“You were unsure which pain is worse -- the shock of what happened or the ache for what never will.”

“There was no warning, not even a knock. The door flew open, and he forgot his present aches and pains in anticipation of what lay in store. The figure that stood in the door was not that of an enemy. It was worse. It was his mother.”

“Hope for the best, be prepared for the worse. Life is shocking, but you must never appear to be shocked. For no matter how bad it is it could be worse and no matter how good it is it could be better.”

“You never really knew for sure what was going to happen next in life, Duncan thought. That was part of the pain and the fun. You never really knew the end of the story until it happened.”

“...the air so still it aches like the place where the tooth was on the morning after you’ve been to the dentist or aches like your heart in the bosom when you stand on the street corner waiting for the light to change and happen to recollect how things once were and how they might have been yet if what happened had not happened.”

“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. Don’t waste your pain; use it to help others.”