Helen Garner Quotes

It is important to feel the anger without judging it, without attempting to find meaning in it. It may take many forms: anger at the health-care system, at life, at your loved one for leaving. Life is unfair. Death is unfair. Anger is a natural reaction to the unfairness of loss.

Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.

I think whenever you lose somebody close to you, there's always a part of you that wishes you could have done something differently.

You feel a lot of rage when someone dies. I have a lot of faith in nature, but it can be cruel.

When anyone dies, it's sad.

You don't get dead and there not be consequences.

When a friend is carried to his grave, we at once find excuses for every weakness, and palliation of every fault. We recollect a thousand endearments, which before glided off our minds without impression, a thousand favors unrepaid, a thousand duties unperformed; and wish, vainly wish, for his return, not so much that we may receive as that we may bestow happiness, and recompense that kindness which before we never understood.

The worst day ever was when I found out my grandfather was going to die.

Here's a thing about the death of your mother, or anyone else you love: You can't anticipate how you'll feel afterward. People will tell you; a few may be close to right, none exactly right.

Your father has to die, better he dies in your arms.

When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.

We all have that burning question about what happens if we lose somebody we love, especially if we lose them tragically. We wonder what fear was going on, we wonder if we could have reached out and touched them, held their hand, looked in their eyes, been there.

I ought to rejoice in the fact that our principal rival has died, but I don't.

No one can sustain rage for long. I am still angry and always will be. My dear son was stolen from me and his family to never return. He was killed for profit and lies. How can I not be angry? Sometimes though, the rage comes back.

I know what you go through when you learn someone close to you has died.

The death of my own son has made me more sensitive. It's made me more compassionate.

The fact that I lost my mum was horrible, and if I could change anything, I would definitely change that.

Bereavement is terrible, of course. And when somebody you love dies, it's a time for reflection, a time for memory, a time for regret.

My mother's death was very painful as it occurred over a period of a week. Watching her die was the hardest thing my dad ever went through.

My mother died in 1997 and I spiralled into this self-destructive vortex of trying to annihilate my consciousness. I was afraid to face the grief of losing her, because she was somebody I loved more than anybody else in the world.

I've had - after my mom passed away - like a lot of resentment, a lot of things that just happened after I lost my mom.

My wife was an amazing, amazing person. Sophia's Heart is an organization that I founded in honor of my wife when she passed away. When she passed away it was a complete shock, and it was disappointment, anger. I felt all those emotions.

[In the aftermath of death] Small talk feels too small, big talk too enormous.

L'ide e qu'on mourra est plus cruelle que mourir, mais moins que l'ide e qu'un autre est mort. The idea of dying is worse than dying itself, but less cruel than the idea that another has died.