Home > Author > Camille Pagán
1 " *marissa tries to get her single, working mother's attention by suggesting something outrageous, to which mom replies:*'You're a smart girl. Use your head and avoid any guy who reminds you of your father. "
― Camille Pagán , The Art of Forgetting
2 " But then my lower lip started trembling and a fog of sadness rose through my chest and head, emerging as tears. "
― Camille Pagán , Life and Other Near-Death Experiences
3 " Trust me, it's the weight of someone else's expectation that's the hardest to lose. "
4 " It takes courage to be yourself when everyone expects you to be someone else. "
― Camille Pagán , I'm Fine and Neither Are You
5 " Life is devastating, if only in its limited run; but it’s incredibly good, too. "
6 " It’s permanence that distinguishes grief from other emotional pain. The unfixable nature of never—that’s what makes it so terrible to bear. "
7 " It takes guts to stop fretting about the unknown and concentrate on the present moment. "
8 " There was nothing I could do to change what had happened, but I could not stop myself from desperately wishing I could rewind my life and do it all over in a way that was the exact opposite of my past. "
9 " Think about what you want out of the situation, not how you feel about it. "
10 " But here before me was a good man. It struck me that I had yet to hear him say a negative word about another person. Even if he was describing a terrible action, like his father’s inability to care for his family in the way that they needed, he spoke in terms of the event, rather than blaming the person. I loved people like this, and encountered so very few. "
11 " Once you love someone that way, you love them forever. That's just how it goes. "
― Camille Pagán , Forever is the Worst Long Time
12 " Yet I’ve come to understand that the way I will truly honor my mother’s memory is not with a big act, but through my daily choices: to be compassionate with myself, even when my will is weak and my body fails me; to give myself freely to those I love, even when it means my heart may be broken; and to live fully and completely while I have the chance—just as my mother did. "
13 " Being something for someone else is a perfectly good waste of a life, isn’t it? "
14 " in order to function, most people have to ignore reality, or at least most of it. "
15 " Love me when I'm at my worst. Love me when you don't agree with me, and when this no longer feels new and surprising. Love me through it all. "
16 " As much as we crave a concise, linear narrative, life happens as it will, often in a haphazard fashion that feels anything but finished. We must cobble together our most important moments and call them our story. "
17 " To have been placed on this planet with you...at the same time...is the gift of my life. "
18 " The people we are drawn to are the ones we need most, even if we are never able to fully comprehend why. "
19 " Damn it, if only life came with a rewind button. I would do it all so very differently. "
20 " Look beyond what is missing and be thankful for all that remains. "
