2. "As mothers and daughters, we are connected with one another. My mother is the bones of my spine, keeping me straight and true. She is my blood, making sure it runs rich and strong. She is the beating of my heart. I cannot now imagine a life without her."
―Kristin Hannah, Summer Island
3. "Sometimes, mothers say and do things that seem like they don't want their kids ... but when you look more closely, you realize that they're doing those kids a favor. They're just trying to give them a better life."
―Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care
4. "Mothers and their children are in a category all their own. There's no bond so strong in the entire world. No love so instantaneous and forgiving."
―Gail Tsukiyama, Dreaming Water
6. "My mother... she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her."
―Jodi Picoult
7. "Dan clung to her in speechless gratitude, feeling the blessedness of mother love, — that divine gift which comforts, purifies, and strengthens all who seek it."
―Louisa May Alcott, Jo's Boys
8. "I wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful."
―Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
9. "This is what we do, my mother's life said. We find ourselves in the sacrifices we make."
―Cammie McGovern, Neighborhood Watch
11. "Even as a small child, I understood that women had secrets, and that some of these were only to be told to daughters. In this way we were bound together for eternity."
―Alice Hoffman, The Dovekeepers
12. "A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dates all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path."
―Agatha Christie, "The Last Séance"
13. "Motherhood is a choice you make everyday, to put someone else's happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you're not sure what the right thing is...and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong."
―Donna Ball, At Home on Ladybug Farm
15. "Mothers were the only ones you could depend on to tell the whole, unvarnished truth."
―Margaret Dilloway, How to Be an American Housewife
16. "When Jack Burns needed to hold his mother's hand, his fingers could see in the dark."
―John Irving, Until I Find You
17. "'I always wondered why God was supposed to be a father,' she whispers. 'Fathers always want you to measure up to something. Mothers are the ones who love you unconditionally, don't you think?'"
―Jodi Picoult, Keeping Faith
19. "Mom had the kind of love for her that you could feel, like it was part of the atmosphere."
―Peter Abrahams, Down the Rabbit Hole
20. "Mama took me in her arms and held me tight. Her embrace was hot and she smelled like sweat, dust, and grease, but I wanted her. I wanted to crawl inside her mind to find that place that let her smile and sing through the worst dust storms. If I had to be crazy, I wanted my mama's kind of crazy, because she was never afraid."
―Sarah Zettel, Dust Girl
21. "Mothers, I believe, intoxicate us. We idolize them and take them for granted. We hate them and blame them and exalt them more thoroughly than anyone else in our lives. We sift through the evidence of their love, reassure ourselves of their affection and its biological genesis. We can steal and lie and leave and they will love us."
―Megan Mayhew Bergman, Birds of a Lesser Paradise: Stories
23. "Because it is the lot of mothers to remember what no one else cares to, Mrs. Dutta thinks. To tell them over and over until they are lodged, perforce, in family lore. We are the keepers of the heart's dusty corners."
―Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter"
24. "I will look after you and I will look after anybody you say needs to be looked after, any way you say. I am here. I brought my whole self to you. I am your mother."
―Maya Angelou, Mom & Me & Mom
25. "No one worries about you like your mother, and when she is gone, the world seems unsafe, things that happen unwieldy. You cannot turn to her anymore, and it changes your life forever. There is no one on earth who knew you from the day you were born; who knew why you cried, or when you'd had enough food; who knew exactly what to say when you were hurting; and who encouraged you to grow a good heart. When that layer goes, whatever is left of your childhood goes with her."
―Adriana Trigiani, Big Stone Gap
27. "Because even if the whole world was throwing rocks at you, if you had your mother at your back, you'd be okay. Some deep-rooted part of you would know you were loved. That you deserved to be loved."
―Jojo Moyes, One Plus One
28. "Through the blur, I wondered if I was alone or if other parents felt the same way I did — that everything involving our children was painful in some way. The emotions, whether they were joy, sorrow, love or pride, were so deep and sharp that in the end they left you raw, exposed and yes, in pain. The human heart was not designed to beat outside the human body and yet, each child represented just that — a parent's heart bared, beating forever outside its chest."
—Debra Ginsberg