My life will be sour grapes and ashes without you. ~ Daisy Ashford, The Young Visitor (1919)

Imagination is nostalgia for the past, the absent; it is the liquid solution in which art develops the snapshot of reality. ~ Cyril Connolly

Absence may or may not make the heart grow fonder, but it certainly freshens the eye. ~ Stephen King, Everything's Eventual

Absence becomes the greatest Presence. ~ May Sarton, Lion & the Rose

How long time is when one is sad! Is it three years or three days since you went away? ~ Eugénie de Guérin

It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. ~ Colette, Sido (1929)

Absence is one of the most useful ingredients of family life, and to dose it rightly is an art like any other. ~ Freya Stark, Coast of Incense

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent. ~ Johann von Goethe

Don’t confuse good taste with the absence of taste. ~ William Bernbach

Fond as we are of our loved ones, there comes at times during their absence an unexplained peace. ~ Anne Shaw

Friends, though absent, are still present. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Greater things are believed of those who are absent. ~ Tacitus

In an age of synthetic images and synthetic emotions, the chances of an accidental encounter with reality are remote indeed. ~ Serge Daney

It’s the nasty and the accident that form the foundation for elegance that comes later. ~ Nick Bantock