Do not let grief be the only map you carry, lest you lose your way back to happiness.

Saisee wore a path between the kitchen and the living room, bringing out mugs of coffee, and plates barely visible beneath clouds of spoon bread, ambrosia dotted with maraschino cherries- the cheerful red of them an affront to his eyes- and rosy slices of ham.

The older I get, Mr. Lapine, the more I realize it’s sometimes preferable not knowing the answers to things. In fact, I often wish I’d never heard the question.

Isn’t that an odd thing for a parent to wish for a child? That he would be less than what he is?

Your parents were far from saints, Alice. It would be generous to say they were ordinary people who made some very serious mistakes. Don't make them out to be perfect. That’s too thin a wire for anyone to be able to keep their balance.

Before too much longer I’ll forget her minute imperfections. That’s what you end up missing the most, those little faults. They burrow under your skin. Become endearing in retrospect.

She pulled off the road when she was halfway there, parking the car in a spot where the grass had turned from supple green to crisp gold. The air in midafternoon was laced with the smell of things gone to ground. Beech leaves curled in on themselves, brushed with the dull finish of autumn; the shadbush blazed scarlet.

We turned into each other’s best excuse for not doing the things we were afraid of.

She told me she'd chosen something for the headstone, part of a verse from Psalm eighty-four- 'Yea, the sparrow hath found an house.' I never got to see it; the headstone was being engraved.""'And the swallow a nest for herself.' That was one of my mother's favorite psalms," he said.

Why do I seem to have this effect on women? They're around me and they cry.