“To lose such an important listener in life is like losing my shadow. With no shadow, does a person truly exist under the sun? With no listener, does a person really have a voice? Silence means so many things to human beings. Some of them are unbearable.”

“In one of the chapters of her book my mother characterizes the relationship of sisters as one that "can illustrate the essence of relationships," an understanding companionship of two complete and independent individuals who choose to be together.”

“I'm not living the life I thought I would lead, but it does have meaning, purpose. There is love... there is joy... there is laughter.”

“A hero is an ordinary person doing things in an extra ordinary way.”

“We all have many more abilities and internal resources than we know. My advice is that you don't need to break your neck to find out about them.”

“There is, of course, always the personal satisfaction of writing down one's own experiences so they may be saved, caught and pinned under glass, hoarded against the winter of forgetfulness. Time has been cheated a little, at least, in one's own life, and a personal, trivial immortality of an old self assured.”

“The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask. I have shed my mask.”