and then you stopped. And looked at me. And I knew then exactly what was going to happen. You kissed me, yes. But it was not just goodnight. Even then, I could feel the promise...

It was a life, she eventually concluded, that had been lived in the middle ground, where contentment and love were found in the smallest details of people’s lives. It was a life of dignity and...

That was the kind of life she’d had as a child, and it was the kind she wanted as an adult. But it hadn’t worked out that way. Things in life seldomdid, she’d come to...

There’s always pressure, a great deal of pressure, when writing, since my first books were so successful.

I’ll admit that it’s not easy to get an agent, but becoming successful in anything requires perseverance.

You are my best friend as well as my lover, and I do not know which side of you I enjoy the most. I treasure each side, just as I have treasured our life together.

You really love her don’t you,” she said.With all my heart.”She looked as sad as I’d ever seen her.What’s your heart telling you to do?”I don’t know.”Maybe”, she said gently,”You’re trying to hard to hear...

If you simply ignored the feeling, you would never know what might happen, and in many ways that was worse than finding out in the first place. Because if you were wrong, you could go...

Distance can ruin even the best of intentions.But I suppose it depends on how you look at it.Distance just adds a richness you would not otherwise get.People come. People go. They will drift in and...

She had known the kind of love that was worth risking everything for, the kind of love that was as rare as a glimpse of heaven.

There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.

because the past was always around her and might return at any time. It prowled the world searching for her, and she knew it was growing angrier at every passing day.

And suddenly she knew exactly why Catherine had fallen in love with him. It wasn’t that he was unusually attractive, or ambitious, or even charming. He was partly those things, but more important, he seemed...

…when a wife wouldn’t testify, little punishment was meted out. Alex came to understand that only those who pressed charges ever became truly free, because the life they were leading was a prison, even if...

That’s my sweetheart in there. Wherever she is, that’s where my home is.

It’s funny, but have you ever noticed that the more special something is, the more people seem to take it for granted? It’s like they think it won’t ever change. Just like this house here....

When I met my wife on Spring Break my junior year of college, I wrote her 200 letters in about 2 1/2 months, two a day, and sent her flowers telling her how much I...

Nine years ago, my mother died and my father wore black for a year and a half.

Life, he realize, was much like a song. In the beginning there is mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it’s in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole thing...

All of sudden, this shooting star went by, and all I could think was that they were listening to us somehow.

And I learned what is obvious to a child. That life is simply a collection of little lives, each lived one day at a time. That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers...

Three weeks ago, he’d seen hail fall from the sky, onlyto be followed minutes later by a spectacular rainbow that seemed to frame the azalea bushes. The colors, so vivid they seemed almost alive, made...

People didn’t change. they liked what they liked even if they didn’t understand why.

That’s what courage is. If she weren’t scared, she wouldn’t need courage in the first place.” -Jo

It doesn’t sound so far-fetched, right? When two people love each other? While a part of me still wants to believe it’s possible, I know it’s not going to happen

If there is a heaven we will find each other again, for there is no heaven without you.

It happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you’ve known forever don’t see things the way you do. So...

I’ve learned that we’re all entitled to have our secrets.

I am nothing special of this I am sure. I am just a common man with common thoughts. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But I’ve loved...

Having the book sell out of stores is far and away the most difficult step of all. Walk into a bookstore these days and scan the shelves. Thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of books, are...

After Hurricane Katrina, my wife and I, like so many others, were going to help, but we wondered what the best way to help was, … We went through Hurricane Floyd here, so we knew...

She was my dream. She made me who I am, and holding her in my arms was more natural to me than my own heartbeat. I think about her all the time. Even now, when...

How far should a person go in the name of true love?

Strange, what being forced to slow down could do to a person.

Who did she know in Raleigh who took the time off to fix a house? Or read Whitman or Eliot, finding images in the mind, thoughts of the spirit? Or hunted dawn from the bow...

Life…was much like a song. In the beginning there is mystery, in the end there is confirmation, but it’s in the middle where all the emotion resides to make the whole thing worthwhile.

I continue to stare, my eyes missing nothing, remembering the moments we just shared together. But in all that time she does not look back, and I am haunted by the visions of her struggling...

Before I started (college), that’s the advice my dad gave me. He said to pick classes based on the teacher whenever you can, not the subject…his point was that good teachers are priceless. They inspire...

Passion is passion. It’s the excitement between the tedious spaces, and it doesn’t matter where it’s directed…It can be coins or sports or politics or horses or music or faith…the saddest people I’ve ever met...

Wandering and confused, lost to myself, ill-assorted, contradictory, Pausing, gazing, bending, and stopping

What’s the challenge in writing a novel that few people will read? I’m more than happy writing what I do and have no plans to change that.

Hurricanes are part of southern history, remembered for the damage they caused.

We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has only happened once, and that’s why every minute we spent together has...

Yes, I decided, a man can truly change. The events of the past year have taught me much about myself, and a few universal truths. I learned, for instance, that while wounds can be inflicted...

She had been proud of his decision to serve his country, her heart bursting with love and admiration the first time she saw him outfitted in his dress blues.

When you chase a dream, you learn about yourself. You learn your capabilities and limitations, and the value of hard work and persistence.

Do you want a cookie?- What?- A cookie. Like an Oreo. Do you want one?- No.- How can you not want a cookie?- I just don’t.- Okay, fine,let’s say you did want a cookie. Let’s...

All they told me was that he was forty-two when he died. I just wanted…to find out more about what kind of person he was.I could tell you more, amanda thought to herself. A lot...

Everyone has a past, but that’s just it–it’s in the past. You can learn from it, but you can’t change it.

She’d either be a heartless mother and wife or a spineless enabler, when all she really wanted was the man she’d once believed him to be.