real love

Her mother told her once that when you feel someone else’s pain and joy as powerfully as if it were your own, then you knew you really loved them. Pg 267

the law of life

There was that law of life. So cruel and so just. That one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same. –Norman Mailer
He put his cool hand on her cheek again. “I am worried about you,” he said quietly. And looking at his face, she could never again question whether they had really become friends. Pg. 227

There were so many things she wanted to say to him. So many shades of the words thank you. So many routes to get to an apprehension of love. Not that kind of love. This kind of love. Any kind of love, really.
She wanted to say these things to him, to make him understand her feelings and also to make him know that though this thing between them was fragile and strange, he was safe.
But it was too late. He was already gone. Pg 233

stayed home and thought of here

Should we have stayed home and thought of here? –Elizabeth Bishop

Don’t ask me any questions right now. I’m grumpy and I’ll probably make fun of you.

Carmen situated her mother between her knees and began massaging her tense shoulders. Carmen had strong hands. She felt like she was good at this. She heard a little hitch in her mother’s breathing, and she knew Christina was crying.
But she knew Christina was crying because she was happy, and that gave Carmen her own feeling of happiness unlike anything she’d felt in a long time. Pg. 191

The beautiful thing about getting someone to tell you what was wrong was that you could tell them something to make it a little better. Lena made a mental note that she should try it more often. Pg. 194

none more black

It was one of those mornings when you come to terms with a strange new reality. You ask yourself, Did I dream that? Did I actually do that? Did he really say that? Reality comes back in bits and pieces, and you experience the novelty of it all over again. You wonder, Will this day and this night and tomorrow and all the rest of the days be different because of what happened last night? And in Tibby’s case, she knew the answer. Pg 36

“It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.” This Is Spinal Tap

but on the other hand

But on the other hand, it seemed to Tibby like another example of destiny’s strange sense of humor. The single safest guy in Tibby’s life had turned imposing. He didn’t impose on purpose, she knew. He didn’t desire her to be mean to her. He didn’t plant these feelings in her heart to make her sad. But desire was there, his and hers, and as a consequence, it wasn’t a safe relationship anymore. What about friendship, though? What about the ease between them? Where was that going to go? And if they let it go, could they ever get it back? Pg. 24

does this work

So she sat still, looking into his eyes as he reached toward her face. He didn’t kiss her or anything like that. But what he did felt just as shockingly intimate. The first three fingers of his right hand landed lightly on her warm face and smoothed out the rumple of consternation in the center of her forehead. “Okay,” he said. Pg 18

Where there is great love, there are always wishes. Willa Cather