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41c3ce8
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But what I want to know is, is there a you independent of circumstances? Is there a way-down-deep me who is an actual, real person, the same person if she has money or not, the same if she goes to this school or that school? Or am I only a set of circumstances? -Aza
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John Green |
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99b3dd2
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I do, Augustus. I do.
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John Green |
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c91e060
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Things never happened like I imagined them.
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John Green |
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bc9c42c
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Always' was a promise! How can you just break the promise?" "Sometimes people don't always understand the promises they're making when they make them," I said. Isaac shot me a look. "Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway. Don't you believe in true love?" I didn't answer. I didn't have an answer. But I thought that if true love did exist, that was a pretty good definition ..
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true-love
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John Green |
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a02b7cd
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She didn't leave me enough to discover her, but she left me enough to rediscover the Great Perhaps.
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rediscover
the-great-perhaps
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John Green |
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176078a
|
I always had this secret suspicion that I was special.
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John Green |
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7e81ef6
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There's an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem that's been rumbling around inside me ever since I first read it, and part of it goes: 'Blown from the dark hill hither to my door/ Three flakes, then four/ Arrive, then many more.' You can count the first three flakes, and the fourth. Then language fails, and you have to settle in and try to survive the blizzard
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poem
edna-st-vincent-millay
snow-flake
john-green
turtles-all-the-way-down
snow
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John Green |
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f850162
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My father died suddenly, but also across the years. He was still dying, really - which meant I guess that he was still living, too.
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loss
loss-of-parent
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John Green |
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7a3e075
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Straight and fast.
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John Green |
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4bf52fa
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According to Maslow, I was stuck on the second level of the pyramid, unable to feel secure in my health and therefore unable to reach for love and respect and art and whatever else, which is, utter horseshit: The urge to make art or contemplate philosophy does not go away when you are sick. Those urges just become transfigured by illness. Maslow's pyramid seemed to imply I was less human than other people, and most people seemed to agree wi..
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maslow
needs
sickness
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John Green |
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344ba78
|
When Ben unfurls the T-shirts, there are two small problems. First, it turns out that a large T-shirt in a Georgia gas station is not the same size as a large T-shirt at, say, Old Navy. The gas station shirt is gigantic-more garbage bag than shirt. It is smaller than the graduation robes, but not by much. But this problem pales in comparison to the other problem, which is that both T-shirts are embossed with huge Confederate flags. Printed ..
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John Green |
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3f90521
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It's turtles all the way fucking down, Holmesy. You're trying to find the turtle at the bottom of the pile, but that's not how it works." "Because it's turtles all the way down," I said again, feeling something akin to a spiritual revelation."
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John Green |
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cd67a14
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I hated talking, and I hated listening to everyone else stumble on their words so they wouldn't sound dumb, and I hated how it was all just a game of trying to figure out what the teacher wanted to hear and then saying it. I'm in a class, so teach me.
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John Green |
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533020e
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I always liked routine. I suppose I never found boredom very boring. I doubted I could explain it to someone like Margo but drawing circles through life struck me as a kind of reasonable insanity.
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John Green |
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9f281c5
|
Because as good as kissing feels, nothing feels as good as the anticipation of it.
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John Green |
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278cc55
|
By saying you don't care if the world falls apart, in some small way you're saying you want it to stay together, on your own terms.
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John Green |
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6ffc2e2
|
What happened?" "During the kiss?" "No, with you and Caroline." "Oh," he said. And then after a second, "Caroline is no longer suffering from personhood."
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John Green |
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dbfb969
|
Tiny takes a shot, grimaces, and exhales. "Tastes like Satan's fire cock," Tiny says, and then pushes another shot in my direction. "Sounds delightful," I say, "but I'll pass."
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John Green |
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a765dba
|
And yes, again, that was it exactly. A retyper and not a writer. A prodigy and not a genius.
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prodigy
|
John Green |
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fdf02cc
|
You shall love your neighbour With your crooked heart, It says so much about love and brokenness -- it's perfect.
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jesus
heart
love
neighbor
perfect
|
John Green |
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6aa4a4c
|
Daddy is trying really fugging hard to think of a not-terrifying reason why you'd wake Daddy up in the middle of the night to ask that fugging question. But no. No. Daddy does not have a match or a lighter.
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hassan
|
John Green |
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a34b318
|
You can't just make me different and then leave.
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|
John Green |
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c798a14
|
All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people too. I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters.
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John Green |
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7b2c350
|
Cover me!' Augustus said as he jumped out from behind the wall and raced toward the school. Isaac fumbled for his controller and then started firing while the bullets rained down on Augustus, who was shot once and then twice but still ran, Augustus shouting,'YOU CAN'T KILL MAX MAYHEM!' and with a final flurry of button combinations, he dove onto the grenade, which detonated beneath him. His dismembered body exploded like a geyser and the sc..
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|
funny
tfios
|
John Green |
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c84c184
|
And I don't really have anyone upon whom I want to rain down my wrath," I said, because in truth I didn't. I always felt like you had to be important to have enemies. Example: Historically, Germany has had more enemies than Luxembourg, Margo Roth Spiegelman was Germany. And Great Britain. And the United States. And czarist Russia. Me, I'm Luxembourg. Just sitting around, tending sheep, and yodeling."
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John Green |
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81127c2
|
Barnacles on the container ship of consciousness.
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|
John Green |
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5d87e06
|
My favorite book, by a wide margin, was An Imperial Affliction, but I didn't like to tell people about it. Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you withthis weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read thebook. And then there are books like An Imperial Affliction, which you can't tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that..
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John Green |
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8feb0f0
|
There is no try," I said, "There is only do."
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John Green |
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73f3af9
|
I worked hard to meet his eyes, even though they were the kind of pretty that's hard to look at..
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John Green |
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e43da90
|
She waited for me to play out the string, to find the place where she had stopped and was waiting for me, to follow the breadcrumb tail until it dead-ended into her.
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John Green |
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95e9281
|
That brief walk was one of those moments he knew he'd remember and look back on, one of those moments that he'd try to capture in the stories he told. Nothing was happening, really, but the moment was thick with mattering. [p214]
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|
recollection
memory
|
John Green |
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afa3843
|
Best day of my life hasn't happened yet. But I know it. I see it every day. The best day of my life is the day I buy my mom a huge fucking house. And not just like out in the woods, but in the middle of Mountain Brook, with all the Weekday Warriors' parents. With all y'all's parents. And I'm not buying it with a mortgage either. I'm buying it with cash money, and I am driving my mom there, and I'm going to open her side of the car door and ..
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John Green |
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1794a95
|
I'm Chip Martin," he announced in a deep voice, the voice of a radio deejay. Before I could respond, he added, "I'd shake your hand, but I think you should hold on damn tight to that towel till you can get some clothes on."
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John Green |
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1986ad3
|
The marks humans leave are too often scars. You build a hideous minimall or start a coup or try to become a rockstar and you think, "They'll remember me now," but (a) they don't remember you, and (b) all you leave behind are more scars. Your coup becomes a dictatorship. Your minimall becomes a lesion."
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memories
legacy
scars
|
John Green |
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e9a2c59
|
I hated cranberry sauce, but for some reason my mom persisted in her lifelong belief that it was my very favorite food, even though every single Thanksgiving I politely declined to include it on my plate.
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|
favorite-food
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John Green |
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0b30e97
|
He missed that, too, and it hadn't even happened.
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John Green |
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0414130
|
The whole problem with boys is that ninety-nine percent of them are, like, okay. If you could dress and hygiene them properly, and make them stand up straight and listen to you and not be dumbasses, they'd be totally acceptable.
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|
John Green |
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11483bc
|
The urge to make art or contemplate philosophy does not go away when you are sick. Those urges just become transfigured by illness.
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|
John Green |
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1b9f2d8
|
Love is not a tragedy or a failure, but a gift.
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love
|
John Green |
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44ca3eb
|
maybe she'd been scared of being paralyzed by fear again.
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John Green |
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54b6e9a
|
i wanted more time so we could fall in love.
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|
John Green |
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4ac044c
|
Do you ever wonder whether people would like you more or less if they could see inside you? ...But I always wonder about that. If people could see me the way I see myself - if they could live in my memories - would anyone, , love me?
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|
John Green |
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1dfb049
|
We should do something," I said. "Can the something be play blind-guy video games while sitting on the couch?" "Yeah, that's just the kind of something I had in mind." So we sat there for a couple hours talking to the screen together, navigating this invisible labyrinthine cave without a single lumen of light. The most entertaining part of the game by was far trying to get the computer to engage with us in humorous conversation: Me: "To..
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death
humor
comic-relief
video-games
|
John Green |
|
bfac78e
|
Physical space between us evaporates. We play the broken strings of our instruments one last time
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myrna-mountweazel
margo-roth-spiegelman
quentin-jacobsen
paper-towns
|
John Green |