Elizabeth Berg

“Over the years, I looked for ways into him, for an essential kind of access; and I failed at finding it again and again.”

Open House by Elizabeth Berg
Random House, Sydney, 2001
Page 37

Emerson Moran

“In a medical crisis, do we treat or not treat? What’s moral, what’s ethical? Do we risk heart surgery, colostomy, chemotherapy? Or do we let nature take its course?

Nothing prepared us for issues like these. And Pat can’t decide for herself, so it’s up to me.

Some nights, when answers don’t come, the loneliness of Alzheimer’s can be worse than the certainty of knowing how it’s all going to end, no matter what I do or don’t do.”

"Kidnapped by Alzheimer’s" by Emerson Moran
Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 18 March 2004
Health&Science page 7

Colin McPhedran

"'You yourself can only overcome the problems of the day.'"

White Butterflies by Colin McPhedran
Pandanus Books, Australian National University, Canberra, 2002
Page 101

Colin McPhedran

“She whispered, with words that have remained embedded in my mind, ‘The world is full of good people... I know you will find them and be well cared for, for the rest of your life. Son, you must walk on... don’t look back.’”

White Butterflies by Colin McPhedran
Pandanus Books, Australian National University, Canberra, 2002
Page 97

Ingmar Bergman

“No form of common failure, whether it be illness, bankruptcy or professional misfortune, will reverberate so grimly in the subconscious as a divorce. It touches directly at the source of all anguish, awakening it. With one stab it penetrates as deeply as life can ever reach.”

Faithless
directed by Liv Ullmann
written by Ingmar Bergman
2001

Michael Cunningham

“There is a beauty in the world, though it’s harsher than we ever expect it to be.”

A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
Picador, New York, 1990
Page 336