Daniel Handler Quotes

They sat quietly together for a few minutes, Joe holding Fiona's hand, Fiona sniffling. No flowery words, no platitudes passed between them. Joe would have done anything to ease her suffering, but he knew nothing he might do, or say, could. Her grief would run its course, like a fever, and release her when it was spent. He would not shush her or tell her it was God's will and that her da was better off. That was rubbish and they both knew it. When something hurt as bad as this, you had to let it hurt. There were no shortcuts.

Eleonora Duse said, "Tell me about Deirdre and Patrick," and made me repeat to her all their little sayings and ways, and show her their photos, which she kissed and cried over. She never said "Cease to grieve", but she grieved with me, and, for the first time since their death, I felt I was not alone.

The common denominator of all my friends is that they're dead.

Now, I'm the only living member of that group. There was the six of us originally and they're now all gone.

One of the wonderful things about this glorious holiday trip I'm on is that I'm in public with people. It hasn't been inclined... I don't know - something to do with the death of my wife. It's inclined to make me isolated.

I had some really dear friends who died from AIDS-one in particular. His family wasn't around and he didn't have many friends. I spent a lot of time with him in his later days.

I have lost almost every friend that I had before Casey died.

Since Michael died I think I've worked constantly. Friends and colleagues are very sustaining. They're the people who get you through it... It's no good to be on your own.

America had taken my father from me. And over most of the years of his illness, I gradually started feeling this support system from this country who-people grieving along with us.

I don't have anybody to weep for me, except my mother.

My wife at home. She didn't have a pregnant belly anymore, nobody to cling to, no shoulder to cry on, no one to talk to, while I'm at work getting the love and everybody just patting me on the back. I was mad. I felt that I should be at home helping my best friend get past the grief.

Never does one feel oneself so utterly helpless as in trying to speak comfort for great bereavement.

But she wasn’t around, and that’s the thing when your parents die, you feel like instead of going in to every fight with backup, you are going into every fight alone.

I, first of all, felt a great sense of loss, a sense of condolence for the friends that I had that were killed in that, for the loved ones.

Holly died without a friend to hold her hand. Artemis felt her go, another gift of the magic. He kept on counting, brushing away the tears on his cheeks.

So many people choose silence after the immediate wake of a death out of fear of saying something out of turn or "bringing up bad memories" that bereaved people often feel forgotten.

In losing a friend, she is reminded of all she has lost and all she stands to lose again. There is nothing to be done to make it any easier. We all grieve alone.

When my father passed away two or three years ago, I didnt listen to music for four days - thats a long time for me.

It's a blessing not to be alone in your grief but it's also painful to see your parents and siblings in pain.

You know, I thought about that a lot these last couple of years," She says in a choked voice. "About who was there for you. Who held your hand while you grieved for all that you'd lost?

Bereavement is a darkness impenetrable to the imagination of the unbereaved

I wake up in the morning and I feel like I’m missing something. I know that there’s something not right, and it takes me a while to remember what it is . . . then I remember. My best friend is gone. My only friend. It was silly of me to rely so much on one person.

Those of you who are strong need to be there for those who have lost someone today. We have to be here for each other right now.

Nothing made you feel so useless as another person's grief.

Grief lasts longer than sympathy, which is one of the tragedies of the grieving.