"As the warm air blew in the car, simple snapshots of the life they'd lived together surfaced in his mind; but as always, those images led inexorably to their final day together."

"It's funny, but have you ever noticed that the more special something is, the more people seem to take it for granted? It's like they think it won't ever change. Just like this house here. All it ever needed was a little attention, and it would never have ended up like this in the first place."

"I gave you the best of me."

"A good marriage, like any partnership, meant subordinating one's own needs to that of the other's, in the expectation that the other will do the same."

"Someday you'll find someone special again. People who've been in love once usually do. It's in their nature."

"Passion is passion. It's the excitement between the tedious spaces, and it doesn't matter where it's directed...It can be coins or sports or politics or horses or music or faith...the saddest people I've ever met in life are the ones who don't care deeply about anything at all."

"Maybe we've lived a thousand lives before this one and in each of them we've found each other... I know I've spent each life before this one searching for you. Not someone like you but you, for your soul and mine must always come together."

"Dean: If there is a greater power, why is it he can't get you a new sweater?Jamie: Because, he's too busy looking for your brain."

"It happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. So you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on."

"Romance is thinking about your significant other, when you are supposed to be thinking about something else."

"It was a life, she eventually concluded, that had been lived in the middle ground, where contentment and love were found in the smallest details of people's lives. It was a life of dignity and honor, not without sorrows yet fulfilling in a way that few experiences ever were."

"That was the kind of life she'd had as a child, and it was the kind she wanted as an adult. But it hadn't worked out that way. Things in life seldomdid, she'd come to understand."

"Daddy loved his son. Daddy believed his son walked on water. Daddy, Mike had long ago decided, was an idiot."

"Because being comfortable meant she might lower her guard, and she could not let that happen."

"Their fingers seemed to fit together in just the right way- effortlessly clasped,like perfect complements."

"How far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?"

"Life, he realize, was much like a song. In the beginning there is mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it's in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole thing worthwhile."

"What it's like to be a parent: It's one of the hardest things you'll ever do but in exchange it teaches you the meaning of unconditional love."

"...when a wife wouldn't testify, little punishment was meted out. Alex came to understand that only those who pressed charges ever became truly free, because the life they were leading was a prison, even if most of them wouldn't admit it."

"So it's not gonna be easy. It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me... everyday."

"None of my characters are rich or famous, and the situations they find themselves in could happen to anyone."

"It's the possibility that keeps me going, not the guarantee."

"If there is a heaven we will find each other again, for there is no heaven without you."

"The next time you're mad at me, talk to me,' he said. 'Don't shut me out. I don't like playing games. And by the way, I had a great time, too."

"That speaking the words, even if true, had little power to change the inevitable or even make him feel much better."

"Love hurts. There is nothing as painful as heartbreak. But in order to learn to love again, you must learn to trust again."

"How far should a person go in the name of true love?"

"Outside the hospital, I squinted in the harsh morning sunlight. I could hear birds chirping in the tree, but even though I searched for them, they remained hidden from me."

"It's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems."

"If it's over, then don't let the past screw up the rest of your life."

"It's impossible to protect your kids against disappointment in life."

"I've been doing this a long time, and I've come to learn that predictions don't mean much. Too much lies outside the realm of medical knowledge. A lot of what happens next comes down to you and your specific genetics, your attitude. No, there's nothing we can do to stop the inevitable, but that's not the point. The point is that you should try to make the most of the time you have left."

"In all love stories the theme is love and tragedy, so by writing these types of stories, I have to include tragedy."

"When we first met, I didn't want to get involved with anyone. I didn't have the time or energy, and I wasn't sure that I was ready for it. But you were so good to me, and I got swept up in that. And little by little, I found myself falling in love with you."

"I suppose [my life] has most resembled a blue chip stock: fairly stable, more ups than downs, and gradually trending upward over time. A good buy, a lucky buy, and I've learned that not everyone can say that about his life."

"...marriage is about becoming a team. You're going to spend the rest of your life learning about each other, and every now and then, things blow up. But the beauty of marriage is that if you picked the right person and you both love each other, you'll always figure out a way to get through it."

"I fell in love with her when we were together, then fell deeper in love with her in the years we were apart."

"You are, and always have been, my dream."

"I think that men know how to romance a woman and most do it well, at least for a time, otherwise women wouldn't marry them. The problem is that most of them begin to rest on their laurels."

"If you like her, if she makes you happy, and if you feel like you know her---then don't let her go."

"Love, I've come to understand is more than three words mumbled before bedtime."

"I am lost without you. I am soulless, a drifter without a home, a solitary bird in a flight to nowhere. I am all these things, and I am nothing at all. This, my darling, is my life without you. I long for you to show me how to live again."

"Silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox."

"He'd lived long enough to know that everyone handled grief in different ways, and little by little, they all seemed to accept their new lives."

"At times, it almost felt like I was destined to take the trip, like all the people I met had somehow been waiting for me."

"Each recognized the fact that real commitment could be proven only through the passage of time."

"A moment later, he plopped down on the sand beside her, and when they accidentally touched, Gabby had the briefest flash of them sitting together just like this on a hundred different weekends in the future."

"The secret is to know how to lie" he used to say, " and to know when someone's lying to you". His father, Steve eventually decided, must have known how to lie."

"You're going to come across people in your life who will say all the right words at all the right times. But in the end, it's always their actions you should judge them by. It's actions, not words, that matter."

"I know the Lord has a plan for us all, but sometimes, I just don't understand what the message can be."