Sue Monk Kidd

"It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening."

"When it's time to die, go ahead and die, and when it's time to live, live. Don't sort-of-maybe live, but live like you're going all out, like you're not afraid."

"It was the oldest sound there was. Souls flying away."

"And I was struck all at once how life was out there going through its regular courses, and I was suspended, waiting, caught in a terrible crevice between living my life and not living it."

"We walked along the river with the words streaming behind us like ribbons in the night."

"People who think dying is the worst thing don't know a thing about life."

"Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here."

"There is nothing perfect. There is only life."

"Where had I been that I didn't know about imaginary friends? I could see the point of it. How a lost part of yourself steps out and reminds you who you could be with a little work."

"I didn't know what to think, but what I felt was magnetic and so big it ached like the moon had entered my chest and filled it up. The only thing I could compare it to was the feeling I got one time when I walked from the peach stand and saw the sun spreading across the late afternoon, setting the top of the orchard on fire while darkness collected underneath. Silence had hovered over my head, beauty multiplying in the air, the trees so transparent I felt like I could see through to something pure inside them. My chest ached then, too, this very same way."

"In a weird way I must have loved my little collection of hurts and wounds. They provided me with some real nice sympathy, with the feeling I was exceptional."