The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell Quotes

“There comes a day in every man’s life when he stops looking forward and starts looking back.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“There comes a day in every man's life when he stops looking forward and starts looking back.
Because of my father's circumstances, I had a sad commentary on life, but I now understood that he was offering me his own gift, one that only time can provide. He was offering me the gift of perspective. My father was telling me that while we tend to remember the dramatic incidents that change history---Armstrong's walk on the moon, Nixon's resignation, and the Loma Prieta earthquake---we live for the quiet, intimate moments that mark not our calendars, but our hearts: The day we marry. The days our children are born. Their first step. Their first word. Their first day of school. And when our children grow, we remember those moments with a touch of melancholy: the day they get their driver's license, the day we drive them to college, the day they marry, and the day they have their children.
And the cycle begins anew.
We realize it is in those quiet moments that each of us has the ability to make our lives extraordinary.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“we live for the quiet, intimate moments that mark not our calendars but our hearts:”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“Our skin, our hair, and our eyes are simply the shell that surrounds our soul, and our soul is who we are. What counts is on the inside.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“But to my mother—I suspect to all mothers—their little boys will always be their little boys, no matter how old those boys become.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“We realize it is in those quiet moments that each of us has the ability to make our lives extraordinary.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“Life is about heart. Yours is as big as any kid’s I’ve ever coached. Don’t you ever forget that.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“Time is wicked. It comes and goes like a thief in the night, stealing our youth, our beauty, and our bodies.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“Dearest father in heaven, bless this child and bless this day of new beginnings. Smile upon this child and surround this child, Lord, with the soft mantle of your love. Teach this child to follow in your footsteps, and to live life in the ways of love, faith, hope, and charity.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“Life is either a collision of random events, like billiard balls during a break careening off and into one another, or if you are so inclined to believe, our predetermined fate—what my mother took such great comfort in calling God’s will.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“The first recollection started as a trickle that, as soon as I attempted to block it, found another path to weep through, the way water will always bleed through concrete, no matter how many times you patch it.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“I remained a child, in need of someone to care for me. That person had been my mother all my life. I feared losing her. I feared not having her near me, not having her around, a part of my life,”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“Discrimination is difficult, because in its worst form, it is not overt. It is subtle.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“Reality could be painful to acknowledge, but there came a point when we all realized we weren’t going to walk on the moon, star in a Hollywood movie, or be president of the United States. We’d be who we were, and we could either come to grips with this fact and like the person we’d become, or live with regret and disappointment.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“Everything happens for a reason, Samuel. Never forget that. Have faith in God’s will.” Then she closed her eyes. They would be the last words she ever spoke to me.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“We believe we choose the paths we take when we come to those forks in our lives—the friends we make, the careers we undertake, the spouses we marry. But we don’t.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“I’ve accepted it, Mom. I’ve accepted who I am. Okay? I’m not a kid who’s going to get picked to play kickball, or to be the lead in the school play. I’m not going to be invited to parties or be chosen class valedictorian. I’m not. And I’m okay with that.” It sounded convincing, though I wasn’t okay with it. It hurt like hell, rejection. And the pain lingered like an open wound that, just as it started healing, was ripped open again.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“We’d be who we were, and we could either come to grips with this fact and like the person we’d become, or live with regret and disappointment.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“She did not come to my dreams and memories as a sweet recollection; she brought back the shame and humiliation I’d felt when I realized, standing in her kitchen, that love can be faked and, therefore, never fully trusted.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“Then perhaps you should consider that Samuel’s presence might very well be a perfect opportunity to put into practice some of the principles to which this school, and this parish, give lip service—to love one another and to display compassion to those who are different.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“I had concluded that I no longer shared her faith in a God who controlled the universe like a puppet master pulling and tugging strings and making us all dance. Our lives, I believed, were more like billiard balls on a pool table, ricocheting randomly with the impact of the cue ball. To believe otherwise was to believe that a God to whom my mother had devoted her life had responded by striking down her husband and causing her so much pain. I couldn’t accept that.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“What was better, after all, than being in love with your best friend?”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“My death would be noted with nothing more than a headstone bearing the dates of my birth and my death to let the world know I had been here.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“every cross we bear is an opportunity.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“Time is wicked. It comes and goes like a thief in the night, stealing”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“I had watched Grandma O’Malley, a proud and simple woman, shrink and wrinkle and turn white over the years. But we expect that of our grandparents. Not our parents. For some reason, we think our parents will never grow old, perhaps because when they do, we are forced to acknowledge that we will one day grow old, and we face our own mortality.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“a part of me had always known that i'd stayed in the relationship longer than i should because i lacked the confidence to believe i'd find someone else who would accept me and my condition. i was also smart enough to know that would never happen until i fully accepted me.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“Now, as an adult with that healthy dose of perspective we call experience, I realize my mother was right, as she was so often when it came to my life.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“There comes a time in every man’s life,” he’d said in the halting, ghostly voice his stroke had left him, “when he stops looking forward and starts looking back.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

“None of us is getting out of here alive.”
― Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell