and the next you were gone. Forever. And there wasn't even a shape left in the world where you'd been, neither the trace of a smile nor the whisper of a word. Just nothing

Step by step she lived over every instant of the time she had been with Robert... She recalled his words, his looks. How few and meager they had been for her hungry heart! ... She wondered when he would come back. He had not said he would come back. She had been with him had heard his voice and touched his hand. But some way he had seemed nearer to her off there in Mexico.

Feeling secure regarding their happiness and welfare, she did not miss them except with an occasional, intense longing.

that old unfulfilled craving became an obsession I couldn't escape, a black hole of raw grief I kept falling deeper into. 'Where are my children?' I felt their absence and loss as if they existed somewhere I couldn't reach, as if they were stuck forever on the other side of a membrane and I could never access them.

I meant skies all empty aching blue. I meant years. I meant all of them with you.

Do you think everybody misses somebody? Like I miss my mama?" "Mmmm-hmmm," said Gloria. She closed her eyes. "I believe, sometimes, that the whole world has an aching heart.

Thinking about her was the same as the hole you keep on feeling with your tongue after you lose a tooth. Time after time, my mind kept going to that empty spot, the spot where I felt like she should be.

Edward knew what it was like to say over and over again the names of those you had left behind. He knew what it was like to miss someone. And so he listened. And in his listening, his heart opened wide and then wider still.

Sometimes, it seemed like everybody in the world was lonely. I thought about my mama. Thinking about her was the same as the hole you keep on feeling with your tongue after you lose a tooth. Time after time, my mind kept going to that empty spot, the spot where i felt like she should be.

Listen, said Beverly. Let me tell you something. There is no Very Friendly Animal Center. That cat is long gone.

Where had Mrs. Borkowski's should gone? (p. 139)

I'd put myself to sleep only there's nobody to do my job.

Symbols, or their absence, do not always mean what they seem to symbolize. Nevertheless, I suppose they always symbolize something.

Death, I suspect, will likely be unsatisfying because I will no longer be present to feel the achievement thereof.

Then, suddenly, I was unpredictably and uncontrollably irrational and destructive. This was not something that could be overcome by protocol or etiquette. God, conspicuously, was nowhere to be found.

Yeah," I said. "Gone to Norfolk.

Where's Simon?...Is he okay? Why isn't he here? She glared at Derek. Where'd you leave him? Passed out in an alley. Derek frowned in thought. Not sure where, though...

Mom isn't here," Corey said. "Neither is Travis. So much for my grand resurrection." He slumped onto the sofa. "We'll have to wait for them. Which is a little anticlimactic.

he might never enter this house again. Coming

I been away a long time.

When beauty is universal, it loses its power to move the heart, and only its absence can produce any emotional effect.