Quotes from Charles Martin

Love is a choice. It's a decision.' She told us, 'It flows into, through, and out of each person like a river. If you try to stop it, it'll sneak around until It finds another heart and breaks through.

When I find myself wondering what hell must be like, I'm reminded of the terminals in Atlanta. Thousands of people, most of whom don't know one another, crammed into a limited space, all in a hurry and trying desperately to get out.

You rescued me when I thought nobody would. When I thought I wasn't worth the effort. You gave me everything and asked for nothing.' She pressed her face to mine. 'If this is love on the other side of the rescue, then I want to live it. With you. But,' She shook her head. 'But if you give you to me, then'- she placed her palm flat across my chest -'come heavy

All hearts have but one request. One simple, unspoken, undeniable need. One undeniable fear. "To be known.

There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.

Never make it without the compass. In the trees, I'd lose all sense of perspective. Direction. Maybe life is like that.

No matter where you go, no matter what happens, what you become, what you gain, what you lose, no matter whether you succeed or fail, stand or fall, no matter what you dip your hands into . . . no gone is too far gone. Son, you can always come home.

The books talked about it [the heart] as if it were a sump pump stuck down in the muck and mire of somebody's backyard. Never in all my scientific reading did I encounter anything that talked about a broken heart. Never did I read anything about what the heart felt, how it felt or why it felt. Feeling and knowing weren't important, only understanding

I have come to know one thing without ay shadow of doubt: if anything in this universe reflects the fingerprint of God, it is the human heart.

Most people enter a library and don't hear a thing. Eerie silence. I stand between the shelves and hear ten thousand conversations occurring all at once. Each ushering an invitation. The noise is raucous.

Emma once told me that some people spend their whole lives trying to outrun God, maybe get someplace He's never been. She shook her head and smiled, wondering why. Trouble is, she said, they spend a lifetime searching and running, and when they arrive, they find He's already been there.

Identity does not grow out of action until it has taken root in belonging.