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48aa356
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until you have a baby, you don't even realize how much you were missing one
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Jodi Picoult |
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5cd25d0
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During the night he'd kicked off a sock; his toes were plump as early peas; it was all she could do not to taste his caramel skin. So much of the language of love was like that: you devoured someone with your eyes, you drank in the sight of him,you swallowed him whole. Love was sustenance, broken down and beating through your bloodstream.
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nineteen-minutes
selena
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Jodi Picoult |
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8dcf18c
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You can feel people staring: it's like heat that rise from the pavement during summer, like a poker in the small of your back. You don't have to hear a whisper, either, to know that it's about you. I use to stand in front of the mirror in the bathroom to see what they are staring at. I wanted to know what made their heads turn, what it was about me that was so incredibly different. At first I couldn't tell. I mean, I was just me. Then one..
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Jodi Picoult |
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dbb8f49
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Everyone Deserves A Happy Ending
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Jodi Picoult |
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6f58f78
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You were in business making meth? Do you have any idea what that drug does to people?" We weren't givin' it away," Concise snaps. "If someone was fool enough to mess himself up, that was his problem." I shake my head, disgusted. "If you build it, they will come." If you build it," Concise says, "you cover your rent. If you build it, you pay off the loan sharks. If you build it, you put shoes on your kid's feet and food in his belly and mayb..
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Jodi Picoult |
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e313467
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We could all be lucky. We could all be what we want to be, instead of who someone else told us to be.
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Jodi Picoult |
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1421590
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If it's us", she whispered, "how come you get to decide?" When he didn't answer - couldn't answer - she turned and stared out the front window. As it turned out, they were still in the parking lot. They hadn't gotten anywhere at all."
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Jodi Picoult |
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8972121
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Love makes life a little brighter
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Jodi Picoult |
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e906602
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I used to think I'd be just like them when I grew up, but I am not. And the thing is, somewhere along the way, I stopped wanting to be like them, anyway.
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parent
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Jodi Picoult |
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9838c14
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When someone dies, it feels like the hole in your gums when a tooth falls out. you can chew, youc an eat, you have plenty of other teeth, but your tongue keeps going back to that empty place, where all the nerves are still a little raw.
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Jodi Picoult |
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5c30275
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I'm telling you, if aliens landed on earth today and took a good hard look at why babies get born, they'd conclude that most people had children by accident, or because they drink too much on a certain night, or because birth control isn't one hundred percent, or for a thousand other reasons that really aren't very flattering.
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Jodi Picoult |
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0fcfff0
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Nobody wants to admit to this, but bad things will keep on happening. Maybe that's because it's all a chain, and a long time ago someone did the first bad thing, and that led someone else to do another bad thing, and so on. You know, like that game where you whisper a sentence into someone's ear, and that person whispers it to someone else, and it all comes out wrong in the end. But then again, maybe bad things happen because it's the only ..
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Jodi Picoult |
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00187cb
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Here's what I hadn't realized: the mother you haven't seen for almost thirty-six years isn't your mother, she's a stranger. Sharing DNA doesn't make you fast friends. This wasn't a joyous reunion. It was just awkward.
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motherhood
reunion
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Jodi Picoult |
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090347c
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When you love someone, you don't see parts of him you don't like.
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Jodi Picoult |
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ef79a69
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She wondered if this was true of every parent: if, prior to having children, they all used to be someone else.
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Jodi Picoult |
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ef2cfe3
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No matter how much you consumed, you would not have your fill.
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Jodi Picoult |
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595e4ea
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But mostly I wondered why the head could move so swiftly while the heart dragged its feet. I still loved him. It felt like anything else permanent that has gone missing; a lost tooth, a severed leg. You might know better, but that doesn't keep your tongue from poling at the hole in your gum, or your phantom limb from aching.
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Jodi Picoult |
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2406365
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With these words Jake had let go of me. Which proved that he knew more about why I was leaving than even I did. I had believed that I was running away from what had happened. I did not know, not until I met Nicholas days later, that the whole time I was really running towards what was yet to be.
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Jodi Picoult |
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a029ddf
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She's not like anyone I've ever seen before. When I'm not with her, I want to be. And when she opens the book and I see her face, I can barely remember what I'm supposed to say, much less how to speak at all." I test the words on my tongue. "I think I might be in love with her. But how can I really know, since the only love I've ever experienced was written for me?"
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oliver
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Jodi Picoult |
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cbd089e
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Is it really worth dying for the person you love?" [Maureen] thinks about this for a moment. "That's not the real question, Oliver. What you be asking is, Can you live without her?" --
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love
maureen
oliver
values
dying
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Jodi Picoult |
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908f8c9
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I don't know the first thing about holding together a family, especially one that resembles an heirloom vase, shattered but glued back together for its beauty, and no one mentions that you can see the cracks as plain as day.
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Jodi Picoult |
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f151cad
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After all, once you know that part of something exists, it stands to reason that the rest of it is somewhere out there, too.
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Jodi Picoult |
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eb95613
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I've been an idiot to think that real life could have a happy ending
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Jodi Picoult |
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6d3ec08
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You have everything," she said slowly, as if she were explaining the order of the world to a small child. "A family, a great job, a lot of people who look up to you. You've got a place to go home to." She smiled a little. "So go."
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Jodi Picoult |
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4107493
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A child who suffers from PTSD has made unsuccessful attempts to get help, and as the victimization continues, he stops asking for it. He withdraws socially, because he's never quite sure when interaction is going to lead to another incident of bullying.... Different people have different responses to stress. In Peter's case, I saw an extreme emotional vulnerability, which, in fact, was the reason he was teased. Peter didn't play by the code..
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Jodi Picoult |
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9a50481
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You could only save someone that wanted to be saved; otherwise, you'd be be dragged down for the count, too.
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Jodi Picoult |
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6a2c4df
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Just 'cause you can't see me don't mean I gone away.
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inspirational
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Jodi Picoult |
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577bb48
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Babies don't come with instruction booklets. You'd learn the same way we all do -- you'd read up on dinosaurs, you'd Google backhoes and skidders. And you don't need a penis to go buy a baseball glove.
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humor
life
parenting
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Jodi Picoult |
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81cc43e
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Objection!" Metz shouts. Grounds?" the judge asks. Well...he's my witness!"
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humor
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Jodi Picoult |
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889d531
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newborns reminded her of tiny buddhas
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newborns
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Jodi Picoult |
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a7a4fd3
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What would you do if you only had one day left in this world? Spend it with the people you love? Travel to the far corners of the earth to see as many wonders as possible? Eat nothing but chocolate? Would you apologize for all your mistakes? Would you stand up to those you'd never had the courage to face? Would you tell your secret crush that you loved him or her? Why is it that we wait till the last minute to do the things we should be doi..
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truth
last-day-on-earth
relatable
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Jodi Picoult |
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23e2c2b
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I don't get to rewrite my story; I just have to stumble to the end of it.
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Jodi Picoult |
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384ef14
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Well, you have to find that rare someone for whom you're not putting on a show. Someone who shines a spotlight in your direction--not because you're who they need you to be, or who they want you to be...just because you're you.
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Jodi Picoult |
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a1e104f
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Admitting that racism has played a part in our success means admitting that the American dream isn't quite so accessible to all.
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Jodi Picoult |
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9bc4592
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There is nothing worse than silence, strung like heavy beads on too delicate a conversation.
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Jodi Picoult |
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47de229
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Babies are such blank slates. They don't come into this world with the assumptions their parents have made, or the promises their church will give, or the ability to sort people into groups they like and don't like. They don't come into this world with anything, really, except a need for comfort. And they will take it from anyone, without judging the giver. I wonder how long it takes before the polish given by nature gets worn off by nurtur..
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Jodi Picoult |
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980ca3c
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Talking out loud to fictional characters is just the tip of the iceberg.
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Jodi Picoult |
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34c88e6
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You give her all your french fries, even when she won't give you back onion rings,' Sophie says. 'And when you say her name it sounds different.' How?' Sophie thinks. 'Like it's covered with blankets.
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Jodi Picoult |
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f3e5904
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You keep distracting me," I tell her. "All I'm doing is sitting here talking to you!" "Exactly," I say, and I smile at her.j"
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humor
love
distraction
oliver
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Jodi Picoult |
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dc746e8
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I believed the reason there was a God was to prevent such atrocities from happening to the same person twice. But nothing prepared me for this: I have done what I've sworn I could never do; I have become my own nightmare... I have lost control.
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Jodi Picoult |
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fcba554
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I watch her do the simplest things: brushing her hair into a ponytail, feeding the dog, tying Sophie's shoelaces, and I want to tell her what she means to me, but I never actually say the words. After all, to acknowledge Delia as a drug, I'd have to face the fact that one day I might have to go without her and this I can't do.
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Jodi Picoult |
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854132e
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Polar north can't get away from a magnet; the magnet finds it, no matter what.
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role-models
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Jodi Picoult |
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c94023e
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I would prove to you that being different isn't a death sentence but a call to arms.
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death-sentence
different
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Jodi Picoult |
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a3ab6ff
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It is strange to think that we might have crossed paths, and still not have known what we were missing.
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Jodi Picoult |