Life is so frequently unbearable–you think you can’t possibly go on. Life–the survival of life–is the getting up again and going on, and the means of doing this vary, but at the heart of all things moving forward is the realization–for me, at any rate–that the world, your friends, your own broken heart need your friendship and your laughter and your willingness to go on. Break down and acknowledge your loss, your anger, your diminishing assets, but fall right back on a laugh, a story, a meal–whatever you can cobble together and give to someone else, to yourself.

"My sadness has always been, I think, a reminder that, in my spell of solitude and serenity, the world was still out there getting beat up, people were in pain, and I need to get back to tending to them.

"The greatest gift sometimes is the outstretched hand.”

– Alec Guinness, in an Interview with James Grissom/1997