Sigrid Gerstner

“If I'm confused, or upset, or angry, if I can go out and look at the stars I'll almost always get back a sense of proportion. It's not that they make me feel insignificant; it's the very opposite; they make me feel that everything matters, be it ever so small, and that there's meaning to life even when it seems most meaningless.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, A Ring of Endless Light

“The shared secret and the shared denial are the most horrible aspects of incest.”
― John Bradshaw, Bradshaw on the Family: A New Way of Creating Solid Self-Esteem

“We're not peculiar."
"Oh, yes, you are. Don't you realize that in my world my parents are peculiar because they'd never been divorced? Basically because it would have been too much trouble. But you live in a world where not only are your parents not divorced, they appear to love each other”
― Madeleine L'Engle, A Ring of Endless Light

“Perhaps nothing so accurately characterizes dysfunctional families as denial. The denial forces members to keep believing the myths and vital lies in spite of the facts, or to keep expecting that the same behaviors will have different outcomes.
Dad's not an alcoholic because he never drinks in the morning, in spite of the fact that he's drunk every night.”
― John Bradshaw, Bradshaw on the Family: A New Way of Creating Solid Self-Esteem