"'So why does our writing matter, again?' they ask. 
Because of the spirit, I say.  Because of the heart.  Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation.  They depend and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.  When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored.  We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again.  It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea.  You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship." 
-Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

"There's a word in Portuguese that my dad wrote about in one of his books: saudade.  It's the sadness you feel for something that isn't gone yet, but will be.  The sadness of lost causes.  The sadness of being alive."
-Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallach

"Why Nathaniel?  As in why did I fall in love with him?"  I nodded.  "Oh, I don't know.  Why does anyone fall in love with anyone?  I don't believe we each have some single special person waiting for us out there, if that's what you're getting at.  I've been in love too many times over the years to buy into that old canard.  It's more a question of timing, you know?  As if we all have these elaborate locks inside our hearts that are constantly changing shape, and every once in a while, someone happens along with the perfect key.  Love is nothing more than a fortuitous collision of circumstances.  And then you discover you've ended up spending fifty years with someone."
-Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallach

"I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life.  If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed.  Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it, and above all become passionate about it.  Lukewarm is no good."
-Roald Dahl

“Now, every time...”

“Now, every time I witness a strong person, I want to know: What dark did you conquer in your story? 

Mountains do not rise without earthquakes.”

- Katherine MacKenett

“We are cleaved together...”

“We are cleaved together - we are cleaved apart - everything that draws me to you is everything that drives me away.”- The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

“Sometimes you’ve resigned yourself..”

“Sometimes you’ve resigned yourself to living your life in the shadow of what might have been.  Looking up at happiness from some low place.  You’ve finally accepted that your life isn’t on the unbroken upward trajectory it feels like it’ll be when you’re a kid, when you assume every year willbe better than the one before.  You’ve said to yourself, This is all there is for me, and then something, someone, comes along and says, Hold on,there’s more.  

Maybe life isn’t about avoiding pain at all costs.  Maybe it’s about having one or two people who have signed up for the messy job of being your salvation, who make your life bigger.”

- Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee by Jeff Zentner