Dean Koontz

"God is never cruel. There is a reason for all things. We must know the pain of loss; because if we did not, we would have no compassion for others, would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one."

Dean Koontz

Sue Grafton

"There's a certain kind of person who will do you in and then remain completely mystified by the depth of your pain."

Sue Grafton (E is for Evidence)

Jane Austen

"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I have loved none but you."

Jane Austen (Persuasion)

Jeanette Winterson

"You’ll get over it. It’s the clichés that cause the trouble.
To lose someone you love is to alter your life for ever.
You don’t get over it because ‘it” is the person you loved. The pain stops, there are new people, but the gap never loses. How could it? The particularness of someone who mattered enough to grieve over is not made anodyne by death. This hole in my heart is in the shape of you and no-one else can fit it. Why would I want them to?"

Jeanette Winterson

Chuck Palahniuk

"It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness.
We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace."

Chuck Palahniuk

Colm Tóibín

"..Some of our loves and attachments are elemental and beyond our choosing, and for that very reason they come spiced with pain and regret and need and hollowness and a feeling as close to anger as I will ever be able to imagine. "

Colm Tóibín