I should let people in. If they leave, they leave. If I break, I break. It happens to everyone.

He was the only person in the world she was tongue-tied around, and yet the only person she really wanted to talk to.

—Sarah Addison Allen in The Sugar Queen

She'd never felt anything for the men she'd dated, nothing beyond her own desperation. And her desire to marry wasn't strong enough, would never be strong enough, to allow her to marry a man she didn't love.

—Sarah Addison Allen in The Peach Keeper

She never thought she was good at making friends. But maybe she was just trying to be friends with the wrong people.

—Sarah Addison Allen in The Peach Keeper

Life is about experience. You can't hold on to everything.

—Sarah Addison Allen in Garden Spells

Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.

—Steve Jobs

No matter how hard it feels, you don't need to be afraid to move on. There's always more to see and feel.

—Emily Henry in The Love That Split the World

It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.

—Samuel Butler

Time healed, they said, but it wasn't true, or not completely. The first raw wound of loss had closed and silvered over, yes, but the scar it had left would never heal. It would always be there, aching and tender.

—Ruth Ware in The Death of Mrs. Westaway

Grief is an unfillable hole in your body. It should be weightless, but it's heavy. Should be cold, but it burns. Should, over time, close up, but instead it deepens.

—Emily Henry in A Million Junes