Occasionally while reading, I encounter a sentence or phrase that stops me dead in my tracks. I read it again, and sometimes underline the words. Often I rewrite it somewhere just to keep the meaning close. Many of the quotes we put on our art prints were born from this experience. I cherish these words, ponder them and often find myself affected by them.

"He stepped down, trying not look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking." - Anna Karenina

"Beware for I am fearless, and therefore powerful." - Frankenstein

"And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good." - East of Eden

"We need never be ashamed of our tears." - Great Expectations

Rarely, I am sorry to say, I have the same experience with spoken words. Maybe it's an issue of focus. I am bombarded daily with thousands if not millions of words from songs, speeches, conversations, movies, etc. Every so often though, I am dumbfounded by something someone says that hits me hard. There is of course, the first time my girls said, "mama." You have the phone call where you are told you, "got the job." I have three from all the chatter, that I want to memorialize in typographical art. I want to keep them in sight for ever.

EPISODE 1

I was a young 20 something. My life had fallen completely apart. I quit an incredible job and I packed it all up to numbly drive the 600 miles from Wisconsin to the front door of my parents house in West Virginia. My dad answered. I immediately began sobbing and telling him everything that was terrible and wrong. He listened as I rambled on. Finally when I gave my patient father a chance to cut in, he said, 

"I don't care about all that, I'm just glad you're home." 

EPISODE 2

It took a long while for my husband and me to get ourselves situated - it's a long story. We did not speak of love for the longest time, some 20 years, until one day he looked at me and said, 

"I'm just going to say it Jeanne. I love you." 

EPISODE 3

I had been a distant stranger to death until May, when I suddenly lost a dear, young friend. I was blindsided. God, death is devastating. I stoically helped organize the services. It was a numb, surreal time. In the end, the interment was the most difficult for me. I couldn't stop the huge, stinging tears rolling under my large black sunglasses and down my cheeks. After the service the Reverend approached me and said,

"I love the way you cry. It shows that you carry the weight of the world."

I want to give you all the opportunity to memorialize your most cherished words, literary or otherwise. A perfect quote you just read or something profound that gave you pause. CLICK HERE to choose YOUR words.