Julie Murphy Quotes

You care for me?" My jaw twitched. "Alice, I- I care about our principal, and my boss, and the lady at the donut shop who gives me extra donut holes. But I love you," I spat. "And you know what that feels like? It's like a fucking cheese grater against my heart. ~ Julie Murphy

In a hundred years, no one would know us, but this moment for us would last as long as we did. ~ Julie Murphy

There's something about early mornings that makes me feel like I've got the whole planet to myself. ~ Julie Murphy

I don't really enjoy it, Mom."
"And you've always felt this way?"
"I don't know. I guess I want a break. ~ Julie Murphy

Marcus mumbles something about PMS and to my surprise, from the kitchen, Bo says, "Why can't she just be having a shitty day? You don't need to make up some bullshit reason why. ~ Julie Murphy

Every time I blink, all I can see are my flaws. My body in a fun-house mirror. Hips too wide. Thighs too big. And a head too small for the rest of me. ~ Julie Murphy

But if I told Harvey that, there would be no more secrets and he would move in even closer. And that couldn't happen. The closer he got, the more answers I owed him. ~ Julie Murphy

And who the hell was that twiggy bitch?" As soon as it's out of my mouth I regret it. All my life I've had a body worth commenting on and if living in my skin has taught me anything it's that if it's not your body, it's not yours to comment on. Fat. Skinny. Short. Tall. It doesn't matter. But ~ Julie Murphy

Her boyfriend, Camdon or Brandon or whatever his name is, tosses Callie his wallet and says, 'Gotta take a leak.' They exchange a kiss--- which, I mean, why? Is he going to drown in the toilet? ~ Julie Murphy

I don't get it - how you can feel like there are no consequences for living with your feelings on your sleeve. ~ Julie Murphy

It was the thing I planned out in my head in those moments between asleep and awake when my brain was unable to tell the difference between dreams and reality. ~ Julie Murphy

She was dying and I was living and I didn't know how we could do both at the same time ~ Julie Murphy

But the good news is that since this is the worst day ever, tomorrow can only be better. Even if it's by a little bit. ~ Julie Murphy

For as long as I could push air in and out of my chest, I would remember this moment that could never be measured. ~ Julie Murphy

Spiders don't chew. They send a special liquid into their prey. The prey's insides turn to mush. Then the spider sucks up its tasty lunch! ~ Julie Murphy

There's some kind of peace that comes with knowing that for every person who is waiting to be found, there's someone out there searching. ~ Julie Murphy

It's okay. Suddenly, the pain is starting to fade."
"Yeah, revenge does that. ~ Julie Murphy

The idea that I'm someone's best friend fills my rib cage with summer. ~ Julie Murphy

You've never dated any guys?'
I shrug. 'Haven't even kissed one.' And then I add, 'Well, in recent years.'
'Then how do you know you don't like guys?'
'I don't know, Freddie,' I say, trying to hide my irritation. 'How many boys did you kiss before you realized you were straight? ~ Julie Murphy

You don't always get to choose who your heart wants. ~ Julie Murphy

I wish every day of my life could be this absurd. ~ Julie Murphy

I think maybe it's the things we don't want to talk about that are the things people most want to hear. ~ Julie Murphy

I try not to cringe. Dog-earing a book feels like a violation of some sacred unspoken rule. ~ Julie Murphy

But maybe Lucy wasn't supposed to be your compass forever. Maybe she was there for you just long enough so you could learn how to be your own compass and find your own way." She winks at me. "The universe is a strange thing. ~ Julie Murphy

I don't like to think of my hips as a nuisance, but more of an asset. I mean, if this were, like, 1642, my wide birthing hips would be worth many cows or something. ~ Julie Murphy

The pageant and football pull this little town out of itself and turn it into something more. Because when those stadium lights are on or when that curtain parts, we are the best version of ourselves. ~ Julie Murphy

Child, you don't need heels. You're fierce all on your own." She ~ Julie Murphy

I always wanted to change the world. I know that's so corny. Of course everyone wants to change the world. I just always thought the only way I could do that was by being a senator or a mayor or something like that, but there's something about movies and stories. I want to help changes the rules, you know? To help make everything more fair. But no one cares about evening the playing field or changing the rules unless they have some kind of connection. I guess...well, that's what stories do. They connect people. Stories change hearts and then hearts change the world. ~ Julie Murphy

I smile when I think of the past and get excited about the future. ~ Julie Murphy

Sometimes we have to break the rules to get what we want. But now I think it's time we change them. ~ Julie Murphy

Beautiful, he says. Fat, I think. But can't I be both at the same time? ~ Julie Murphy

No matter how much I tell myself that the fat and the stretch marks don't matter, they do. Even if Bo, for whatever reason, doesn't care, I do.

Then there are days when I really give zero flying fucks, and I am totally satisfied with this body of mine. How can I be both of those people at once? ~ Julie Murphy

Isn't that sad? It's like the whole world has to walk around with name tags on so we can all feel more comfortable? I guess things are less scary if you know what to call them. ~ Julie Murphy

Loyalty is…loyalty is being there for someone. It's selfless. It's about standing by someone's side even when you don't want to. ~ Julie Murphy

I guess the magic of being someone else is lost when you can never quite shed your own skin. ~ Julie Murphy

I hate seeing fat girls on TV or in movies, because the only way the world seems to be okay with putting a fat person on camera is if they're miserable with themselves or if they're the jolly best friend. Well, I'm neither of those things. ~ Julie Murphy

This feeling that the world was so pleased to call love destroyed people every day and it would do that to me too. ~ Julie Murphy

Loyalty isn't blind. Even when I wish it was. Loyalty is telling someone they're wrong when no one else will. ~ Julie Murphy

I had loved her for so long. I didn't think it was possible for me to feel any more for her, like she had already maxed out all my feelings. But that wasn't how it worked. That night Alice swallowed up a whole piece of me I never knew existed. She ruined me that night. ~ Julie Murphy

Good friendships are durable. They're meant to survive the gaps and the growing pains. ~ Julie Murphy

I fell asleep, with her curled int my chest and my chin resting on top of her head, scared for tomorrow because this was too perfect to last. ~ Julie Murphy

But that's me. I'm fat. It's not a cuss word. It's not an insult. At least it's not when I say it. So I always figure why not get it out of the way? ~ Julie Murphy

Girls don't have to be nice," she says simply. "But they should stick together...The wider world wants you to think other women are drama...or catty. But that's just because when we work together, we're unstoppable....One day you'll wake up to find that there's a woman, or maybe a few, who have outlasted every changing season of your life. ~ Julie Murphy

If you only love what comes easy for you, you'll find you don't have much to love." -Abuela ~ Julie Murphy

But we can't walk around scared all the time. That's no way to do things. ~ Julie Murphy

I knew I would never travel through space or fly a plane, but sitting there with the girl I loved - there was no question about me loving her ~ Julie Murphy

When it was for you," he said, his voice soft. "I enjoyed playing the piano when it was for you. ~ Julie Murphy

I sit down and liberally spread salad dressing across my plate, because on the eight day, God created ranch dressing, ~ Julie Murphy

I wish there were some kind of magic words that could bridge the cap between the person I am and the one I wish I could be. Because the whole fake it till you make it thing? It's not working for me. ~ Julie Murphy

Captain James Cook's ship, The Endeavour, hit a coral outcrop in the Great Barrier Reef in 1770. Cook and his crew camped in what is now called Cooktown for nearly two months while making repairs. Then they sailed south, where Cook claimed the east coast of Australia as British territory. ~ Julie Murphy

Sometimes catastrophes split you in half and even if all the pieces are there, they might not ever fit back together. ~ Julie Murphy

But I wondered sometimes, the way your mind asks those big questions, like whether or not there's a god or how a girl can think she's ugly one day and pretty the next. ~ Julie Murphy

My magic truth-the thing that has changed everything for me-is this: the body I have shouldn't change how deserving I am of my dreams. I stopped obsessing over my body being too round or too wise or too lumpy. Because I'm not too much of anything. I am just enough. Even when I don't feel like I am. ~ Julie Murphy

Maybe you only ever notice the distance when it's you who's being left behind. ~ Julie Murphy

All my life I've had a body worth commenting on and if living in my skin has taught me anything it's that if it's not your body, it's not yours to comment on. ~ Julie Murphy

I guess sometimes the perfection we perceive in others is made up of a whole bunch of tiny imperfections, because some days the damn dress just won't zip. ~ Julie Murphy

What about having huge, bumpy thighs means that I need to apologize? ~ Julie Murphy

I didn't want the easy kind of love, I wanted the crazy love, the kind of love that created and destroyed all at the same time. ~ Julie Murphy

I've wasted a lot of time in my life. I've thought too much about what people will say or what they're gonna think. And sometimes it's over silly things like going to the grocery store or going to the post office. But there have been times when I really stopped myself from doing something special. All because I was scared someone might look at me and decide I wasn't good enough. But you don't have to bother with that nonsense. I wasted all that time so you don't have to. ~ Julie Murphy

I couldn't promise him the things he wanted because Harvey wanted forever. And that had been so much easier to give him when forever had an expiration date. ~ Julie Murphy

Damn," I hiss. "I'm sorry to hear about your grandpa." There's so much more I want to say. But there's some invisible barrier there between us created by the years we've spent apart. He ~ Julie Murphy

It wasn't just the look of Dolly that drew us in. It was the attitude that came with knowing how ridiculous people thought she looked, but never changing a thing because she felt good about herself. To us, she is...invincible. ~ Julie Murphy

She had this way, when she wasn't talking about foreign politics or global warming, of making sense of all the complex things I never knew how to describe. ~ Julie Murphy

Nope," says Hannah. "I call bullshit. You don't deserve to win anything or be in any pageant until you make the effort and do the work. Maybe fat girls or girls with limps or girls with big teeth don't usually win beauty pageants. Maybe that's not the norm. But the only way to change that is to be present. We can't expect the same things these other girls do until we demand it. Because no one's lining up to give us shit, Will. ~ Julie Murphy

She hated that book. El's not the type of person who can read something that's made her cry and think it was good because it touched her. No, books or movies that make Ellen cry infuriate her. Like, it's some kind of betrayal. ~ Julie Murphy

What's going to happen to us, Harvey?"

He pressed his lips to my head and said, "It's a surprise, I think. ~ Julie Murphy

I hate this idea that boys are thinking about sex nonstop and girls are thinking about - what? Stationery and garden gnomes? No. ~ Julie Murphy

I choose guys. I choose girls. I choose people. But most of all: I choose. ~ Julie Murphy

You can't apologize for my feelings and expect things to be better." He paused. "Especially not when you're the reason for them. ~ Julie Murphy

I'm fat. I'm happy. I'm insecure. I'm bold. ~ Julie Murphy

And why is everyone always trying to take money away from libraries? Aren't books sort of the reason we're even in school at all?" -Callie ~ Julie Murphy

I--I'm sorry for asking. I have the manners of a cat in a box of bubble wrap. Like, it's a problem. ~ Julie Murphy

I wanted nothing more than to feel something, but I didn't know how to deal with what came after the feeling. ~ Julie Murphy

I get what he's saying. When you've known someone for so long, you don't see the same things in them that everyone else does. But then when you're friends because of who you were and not who you are, it's hard not to find the common thread that stitches you together. ~ Julie Murphy

Actually, at home, my parents simply referred to him as "bro. ~ Julie Murphy

When I can't fall asleep at night it's not because of work or school or Amber or Bekah. It's you. You're the one that drives me crazy."
I shake my head because it makes no sense. "Have you ever thought about what people will think? What they'll say when they see us together holding hands?"
"You never struck me as the type to give a shit what everyone else thinks." His jaw twitches for a moment before he lowers his voice and says, "I want to go everywhere with you. I want to show you off. I want to wear a cheap suit and be your escort for that ridiculous pageant. ~ Julie Murphy

Maybe 'cause you don't always have to win a pageant to wear a crown. ~ Julie Murphy

I don't even want to win, but I think there's this survival instinct inside all of us that clicks on when we see other people failing. It makes me feel gross and incredibly human. ~ Julie Murphy

Love doesn't disappear when you give it away, and new love doesn't make old love any less legitimate. ~ Julie Murphy

Since the day she died, I've felt that Lucy was only mine to memorialize and that if I faltered, I'd be letting her down in the worst kind of way. The realization that she wasn't just mine comes as a painful relief. ~ Julie Murphy

My mind is a maze and I'm chasing a shadow. ~ Julie Murphy

My first kiss. It's the fastest thing that lasts forever. ~ Julie Murphy

It's sad that sometimes we let ourselves believe that if it's not bad, it must be good." p237 ~ Julie Murphy

And I guess that's when I decided being good at something didn't mean you had to do it. Just 'cause something's easy doesn't make it right. ~ Julie Murphy

Then he left, and with him he took the sun, the moon, the stars, and anything inside of me that might have been good. ~ Julie Murphy

Maybe 'cause you don't have to win a pageant to wear a crown. ~ Julie Murphy

I was so scared that all the big things I wanted would never be anything more than wants. ~ Julie Murphy

All my favorite things start as bad ideas. ~ Julie Murphy

I knew how to die. It was the living that scared me. ~ Julie Murphy

Hannah shouldn't have to get braces. Maybe she can't afford them or maybe she's scared to get them. Either way, she shouldn't have to fill her mouth with metal so that some shitheads will leave her alone. ~ Julie Murphy

Y'all girls are different versions of the same story, ~ Julie Murphy

This is me. Back me up or back the fuck out. ~ Julie Murphy

Perfection is nothing more than a phantom shadow we're all chasing ~ Julie Murphy

I've been real lost without her. Like, she was this compass I didn't even know I had. ~ Julie Murphy

The older I got, the more aware I became of time and how I was wasting mine. ~ Julie Murphy

As sweet as it was for him to help me with my boots, there's something powerful about taking off my own clothing and choosing to reveal myself to someone as dear to me as he is. ~ Julie Murphy

Mom, I feel good. This dress makes me feel like someone I didn't know I could be. I've never owned anything like it. But if when you see this - when you see me- you think it's a pity, that it's a shame I didn't lose a few, then screw you, Mom. Try harder. ~ Julie Murphy

To my mom, powdered iced tea is almost as bad as the possibility of being left behind in the wake of the rapture. "You ~ Julie Murphy

I'll never figure out how it is that some people can work so hard and get paid so little, while so many people who are paid the most hardly work at all. ~ Julie Murphy

he starts his car and i start mine. this thing between us is a rollercoaster. the brakes might be out and the tracks might be on fire, but i can't make myself get off the ride. ~ Julie Murphy