His Whole Life Quotes

“When you take things personally, she knew, the world becomes very small. It is you and nothing is smaller. When you manage not to do that, the world opens wide.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“Where do they come from, these things that say more than we know and more than we intend?”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“You stay loyal to what increasingly disappoints you. It happens all the time.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“Who's to say we can't have many loves and many identities? we can hold more in our heads than we think.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“Jim enjoyed watching people take sides. It increased the drama and he loved the drama. Yet it worried him too, since he wanted people to like each other and he wanted to be on the right side, the brave and exciting side.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“You run over a part of yourself when you run over something that has such a place in your heart.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“That's always the question. How to defend yourself without being nasty.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“But some feelings take a long time, they sort of grow behind your back. You turn around thirty years later and there they are.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“You say to yourself, 'Have I kidded myself all these years. Does what I care about really matter? Is (my opinion) important? On a scale of one to ten, would it even register?' And instead of not caring, you decide to care even more.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“What we lose is any sense that life is alive, she thought. The days follow one after the other and everything passes us by. Then along comes someone who looks at us kindly, as if we were worth noticing, and life quickens.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“This is the way of long and empty roads: nearly forgotten things surface and singing voices improve.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“Hearts don't burst. They keep on expanding. There's no end to it.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“I'm dealing with nothing too. It goes on and on.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life

“Forgiveness, she was thinking, was in some terrible, overeager way, a lack of curiosity. It was a big, powerful hose that washed everything away. She had, in effect, turned the hose on herself. "Of course I forgive you." As eager to reconcile as she has been in the schoolyard and in her first marriage too. Only to think that now she should not have been so hasty. Forgiveness was the premature end to the story. She had skipped to the last page instead of reading the book through.”
― Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life