“There's the life and there's the consumer event. Everything around us tends to channel our lives toward some final reality in print or on film. Two lovers quarrel in the back of a taxi and a question becomes implicit in the event. Who will write the book and who will play the lovers in the movie? Everything seeks its own heightened version.”

“Our purpose on this earth is not one single event, an accomplishment we can check off a list. There is no test. No passing or failing. There's only us, each moment shaping who we are, into what we will become.”

“Everything in this world is based on interpretation, how we as people interpret the people and events and feelings around us. Then our interpretation defines us. Who we are is usually based on how we react to circumstances.”

“If we sacrifice everything for a cause, we tend to become a spokesperson instead of a lover, an organizer instead of a wife, a mouthpiece instead of a mother.”

“It's not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.”

“When everything else falls down around us, just knowing that there's another person who will miss us when we're gone is enough to see us through our darkest moments.”