“For a long time, she held a special place in my heart. I kept this special place just for her, like a ‘Reserved’ sign on a quiet corner table in a restaurant. Despite the fact that I was sure I’d never see her again.”
Haruki Murakami (contemporary Japanese writer)
“I’ve learned that waiting is the most difficult bit, and I want to get used to the feeling, knowing that you’re with me, even when you’re not by my side.”
Paulo Coelho (Brazilian lyricist and novelist)
“Waiting hurts. Forgetting hurts. But not knowing which decision to take can sometimes be the most painful...”
José N. Harris (American author)
“Then I thought, boy, isn't that just typical? You wait and wait and wait for something, and then when it happens, you feel sad.”
Sharon Creech (American writer of children's novels)
“I want to reach out and grab his hand and hold it to me, right over my heart, right where it aches the most. I don't know if doing that would heal me or make my heart break entirely, but either way this constant hungry waiting would be over.”
Ally Condie (Allyson Braithwaite Condie is an American writer of young-adult fiction, primarily under the name Ally Condie)
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”
Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism)
“In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.”
Elizabeth Gilbert (Elizabeth M. Gilbert is an American author, essayist, short story writer, biographer, novelist, and memoirist)
“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”
Thérèse de Lisieux (Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, was a Roman Catholic French Discalced Carmelite nun)
“Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.”
Rachel Naomi Remen (Rachel Naomi Remen is an author, teacher, and promoter in integrative medicine)
“So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.”
Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer)