Jennifer Ryan Quotes

If we don't think about our death until we die, how can we decide how we want to live?

She didn't say anything, just a long, quiet "shhhh," as if she had learned that the troubles of the world could be absorbed and deafened by slow, steady wistfulness, and I suddenly understood that she'd been silencing the noise for the past twenty years.

you had sex with a viper,

I sometimes wonder if we need to understand where we came from to feel our way forward. How can you expect a plant to grow if you cut off its roots?

Grief feels a lot like fear. We're afraid of it taking us over. But we owe it to ourselves, to those we have lost, to let grief in. Only then can we start to remember them with a cheer in our heart, a cheer for them and all that they were.

Sometimes the magic of life is beyond thought. It's the sparkle of intuition, of bringing your own personal energy into your music.

...we spoke about dying. [Prim] told me how she'd nearly died of malaria. She said that she didn't mind the thought of death. That realizing you're going to die actually makes life better as it's only then that you decide to live the life you really want to live.

Jack prepared another needle with the antibiotics.
"You're not sticking me with that."
"Come on. It'll only hurt for a second, and I'll get to look under that sheet again."
"Jack, I'm not kidding. I don't like shots. Enough already."
"You need the medicine. Now gimme your cheek."
"Ha. Ha. Very funny."
She let him give her the shot and stuck her tongue out when he finished. He loved how easily she made him laugh.
"Smart ass."
"Sore ass is more like it."

-Jenna & Jack

He got into the van and opened the window to wave, and then, as it revved up and pulled away, his lips touched the palm of his hand and he blew me a kiss, something he hasn't done since he was a child. It was as if on the edge of manhood he, too, remembered everything we had shared, that he was the man who was still, in his heart, my little boy, late for school.

Human nature defeats me sometimes, how greed and spite can lurk so divisively around the utmost courage and sacrifice.

That's the same thing I imagine every parent faces when they have a child. You'll be great, Kate. Because it matters to you, you'll do your best to be everything he needs.

That's what a real family does, right? You're accepted no matter what. You're included every time you show up. That's how it should be.

I'm sorry if I made you think I don't trust you."
"You don't. Not yet. And that's okay. Just stop assuming I'm only out to hurt you, or take something you're not willing to give. If you're not interested, all you have to do is say so. I can't say I won't be disappointed, but I'll leave you alone if that's what you want."
"I am interested," she said more boldly than she actually felt. "Please understand, my caution comes from experience. You've already proven you're not like the asshole. I'm glad you came last night. I'm glad you're still here this morning."
"See, I'm not so hard to like," he teased, putting her at ease after the tense moments they'd just shared.

-Claire & Owen

You need to find where you fit in this world, where you are happiest, where you can make a difference. And don't be afraid of change.

And I realized that this is what it's like to be an adult, learning to pick from a lot of bad choices and do the best you can with that dreadful compromise. Learning to smile, to put your best foot forward, when the world around you seems to have collapsed in its entirety, become a place of isolation, a sepia photograph of its former illusion.