Debbie Howells > Quotes

“That's when I know they've never lost someone. If they had, they'd understand. That you always miss them. That the pain doesn't go. That life stops.”
― Debbie Howells, The Bones of You

“That's how birthdays were in our house. All hateful charades of pretty clothes, expensive presents, and ugly words . . .”
― Debbie Howells, The Bones of You

“I’ve wondered since if you can ever truly read a face. It’s too easy to see what you so desperately want to see, even if it isn’t there. I knew that.”
― Debbie Howells, The Beauty of the End

“Everyone has a destiny. Rosie told me that. A future that already exists – hidden from us but still there, in the future – and each thing that happens to us, each choice we make, each person in our life takes us closer to it.”
― Debbie Howells, The Bones of You

“Suddenly your whole life is like a car crash, no brakes, gaining momentum, piling up behind you. Your mistakes, missed opportunities, all the time you’ve wasted, a twisted, rusting heap of scrap metal that can’t be salvaged. Overwhelming you. Crushing you.”
― Debbie Howells, The Beauty of the End

“I got to thinking about how in the grand scheme of things, all our lifetimes are short.’ And the thing is, none of us can predict what’s going to happen in our lives – how long we’ll live, when we’re going to die. We just deal with whatever comes along, when it happens.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“a cancer diagnosis alters the way you frame everything.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“There’s an inevitability to Rose passing – as there often is. Life and death are part of the same spectrum, after all. But in spite of her peacefulness, it feels as though a light has gone out.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“the beauty of this life, each episode changing us, shifting us in new directions.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“That’s the trouble with you young people.”
Saying young as though it was a bad thing.

“You’re in too darn much of a hurry to notice.”

“Notice what, exactly?”

“The difference,” she’d replied slowly, as if I were particularly stupid, “between what people want you to see, and what’s real.”
― Debbie Howells, The Beauty of the End

“It’s the first time I appreciate the difference the hospice can make, the support and kindness of the staff here. Not just for Marnie, but for all of us. The understanding, even a laugh here and there, while what it’s most about is life, and the belief that these last days are precious.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“Suicide isn’t an act of selfishness. It comes from desperation and illness, an inability to see any solutions. But it isn’t the answer.”
― Debbie Howells, The Life You Left Behind

“When people are near the end, often their minds sharpen. No-one thinks about the small stuff. Their loved ones, even life itself, become more important than they’ve ever been.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“Something had happened to April. You can see it in her. You know, how there are people who have no time for small things? Pettiness, I mean. In the way they let things go - because whatever huge, life-changing thing happened to them gave them a perspective most of us can't ever have.”
― Debbie Howells, The Beauty of the End

“this isn’t giving up. It about accepting this bleakest of realities I face.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“It’s more like I know what love isn’t.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“It’s a classic story of lives out of sync and bad timing, one I’ve seen too often, that leaves only regrets. Rose has missed him all her life, but you can’t turn the clock back.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“everything in this world is part of a cycle. The days, the seasons, the passing of time; even our lives. Like the darkest winter, death is an intrinsic part of that.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“This pain you hold on to… maybe it’s time to let it go. You have the whole of the rest of your life, Casey Cassidy. Just imagine if you could do something amazing with it.”
― Debbie Howells, The Life You Left Behind

“I was fourteen when I fell in love with a goddess. Goddesses have that effect, even on teenagers.”
― Debbie Howells, The Beauty of the End

“The thing was, I hadn’t been letting time go by. I’d been living our best life – as I thought she had. But whatever we had, it wasn’t enough for her.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“You can play the part for so long, wear the mask, say what people expect you to say. Fight for as long as there is air in your lungs. Fly if you have wings. But you can never be free from someone who won't let you go.”
― Debbie Howells, The Beauty of the End

“worse than uncertainty is fear.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“Why this obsession with prolonging life? Putting off the inevitable? I answer my own question, and it doesn’t help. Because life is beautiful. Given the choice, for however long I have, I want to live.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“a whole new perspective on life opening up in front of me. One that reaches beyond the constraints of this earth, to somewhere expansive; infinite.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“Life, for me, has been about travelling the world, experiencing different cultures and ways of life. But there is so much closer to home that’s passed me by,”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“It’s just that when life itself is so uncertain, when it can change in an instant, when it’s there for us to embrace every second of, it annoys me when people waste it.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“Whatever else is going on, there’s still a lot of life to live.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“life is precious; that the future isn’t a given, for anyone. It makes it all the more important to live your best life; to tell people how you feel, while you still can.”
― Debbie Howells, The Last Days of You and Me

“Death casts its shadow, leaving our hearts sad and tainting our world with fear.”
― Debbie Howells, The Bones of You