No Place Like Home Quotes

“as there was breath”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“What you have to do, I think, is learn to accept all your feelings. They’re your material, and all of them are good and real, and if you feel them honestly, you’ll be able to use them.” “Wow,”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“he was crazy about her. But”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“And he turned, all six foot two of beautiful young hopeful male, his pack slung over his back with everything he needed in it, and I would have done every single minute of my whole life over again, every miserable moment, every sorrow, every joy, every everything to come back here and see him off to the life he was meant to live. I felt”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“I just stood next to him, my kid, until they called the flight. I memorized the feeling of his tall, ropy body next to mine, inhaled the soap-and-man smell of him, remembering a thousand other notes he’d once carried—baby powder and Diaparene, sand and sun, Play-Doh and brownies and Kool-Aid. He”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“It was the same way I felt about Michael, that he could never be gone because he was living inside of me, forever and ever, as long as I walked the earth, as long as there was breath in me. That was what love did, the sweetest part. I didn’t have to make sense of it or justify it or even have it returned. Love just arrived and filled you up and that was enough.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“It scared me, suddenly. I had not allowed myself to depend on anyone in a very long time. I took care of things myself. I liked it that way—if you didn’t put too much trust into somebody, you couldn’t get hurt, right?”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“Take all the parts you can’t do anything about and throw ’em in the river. Keep the things you can use, the good days, and let the rest go.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“The thing is, there is no more complicated relationship on the planet than that between sisters. I completely adore them. They get on my last nerve.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“experience”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“What you know, and what I know, is that there's nothing safe at all about life, and you might as well go on and live it, instead of hiding in some corner.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“if you didn't put too much trust into somebody, you couldn't get hurt, right?”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“For gingersnap crust:
2–3 cups crushed gingersnaps
1⁄4 cup melted butter
1⁄2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Juice and grated rind of 1⁄2 lemon Toss crumbs with melted butter. Combine sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, and rind to form paste. Line bottom of dish with 1/3 of stuff. Add apples and cover with remaining crumbs (can put layer in middle if desired).”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“Abe's Ass-Kickin' Apple Pie (written in pencil on a much-stained sheet of paper with MARION CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE across the top) 8 cups apples
1⁄4 cup butter
1⁄2 cup brown sugar
1⁄4 cup granulated sugar
21⁄2 Tb flour
11⁄2 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
1 Tb lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla Cut apples into thin slices. Cook in large pan with 1⁄2 cup water. While cooking, add butter. Mix sugars, flour, cinnamon, and salt in bowl. After apples are tender, add sugar mix, lemon juice, and vanilla to apples. Allow mix to simmer 10–12 minutes. Remove from stove and allow apples to cool. Once cool, place in pie crust. Be sure to slit holes in top crust. Sprinkle top with sugar if desired or mix 1 egg with 2 tablespoons water and brush over top crust. Also can add raisins to apple mix or mayhap nuts. Cook in oven 425 degrees for approx fifty minutes.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“The thing is, there is no more complicated relationship on the planet than sisters. I completely adore them. They completely drive me insane. I can't imagine my life without them and have often said I hope I'm the first one to die because I don't want to have to bury them.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“enough”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“he could never be gone because he was living inside of me,”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“he could never be gone because he was living inside of me, forever and ever, as long as I walked the earth, as long as there was breath in me. That's what love does, that's the sweetest part. I didn't have to make sense of it or justify it or even have it returned. Love just arrives and fills you up and that's enough.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“I rested my chin lightly on the top of Michael's head. “Next life, would you be straight so we can get married?” “That'd be all right, I guess. What if we're both girls, though. Or guys?” “Just don't go anywhere when you get to the other side. Wait for me and we'll figure it out.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“It's so hard to know, these days, how to deal with someone who is dying. It used to be normal—even I remember the elderly aunts and grandfathers who were cared for in the houses in my neighborhood, the odd younger person nursed through the end stages of cancer or some other shocking thing that drained them of life too early. It wasn't exactly common, but it wasn't uncommon, either. In those days, before everyone was whisked off to the hospital for the end, the women in my world took care of the dying as a matter of course.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“That's why they fall asleep so fast after sex. They're so exhausted by the time they get there that there's no other option.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“They don't know, these guys, how to go anywhere but into a woman's arms when they hurt, and they think they like breasts and bellies and sex so much because they have no idea how to get what they need any other way.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“He felt like the smell of supper and the sound of Mass, like walking into my own bedroom and closing the door.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“I can't imagine my life without them and have often said I hope I'm the first one to die because I don't want to have to bury them. I think it would kill me.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“Maybe that's what all my sisterless friends are looking for when they wish for a sister of their own. That connection. I mean, we might have called one another names and said awful things, even done awful things, but when it comes down to the wire, sisters are there for you in a way you can't always count on from your friends. Or maybe you'll just ask your sisters for the support you need when you know they'll be pissed but will help you anyway.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“The thing is, there is no more complicated relationship on the planet than sisters.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“Take all the parts you can't do anything about and throw 'em in the river. Keep the things you can use, the good days, and let the rest go.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home

“On Saint Anthony's day, cut long branches of rue, collect the freshest flowers, and mix with the petals of the reddest rose in the garden. Dry in a secret place where they will be safe from the breath of others. When they are dry, grind them with a mortar and pestle to a fine powder, then pour it into a bag. Take the powder to the river on the Feast of Our Lady, think of your heart's desire, and toss the herbs into the water and ask the Lady's blessing on your love. If he is meant for you, he will come by the turn of the season. If he is not, your true love will appear.”
― Barbara O'Neal, No Place Like Home