“If it was cancer or a heart condition that had killed Charlotte, people might have related to me better, because many people have lost someone to one of those illnesses. But when it’s an invisible problem like mental health or suicide, people aren’t sure how to talk about it. They’d rather say nothing than end up saying something insensitive, stupid or becoming tongue-tied. It made for a lonelier life for me, though.”

“We have to live without sympathy, don't we? That's impossible of course. We act it to one another, all this hardness; but we aren't like that really, I mean...one can't be out in the cold all the time; one has to come in from the cold...d'you see what I mean?”

“The person who really needs to know something does not need to be told many times, drilled, tested. Once is enough.”

“She smiled at him as they waited for their dessert, her chin poised on her clasped hands. 'You're being very silent.' 'That's how men cry.”

“Remember, the thoughts you think, along with your feelings and emotions, control your vibration. Your vibration is a magnet and everything that comes to you is steel.”

“It's not your schedule that keeps you from praying, it's your failure to realize the importance of prayer.”

“If parents back off the pressure and anxiety over grades and achievement and focus on the bigger picture—a love of learning and independent inquiry—grades will improve and test scores will go up.”

“There is no such thing as luck, I told him. Luck is just readiness that meets opportunity.”