Vanessa Woods: "All these precious traits..."

"All these precious traits we cling to as uniquely ours - empathy, altruism, morality - they have to come from somewhere.  They didn't just appear... Evolution is a journey.  One tiny change links to the next."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "All of us are..."

"All of us are capable of these small acts of kindness that occasionally lead to the heroic acts of people..."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "If there is one..."

"If there is one thing I have learned from Congo, it is this:  If there are those you love, whoever or wherever they are, hold them.  Find them and hold them as tightly as you can.  Resist their squirming and impatience and uncomfortable laughter and just feel their hearts throbbing against yours and give thanks that for this moment, for this one precious moment, they are here."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "We may not be..."

"We may not be perfect, but we are perfect for each other.  The Chinese say that love is balance."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "We are who we..."

"We are who we are, but our circumstances shape us.  It is never nature versus nurture.  It is always nature and nurture."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "We do terrible things..."

"We do terrible things to the ones we love.  We cheat and lie and betray them, for thirty pieces of silver or our own selfish hearts.  The only way love endures is because of one simple gift.  Forgiveness."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "Ask any scientists and..."

"Ask any scientists and most would agree that what makes us human is altruism - helping an unrelated individual at a cost to yourself."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "Ignorance is not an..."

"Ignorance is not an excuse forever."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "There are certain things..."

There are certain things you need to feel human.  Enough to eat, a place to sleep, somewhere to go to the toilet.  We had none of those things."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "Chimpanzees are not evil..."

"Chimpanzees are not evil.  They are capable of kindness, love, and grief.  In fact, they are very similar to us.  Chimpanzee violence occurs in the same context as human violence: over females, enemy males, and territory."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "It is joy and..."

"It is joy and hope and love and light.
It is the perfect end and a perfect beginning.
It is truly the happiest day of my life."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "I didn't know the..."

"I didn't know the cost of falling in love with a man and his dream."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Vanessa Woods: "Each day of our..."

"Each day of our life is a miracle, from the cars that drive us to the computers on our desks to the buildings we sit in."

—Vanessa Woods, Bonobo Handshake

Maddie Dawson: "When you have kids..."

"When you have kids around, you have to do things that you maybe don't want to do, but they turn out to be fun.  Like sledding."

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "Life was tactile, messy..."

"Life was tactile, messy, earthy, inseparable from love."

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "But why can't I..."

"But why can't I have it all - passion and motherhood and family?"

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "He lowers his voice..."

"He lowers his voice and reaches over and takes my hand, and the world tilts."

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "It was as though..."

"It was as though my heart was beating a little faster all the time, my lungs took in more oxygen, my eyes took in more light."

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "You make me goofy..."

"You make me goofy with love."

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "I sit on the..."

"I sit on the bed next to [my daughter] and hold her, and I can't help it, I think of my mother - this whole chain of women we're making, how far it stretches into the past and how much further it will go into the future."

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "...I know sometimes a..."

"... I know sometimes a man can break your heart worse when he is far away but happy, and you realize how tangential you are to his real life."

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "How is it possible..."

"How is it possible to downsize a life to the point where bringing home an additional box of tea bags can tip the kitchen into chaos?"

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "Is there anything more..."

"Is there anything more heart-wrenching than having your child weeping and thanking you for doing the very thing that you should and want to be doing?"

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "Oh, she had my..."

"Oh, she had my number, all right.  I wanted to indulge her every creative impulse and create the perfect safe, artistic world for her from the very moment she slid out of me and I discovered myself in possession of a daughter..."

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "I guess I thought..."

"I guess I thought my parents knew something other people didn't know about how to hold it together."

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "I walked around on..."

"I walked around on the alert for love. I was an appreciator of people's best moments."

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened

Maddie Dawson: "...she knows the heart..."

"...she knows the heart of love is good no matter where it lives inside you..."

—Maddie Dawson, The Stuff That Never Happened