Top 70 Dan Gemeinhart Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “A found family is every bit as beautiful as a born family. Even more so, perhaps. Stories are about choices, after all, and to choose to be family is as wonderful a story as can be told.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

2. “Across far, dark miles a friend can still hold your hand and be there with you.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

3. “That’s how memories work, I suppose; you just go through life collecting them, never letting go of the precious ones but leaving room in your heart for more.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

4. “Sometimes trusting someone is about the scariest thing you can do. But you know what? It’s a lot less scary than being all alone.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

5. “Maybe we’re all a little broken. Maybe we’re all a little fragile. Maybe that’s why we need each other so much.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

6. “Dogs die. But dogs live, too. Right up until they die, they live. They live brave, beautiful lives. They protect their families. And love us. And make our lives a little brighter. And they don’t waste time being afraid of tomorrow.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

7. “In death, just like in life, sometimes there is a reaching out. One soul stretching across the darkness toward another. It can be a scary feeling if you are the one doing the reaching. A lonely feeling. But when, out of the blackness, you feel that other soul reaching out to you too... well, that is the best feeling. Believe me. At the end of it all maybe, it is the only feeling.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

8. “When two lonely souls find each other, sometimes there is a reaching out.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

9. “Hope is a lot like parking lot cigarette butts – always there if you look hard enough.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

10. “Everybody oughta have a dog,” he said thoughtfully, his hand still scratching Beau. “Dogs teach you love and kindness. They remind you what’s important.” He nodded and took a sip of his coffee. “A life ain’t much of a life without a dog in it, s’what I always said.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

11. “The world is dark. But together we build light; shared, it keeps us warm.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

12. “I just wanted everyone to be happy... It’s hard, though, when everyone carries around a heart inside them that is so loud and so strong and so easily broken.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

13. “I didn’t say anything. Sometimes even the right answers sound wrong if you don’t like the question. That’s the truth.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

14. “Driving toward something is better than driving away from something.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

15. “The best kind of goodbye is the kind where you don’t actually have to leave the person behind.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

16. “The funny thing about a broken heart is that for something held so deep inside, it’s surprisingly hard to hide.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

17. “Mama said that if someone’s putting ugliness into the world, you can’t be ugly back; you gotta put a little bit of sunshine into the world to even things out.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

18. “Even when you’re talking to someone who might not know what you’re saying, lying to good people just feels bad. But it had to be done. So I did it.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

19. “Some things you just can’t quite put into words, and not speaking them is the only and best way to say them.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

20. “The eggs are already broken, so we may as well enjoy the omelet.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

21. “Rain pelted the huge windows. Thunder booms like cannon shots rattled the glass. The courtyard was a rain-lashed lake, reflecting the violent white cracks of lightning above. The wind shrieked between Slabhenge’s tall towers like an army of furious ghosts.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

22. “There is a powerful difference between feeling apart and feeling a part. There is a world in that space.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

23. “I guess that’s how regrets are... they’re anchors, not balloons. And we were sunk.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

24. “But when someone’s hurting, you gotta do something. Always kindness.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

25. “The mountain was calling me. I had to run away. I had to.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

26. “Here’s what I don’t get: why giving up always sounds good until you do it.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

27. “Losing something can sure make you realize how much you loved it, even if you knew you loved it all along.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

28. “I thought of all my sickness, all my anger, all my fear. All that was just the darkness, just the storm. I got lost in it. But there’s always the other side of the storm. And the people who get you there.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

29. “It’s something to have someone who misses you when you’re gone. And it’s something to have someone who fights to get you back.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

30. “What’s a soul for if you don’t use it?”

— Dan Gemeinhart

31. “Sometimes making friends is tough, and sometimes it’s as simple as finding someone who loves books and kittens as much as you do.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

32. “But, the truth does a lot more good most of the time if folks have the nerve to say it out loud, even if it hurts. Especially if it hurts, maybe.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

33. “He’s given me that silver pocket watch and I’d carried it everywhere. I’d loved it – until things got worse and its ticking sounded more like dark footsteps coming up behind me. I loved the watch until I started hating time. And how it ran out.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

34. “I missed ’em, sure enough, true and deep and hard, but the loving was stronger than the missing. – Joseph Johnson on p. 233 Some Kind of Courage.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

35. “Was Tammy being selfish in asking Lester to give up music, or was Lester being selfish in picking music over Tammy? Was Rodeo being selfish in not wanting to take me back... or was I being selfish in making him go back? Out of nowhere, tears came stinging into my eyes. I just wanted everyone to be happy. It’s hard, though, when everyone carries around a heart inside them that is so loud and so strong and so easily broken.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

36. “I don’t know. I guess I like... I like... the feeling of catching something. Of saving something. It’s like, I don’t know, grabbing a little peice of life. All this stuff happens, all these little moments go flying past, and then they’re gone. And then you’re gone. But when you take a picture, that one moment isn’t gone. You caught it. It’s yours. And you get to keep it.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

37. “Beau was a small dog. But size doesn’t tell you anything about how important something is.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

38. “I am a lunatic. Not an idiot. I go at night. To the kitchen. It’s been terribly messy.” The librarian paused, working his fingers into Ninety-Nine’s fur. Ninety-Nine closed his eyes and leaned back into the scratching finger. “And ice cream is my favourite food. It’s kept. In the freezer. Of course.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

39. “His head turned back and forth, sniffing at every strange sound and looking at every black shadow. A growl lived in his throat all the time. Everything felt like danger.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

40. “I don’t need them,” I whispered, squinting out at the town, the shadows. “I don’t need anybody.” It was true, maybe, but I didn’t like how my words sounded more mean than strong.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

41. “Yeah, probably.” She looked into my eyes a second longer, then pulled something out of her shirt pocket. It was a picture. A picture of a lady who looked an awful lot like Tammy. Friendly eyes. A big, warm smile. “That’s my sister,” Tammy said. Then she added, “Charlene,” and she added it soft. “She looks nice.” “She was.” I looked up at Tammy and she looked down at me and then she said, “Let’s get this ol’ girl back on the road.” I smiled big and she smiled.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

42. “What should a friend do? How to help, when helping and hurting are the same?”

— Dan Gemeinhart

43. “She swallowed. I’m there. He didn’t exactly say it proud. He didn’t exactly say it scared. Like his words couldn’t decide what part of his heart they came from. And her ears couldn’t decide what part of her heart heard them.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

44. “I bit my lip and looked out the window into darkness and tried to remember the last time I’d been happy. I had to go back. Way back. Every memory for years was stained now, even the good ones. I had to go all the way back to before.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

45. “But the truth, sometimes, can be the cruelest thing of all.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

46. “I was every different kind of sad there is. And every kind of determined, too. In all that I thought of, I never thought of stopping.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

47. “That’s the kind of friend she was. We were so together that we weren’t ever really apart.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

48. “But heck, if kittens and slushies aren’t worth getting in trouble for, what in the world is?”

— Dan Gemeinhart

49. “But he was always there. Trusting me. Following me. My heart burned with black tears when I thought of where he was following me to. So I stoped thinking about it.”

— Dan Gemeinhart

50. “There are good wake-ups, like when you drift out of sleep slow and easy and wake up curled up all warm with your cat. There’s waking up on Christmas and waking up on your birthday and waking up to the smell of bacon cooking. All good wake-ups.”

— Dan Gemeinhart