Beautiful Ugly

by Alice Feeney

My books have always been a place to hide myself inside myself when the real world gets too loud.

Some people think hiding their grief will make it go away, but in my experience it only makes it hurt more. Grief is only ever yours; it’s not something you can share,

Grief is a patient thief and steals far more than people who have never known it realize.

“Success is often the result of a series of failures. Try to remember that. You never learn anything from success, but failure can teach you everything about a person.

“People rarely know what they have until they lose it. They spend their lives searching for a better one, wanting more, needing more, blind to the fact that they already had it all. I think sometimes it’s only when something gets taken from a person that they appreciate what they had.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t. Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.

Guilt is such a sticky emotion; you can’t wash the damn thing off.

“I think sometimes things have to get really dark for us to see what we have.

No man is an island, but a woman can be if she needs to be.