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It was an indulgence, learning last words. Other people had chocolate; I had dying declarations.

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The times that were most fun seemed always to be followed by sadness now, because it was when life started to feel like it did when she was with us th...more

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You can't just make me different and then leave

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I found myself thinking about President William McKinley, the third American president to be assassinated. He lived for several days after he was shot...more

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Nineteenth-century preacher Henry Ward Beecher's last words were "Now comes the mystery." The poet Dylan Thomas, who liked a good drink at least as mu...more

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Suffering is universal. It's the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about

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You can't just make yourself matter and then die, Alaska, because now I am irretrievably different, and I'm sorry I let you go, yes, but you made the ...more

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I would not be dying if it were not for her. I would have stayed home, as I have always stayed home, and I would have been safe, and I would have done...more

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I mean, he was something that happened to me, you know? But before he was this minor figure in the drama of my life he was - you know, the central fig...more

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Like they just wanted to enjoy The Gus Waters Show while it was still in town.

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Losing you're co-remember meant losing the memory itself.

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[T]here is something to recommend a story that ends.

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I called Isaac, who cursed life and the universe and God Himself and who said where are the goddamned trophies to break when you need them, and then I...more

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Who am I to say that these things might not be forever? Who is Peter Van Houten to assert as fact the conjecture that our labor is temporary? All I kn...more

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depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying.