Elizabeth Berg Quotes - Page 2

I hoped we never had to realize all the opportunities we missed in this life.

I don't think men try to make women be like them, but I think women try to make men be like them, a lot.

Never be afraid of doing the thing you know in your heart is right, even if others don't agree.

It's amazing how smart the body is. Though maybe we could do without loving. I think it's overrated, and I think it's too hard. You should only love your children; that is necessary, because otherwise you might kill them. But to love a man? It's overrated, and it's too hard and I will never, ever do it again.

It feels like some part of me that was curled down and waiting in the dark has risen, and now stands stretching and strong in the sunshine. I knew it.

It is such a terrifying thing to see a man cry.

My mind was in my heart, anchored like a bright kite in a safe place.

It is never about how good your voice is; it is only about feeling the urge to sing, and then having the courage to do it with the voice you are given.

Do you think that people ever really do believe they will die, that the world will just go along as always without them? I wonder if we aren't all a little surprised at the moment of crossover, if we don't look back over our shoulders saying, Now hold on.

But in spite of my great desire for intimacy, I've always been a loner. Perhaps when the longing for connection is as strong as it is in me, when the desire is for something so deep and true, one knows better than to try. One sees that this is not the place for that.

As far as I'm concerned, the most important thing you need when inventing characters is empathy.

There is incredible value in being of service to others.

Sometimes serendipity is just intention unmasked.

Make time for prayer and reflection; try to understand your value as a man on earth but see, too, your proper place in the scheme of things. It may sound funny to say this, but I have come to see that we are all far more important and less important than we think.

I felt myself trapped in line for a ride I was not nearly ready for, looking back but moving forward in the only direction I could go.

There are some things you never say good-bye to

Oh just wait. It takes a lot of time, that's all...You'll have come to a certain kind of appreciation that moves beyond all the definitions of love you've ever had. A certain richness happens only later in life. I guess its' a kind of mellowing. p 80 talking about marriage and husbands

If I were to draw on a paper what gym does for me, I would make one dot and then I would erase it.

Now, on this road trip, my mind seemed to uncrinkle, to breathe, to present to itself a cure for a disease it had not, until now, known it had.

I wondered what my father had looked like that day, how he had felt, marrying the lively and beautiful girl who was my mother. I wondered what his life was like now. Did he ever think of us? I wanted to hate him, but I couldn't; I didn't know him well enough. Instead, I wondered about him occasionally, with a confused kind of longing. There was a place inside me carved out for him; I didn't want it to be there, but it was. Once, at the hardware store, Brooks had shown me how to use a drill. I'd made a tiny hole that went deep. The place for my father was like that.

Just one look and then I knew that all I longed for long ago was you

No one wants to mother more vigilantly than a woman who is childless and wishes she wasn’t.

books are like confort food without the calories

There are people who have never studied writing who are capable of being writers. I know this because I am an example. I was a part-time registered nurse, a wife, and a mother when I began publishing. I'd taken no classes, had no experience, no knowledge of the publishing world, no agent, no contacts ... Take the risk to let all that is in you, out. Escape into the open.

I believe that the souls of women flatten and anchor themselves in times of adversity, lay in for the stay.