M.L. Stedman

That's how life goes on - protected by the silence that anesthetizes shame.

Being over there changes a man. Right and wrong don't look so different anymore to some.

Other blokes might take advantage, but to Tom, the idea of honor was a kind of antidote to some of the things he'd lived through.

I shouldn't have spoken like that.''People do, sometimes. People who've had less to contend with than you. We're not always in full control of our actions.

Christ--the quickest way to send a bloke mad is to let him go on re-fighting his war till he gets it right.

Sometimes, you're the one who strikes it lucky. Sometimes, it's the other poor bastard who's left with the short straw, and you just have to shut up and get on with it.

Such a mysterious business, motherhood. How brave a woman must be to embark on it.

Life could snatch away the things you treasured, and there was no getting them back. She began to feel an urgency, a need to seize an opportunity. Before anyone else did.

Stick to now. Put right the things you can put right today, and let the ones from back then go. Leave the rest to the angels, or the devil or whoever's in charge of it.

What are you suggesting I do Ralph?_____ suggesting you tell the bloody truth whatever it is. The only place lying leads is trouble.___ometimes that__ the only place telling the truth get you, too.

The only thing we can do is love that little girl as much as she deserves. And never, never hurt her!