Richard Paul Evans

“I've come to know that what we want in life is the greatest indication of who we really are.”

“Feelings can be like wild animals-we underrate how fierce they are until we've opened their cage”

“The idea of being a novelist is really romantic, but it's kind of the same as being president of the United States - it's not gonna happen.”

“There's no hurt so great that love can't heal it.”

“The sweetness of reunion is the joy of heaven.”

“Why is it that we so easily confide secrets to strangers that we so carefully hide from ourselves?”

“The human life cycle no less than evolves around the box; from the open-topped box called a bassinet, to the pine box we call a coffin, the box is our past and, just as assuredly, our future. It should not surprise us then that the lowly box plays such a significant role in the first Christmas story. For Christmas began in a humble, hay-filled box of splintered wood. The Magi, wise men who had traveled far to see the infant king, laid treasure-filled boxes at the feet of that holy child. And in the end, when He had ransomed our sins with His blood, the Lord of Christmas was laid down in a box of stone. How fitting that each Christmas season brightly wrapped boxes skirt the pine boughs of Christmas trees around the world.”

“Everyone has some inner power that awaits discovery.”

“In the end, we all lose it. Remember that. In the end, we own nothing.”

“It has been said that sometimes the greatest hope in our lives is just a second chance to do what we should have done right in the first place.”

“Mr. Vey, you cannot be stuffed into a locker without your consent." Dallstrom said, which may be the dumbest thing ever said in a school. "You should have resisted. That's like blaming someone who was struck by lightning for getting in the way.”

“I believe that we were meant to live as social creatures, to reach out and bless each other's lives.”

“Our culture's quest to hide death behind a facade of denial has made fools and pretended immortals of us all. Perhaps it would be more helpful and liberating to begin each day by repeating the words of Crazy Horse, "Today is a good day to die.”

“The kids who speak well, are articulate and intelligent, are all readers.”

“The study showed that chronic loneliness impacts out bodies as negatively as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Not the same way, of course, just the life risk part. And there's more bad news. The article went on to say that lonely people had worse reactions to flu shots that non-lonelies (I think I just made up that word; my computer put a red squiggly line under it) and that loneliness depresses the immune system. On other words, if you're lonely, not even your body wants to be around you, so it tries to off itself.”

“So much of young adult literature has turned dark, almost pathological. It's almost as if there is a race to see who can be the most dysfunctional.”

“Only those who never step, never stumble.”

“I have Tourettes syndrome.”

“Forgiveness is the key to the heart's shackles.”

“I don't get that, I mean, what's power? Let's say he suddenly becomes king of the world. What is he going to do with it that he can't do now? Is his food going to taste better? Is the weather going to be nicer? Will love feel better? I just don't understand that mentality.”