Janet Fitch Quotes

It's so easy for all the success in the world to suddenly end, and I'm quite aware of that.

We may, indeed, say that the hour of death is uncertain, but when we say this we think of that hour as situated in a vague and remote expanse of time; it does not occur to us that it can have any connexion with the day that has already dawned and can mean that death -- or its first assault and partial possession of us, after which it will never leave hold of us again -- may occur this very afternoon, so far from uncertain, this afternoon whose time-table, hour by hour, has been settled in advance.

Security is elusive. It's impossible. We all die. We all get old. We all get sick. People leave us. People change us. Nothing is secure.

We like to think of life as a constant ... Yet it can be ended in a heartbeat.

And so do people pass out of one's life and all you can remember of them is their humanity, a poor fitful thing of no dominion, like your own.

Listen to me: everything you think you know, every relationship you've ever taken for granted, every plan or possibility you've ever hatched, every conceit or endeavor you've ever concocted, can be stripped from you in an instant. Sooner or later, it will happen. So prepare yourself. Be ready not to be ready. Be ready to be brought to your knees and beaten to dust. Because no stable foundation, no act of will, no force of cautious habit will save you from this fact: nothing is indestructible.

There is nothing certain in a man's life but that he must lose it.

Five years after Aerosmith got back together, I realized how fragile we are as humans. There was a time I thought we were bulletproof, but then things happened and I came to the realization that I had to play every gig as if it was my last show. You have to start thinking that way, because you never know what's going to happen next.

Even Castles made of sand, fall into the sea, eventually.

I've been through so much in my life. I've seen so much. I know how fast things can change. I know someone can be here one minute and gone the next.

The moral is that a career can be gone in an instant. And all you have in this world are the people you love.

All human things Of dearest value hang on slender strings.

Americans have discovered the fragility of life, that ominous fragility that the rest of the world either already experienced or is experiencing now with terrible intensity.

Everything that we love will, at some point, be taken away from us. If I think about everyone I love eventually being taken away from me by death, or simply by getting lost from each other in the world, it makes me value them much more now.

I don't take things for granted, because everything feels more fragile. It's made me wonder about mortality and how long you've got somebody in the world. I'm more fearful than I used to be.

Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.

Anyone can die. Rule number one is don't get too attached to a character, anyone can go.

I realise how precious life is, probably because I've seen how it can be taken away.

This is part of the involuntary bargain we make with the world just by being alive. We get to experiences the splendor of nature, the beauty of art, the balm of love and the sheer joy of existence, always with the knowledge that illness, injury, natural disaster, or pure evil can end it in an instant for ourselves or someone we love.

Death is an absolute mystery. We are all vulnerable to it, it's what makes life interesting and suspenseful.

My voice right now, hey, listen. I don't know how long it's going to last.

So long as we can lose any happiness, we possess some.

Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.

I remember one time watching a bird snatch a dragonfly out of midair and thinking, 'Gee, life can come to an end - crunch! - just like that.'

That's the nature of this business. Something that took ten years to make can crumble in an instant. It could be snatched away from you at any moment.