They are parents who face the loss of a child, spouses who carry an emptiness that cannot be filled, children who know sorrow that defies comprehension.

WHITEHOUSE: The White House

Is there an emptiness we all share?

NEWYORKER: Littlefoot, 34

"It was just an emptiness, " he said.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

And suddenly there's an emptiness.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

There must be an emptiness.

CNN: From Our Correspondent: Merry Christmas, Uncle Ho

It was an echoing house of frighteningly tall rooms that smelled of emptiness and mouse droppings.

NEWYORKER: Idols

And the infinite emptiness of the brilliant sky above means that on the rare occasions when an object, such as a plane or a hot-air balloon, does pass through, the bright contrast lends it such a fierce intensity that it confuses the eye.

BBC: New Mexico��s alien nation

The director, Xavier Dolan, also co-stars as Francis, a young man who, with his best friend, Marie (Monia Chokri), hovers swoonfully around Nicolas (Niels Schneider), an impulsive, model-like party animal whose mop of golden curls hides the blithering emptiness of his gaze as he leads them on a merry chase of erotic desperation while basking in their adulation.

NEWYORKER: Heartbeats