Quotes About Empathy

You know. I can call my husband an idiot and asshole but no one else can. It's a rule. It's almost a law.

We'll get everything straightened out. This has gone on long enough—we have to bring it to a close." She was quiet for a long moment before she said, "We?" He gave her shoulders a squeeze. "Come on, don't you feel like we're in this together? I want to help, Ellie. You got screwed, by Arnie, by the court, all around. You don't deserve this." She

Protect yourself from people who have the habit of being mean,

and there. Sometimes she gave

found this man. I fell in love with his kindness, his patience. He saw me, all of me, and he didn't turn away. He let me in. He held back my hair while I puked my way through detox. He spoonfed me broth while I slowly fought my way back to living.

No doubt about it: Mac would make an excellent mother.

Maybe Stoney has a thing for strays. Or maybe, like most bartenders, he recognizes a lost soul when he sees one.

In this day and age, we all talk too much and hear too little. Listening has become a forgotten art that the world is sorely missing

think of this often, drifting from community to community, always being the stranger and never the neighbor. People all over really are the same. They want to fall in love. They're glad to survive each day. They pray their children will have a better life than they did. These truths bind

Basically, even good people do really bad things if they think no one cares. The banality of evil.

If you hoard other people's tragedies, does that make your own easier to bear?

warm, callused hands

It doesn't matter if you can't say it right now. I'll say it for both of us. And someday you'll learn.

When I read a book it feels like real life and when I put the book down it's like I go back into the dream.

I'd subliminally determined at this point that the only way to really know what was going on in the world was to listen to women talk. Anyone who ignores the chatter of women is poorer by any measure.

The only way to really know what was going on in the world was to listen to women talk. Anyone who ignores the chatter of women is poorer by any measure.

I'm sorry you're angry is NOT an apology.

Finally, I'd like to thank my readers for staying with me all these years. I especially want to thank the ones who understand that the world isn't made up of happy endings, but messy, complicated, and untidy ones.

I've always known we were two puzzle pieces that fit together in a hollow that is our pain. There was a time when I was certain we were too damaged not to destroy each other. Now I think we are saving each other.

You know, sweetheart, I know I'm fucked up. But if you think the guy trying to protect you instead of walk all over you is the one trying to run your life, you're just as fucked up as I am.

Yes. He knows I'm dying, but he can't really accept it and he'll be all alone when I'm gone. Can't you help him?

Likewise, I would never be so rude as to not interrupt a friend. How else would she know I was listening?

The thing about love is that we can't control whether we get it, but we can control whether we give it. And each feels as good as the other. Your heart doesn't know if it's loving a man, a book, or a puppy. If your heart were that smart, it would be your brain.

Because she does not worry about me.