Nicola Yoon Quotes

Trying not to smile only makes you smile more. ~ Nicola Yoon

Spoiler alert: Love is worth everything. Everything. ~ Nicola Yoon

Observable Fact: You should never take long shots. Better to study the odds and take the probable shot. However, if the long shot is your only shot, then you have to take it. ~ Nicola Yoon

Madeline: I'm not a princess.
Madeline: And I don't need rescuing.
Olly: that's ok. i'm not prince.
Madeline: You think I'm pretty?
Olly: for a fairytale ghost sky princess? definately ~ Nicola Yoon

I throw my hands up. 'There is nothing wrong with having dreams. I may be a stupid dreamer, but at least I have them.' 'Why is that a virtue?' she demands. 'All you dreamer types think the universe exists just for you and your passion.
'Better than not having any at all.'
She narrows her eyes at me, ready to debate. 'Really? Why?'
I can't believe I have to explain this. 'That's what we're put on earth to do. ~ Nicola Yoon

Should I tell him that I think dreams never die even when they're dead? ~ Nicola Yoon

My heart is so full of him. ~ Nicola Yoon

It's not up to you to help other people fit you into a box. ~ Nicola Yoon

Charlie and Daniel think money and happiness are not related. They don't know what poor is. They don't know that poverty is a sharp knife carving away at you. They don't know what it does to a body. To a mind. ~ Nicola Yoon

love is not love if it's not requited, right? ~ Nicola Yoon

A fairytale princess then. Which one are you?Cinderella? Will you turn into a pumpkin if you leave the house? Or Rapunzel? Your hair's pretty long. Just let it down and I'll climp up and rescue you ~ Nicola Yoon

Life is a gift. Don't forget to live it. ~ Nicola Yoon

In my head I know I've been in love before, but it doesn't feel like it. Being in love with you is better than the first time. It feels like the first time and the last time and the only time all at once. ~ Nicola Yoon

I get a kind of déjà vu, but instead of feeling like I'm repeating something in the past, it feels like I'm experiencing something that will happen in my future. ~ Nicola Yoon

You can't just make people fall in love, right? Love is way more complicated than that. It's not just a matter of choosing a couple of people and making them ask each other some questions, and then love blossoms. The moon and the stars are involved. I'm certain of it. ~ Nicola Yoon

My guilt is an ocean for me to drown in. ~ Nicola Yoon

We are capable of big lives. A big history. Why settle? Why choose the practical thing, the mundane thing? We are born to dream and make the things we dream about. ~ Nicola Yoon

The highest thing you can do is the thing God put you on this earth to do. ~ Nicola Yoon

Save me from the nice and sincere boys who feel things too deeply. ~ Nicola Yoon

It seems like such a long time ago when I thought the world of him. He was some exotic planet and I was his favorite satellite. But he's no planet, just the final fading light of an already dead star.

And I'm not a satellite. I'm space junk, hurtling as far as I can away from him. ~ Nicola Yoon

You can't persuade someone to love you. ~ Nicola Yoon

Love can kill you and I'd rather be alive than out there living. ~ Nicola Yoon

This is the life you're living. It's not temporary and it's not pretend and there's no do-over. ~ Nicola Yoon

We're not meant to be, Daniel. I'm an undocumented immigrant. I'm being deported. Today is my last day in America. Tomorrow I'll be gone. ~ Nicola Yoon

What if I told you I could get you to fall in love with me scientifically?"
"I would scoff," I say. "A Lot ~ Nicola Yoon

People just want to believe. Otherwise they would have to admit that life is just a random series of good and bad things that happen until one day you die. ~ Nicola Yoon

as•ymp•tote (ˈasəm(p)ˌtōt) n. pl. -s. 1. A wish that continually approaches but never achieves fulfillment. [2015, Whittier] ~ Nicola Yoon

Just because it's the first time doesn't make it less real, does it? Even the universe has a beginning. ~ Nicola Yoon

Fate has always been the realm of the gods, though even the gods are subject to it.
In ancient Greek mythology, the Three Sisters of Fate spin out a person's destiny within three nights of their birth. Imagine your newborn child in his nursery. It's dark and soft and warm, somewhere between two and four a.m., one of those hours that belong exclusively to the newly born or the dying.
The first sister - Clotho - appears next to you. She's a maiden, young and smooth. In her hands she holds a spindle, and on it she spins the thrads of your child's life.
Next to her is Lachesis, older and more matronly than her sister. In her hands, she holds the rod used to mesure the thread of life. The length and destiny of your child's life is in her hands.
Finally we have Atropos - old, haggardly. Inevitable. In her hands she holds the terrible shears she'll use to cut the thread of your child's life. She determines the time and manner of his or her death.
Imagine the awesome and awful sight of these three sisters pressed together, presiding over his crib, dermining his future.
In modern times, the sisters have largely disappeared from the collective consiousness, but the idea of Fate hasn't. Why do we still believe? Does itmake tragedy more bearable to believe that we ourselves had no hand in it, that we couldn't have prevented it? It was always ever thus.
Things happen for a reason, says Natasha's mother. What she means is Fate has a Reason and, though yo ~ Nicola Yoon

Teenagers are the same all over. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. ~ Nicola Yoon

Sometimes you do things for the right reasons and sometimes for the wrong ones and sometimes it's impossible to tell the difference. ~ Nicola Yoon

Everything's different and the same. I'm still Maddy. Olly's still Olly. But we're both more somehow. I know him in a new way. And I feel known, too. ~ Nicola Yoon

Our history is too compressed. We're trying to fit a lifetime into a day. ~ Nicola Yoon

From so high above it, the world seems ordered and deliberate.

But I know it's more than that. And less. It is structured and chaotic. Beautiful and strange. ~ Nicola Yoon

Observable Fact: People aren't logical. ~ Nicola Yoon

The smile he gives me is worth living for. ~ Nicola Yoon

Q: Will I encounter turbulence?
A: Yes. Into all lives a little turbulence must fall. ~ Nicola Yoon

Maybe it's better to end things this way. Better to have a tragic and sudden end than to have a long, drawn-out one where we realize that we're just too different, and that love alone is not enough to bind us. I think all these things. I believe none of them. ~ Nicola Yoon

Desperation translates into every language. ~ Nicola Yoon

Stars are important," I say, laughing.

"Sure, but why not more poems about the sun? The sun is also a star, and it's our most important one. That alone should be worth a poem or two. ~ Nicola Yoon

Names are powerful things. They act as an identity marker and a kind of map, locating you in time and geography. More than that, they can be a compass. ~ Nicola Yoon

When Natasha thinks about love, this is what she thinks: nothing lasts forever. Like hydrogen-7 or lithium-5 or boron-7, love has an infinitesimally small half-life that decays to nothing. And when its gone, its like it was never there at all. ~ Nicola Yoon

What colour are your eyes?
Olly (O): blue
Madeline (M): Be more specific please
O: jesus. girls. ocean blue
M: Atlantic or Pacific
O: atlantic. What colour are yours?
M: Chocolate brown.
O: More specific please
M: 75% cacao butter, dark chocolate brown
O: hehe. nice ~ Nicola Yoon

For my mom and dad, who taught me about dreams and how to catch them ~ Nicola Yoon

the norebang we could pretend, but not out here. It's one of the things I like most about New York City. It deflects any attempts you make ~ Nicola Yoon

I read once that, on average, we replace the majority of our cells every seven years. Even more amazing: we change the upper layers of our skin every two weeks. If all the cells in our body did this, we'd be immortal. But some of our cells, like the ones in our brains, don't renew. They age, and age us. In two weeks my skin will have no memory of Olly's hand on mine, but my brain will remember. We can have immortality or the memory of touch. But we can't have both. ~ Nicola Yoon

Maybe we can't predict everything, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It's almost certainly going to be a disaster ~ Nicola Yoon

Carla lives for cat videos. She thinks they're the only thing the Internet is good for. ~ Nicola Yoon

Sometime the world reveals itself to you. ~ Nicola Yoon

I love you, Maddy." "I love you, Olly. I loved you before I knew you. ~ Nicola Yoon

But for that thank you.
The fact that someone saw her was the beginning. ~ Nicola Yoon

I am not lonely, Mom," I snap. "I am alone. Those are different things. ~ Nicola Yoon

ahh, calculus. the mathematics of change ~ Nicola Yoon

Sometimes your world shakes so hard, it's difficult to imagine that everyone else isn't feeling it too. ~ Nicola Yoon

As our eyes meet, I get a kind of deja vu, but instead of feeling like I'm repeating something in the past, it feels like I'm experiencing something that will happen in my future...It's like knowing all the words to a song but still finding them beautiful and surprising. ~ Nicola Yoon

I am not a princess. And I don't need rescuing. ~ Nicola Yoon

It's better to see life as it is, not as you wish it to be. Things don't happen for a reason. They just happen. ~ Nicola Yoon

...no one can put a price on losing everything. ~ Nicola Yoon

Names are powerful things. ~ Nicola Yoon

America is the land of opportunity. His children will have more than he once did. ~ Nicola Yoon

But I like my big Afro. I also liked when my hair was longer and relaxed. I'm happy to have choices. They're mine to make ~ Nicola Yoon

he can't see past his own history to let us have ours. ~ Nicola Yoon

Well, I think there's something wrong with everyone, don't you? ~ Nicola Yoon

Who cares what you want? The only thing that matters is what is good for you. Your mother and I only care about what is good for you. You go to school, you become a doctor, you be successful. Then you never have to work in a store like this. Then you have money and respect, and all the things you want will come. You find a nice girl and have children and you have the American Dream. Why would you throw your future away for temporary things that you only want right now? ~ Nicola Yoon

his dad seemed to love Olly and Kara and his mom a little less than he did before. And the less he seemed to love them, the more they tried to become more lovable. ~ Nicola Yoon

We're kindling amid lightning strikes, a lit match and dry wood, fire danger signs and a forest waiting to be burned. ~ Nicola Yoon

Beware the Queen of Hearts. She'll have your head. ~ Nicola Yoon

I feel as if I've never been touched before. ~ Nicola Yoon

It's not that Natasha wants to let Daniel go; it's that she has to let go. It isn't possible for her to live in two worlds simultaneously, heart in one place, body in another. She lets go of Daniel to avoid being ripped apart. ~ Nicola Yoon

I say weird but what I mean is epically fucking strange. ~ Nicola Yoon

Meeting your obligations is the definition of adulthood, kid. If you're going to make mistakes and break promises, now's the time. ~ Nicola Yoon

I turn in his arms, thinking how quickly it's become my favourite place in the world. Familiar, foreign, comforting, and thrilling all at once ~ Nicola Yoon

And it's the wanting that pulls me back down to earth hard. The wanting scares me. It's like a weed that spreads slowly, just beneath your notice. Before you know it, it's pitted your surfaces and darkened your windows. ~ Nicola Yoon

Wanting leads to more wanting. Desire has no end. ~ Nicola Yoon

No one needs to get bruised up falling in love. I just want to fall the way everybody else gets to. ~ Nicola Yoon

once lived a girl in a bubble who i suspected was nothing but trouble still i gave her my heart but she blew it apart and left me with nothing but rubble ~ Nicola Yoon

In modern times, the sisters have largely disappeared from the collective consciousness, but the idea of Fate hasn't. Why do we still believe? Does it make tragedy more bearable to believe that we ourselves had no hand in it, that we couldn't have prevented it? It was always ever thus.

Things happen for a reason, says Natasha's mother. What she means is Fate has a Reason and, though you may not know it, there's a certain comfort in knowing that there's a Plan.

Natasha is different. She believes in determinism- cause and effect. One action leads to another leads to another. Your actions determine your fate. In this way she's not unlike Daniel's dad.

Daniel lives in the nebulous space in between. Maybe he wasn't meant to meet Natasha today. Maybe it was random chance after all.

But.

Once they met, the rest of it, the love between them, was inevitable. ~ Nicola Yoon

All love ends," she says.
"Maybe," I say. "But it has to start somewhere. ~ Nicola Yoon

I'll be a great doctor with excellent bedside skills.
I'll be perfectly happy.
But something about Natasha makes me think my life could be extraordinary. ~ Nicola Yoon

Love can't kill me," I say, parroting Carla's words.
"That's not true," she says. "Whoever told you that? ~ Nicola Yoon

Do you think it's funny that both of our favourite memories are about the people we like the least now?" I ask.

"Maybe that's why we dislike them," she says. "The distance between who they were and who they are is so wide, we have no hope of getting them back. ~ Nicola Yoon

My stomach does a little flip thing that I'm realy ging yo have to get used to, since it seems to be a side effect of seeing him. ~ Nicola Yoon

He meant it and he didn't. Both. At the same time.
'It doesn't matter if you meant it or not. This is the life you're living. It's not temporary and it's not pretend and there's no do-over...You don't get to regret us. ~ Nicola Yoon

Maybe it does bother me,' he says, 'but only peripherally. It's like a buzzing fly, you know? Annoying, but not actually life-threatening. ~ Nicola Yoon

You can't predict the future. It turns out that you can't predict the past either. Time moves in both directions - forward and backward - and what happens here and now changes them both. ~ Nicola Yoon

How chocolate turned white and the milk turned brown, and how sometimes you can't unmix things no matter how much you might want to. ~ Nicola Yoon

Practicality is overrated. ~ Nicola Yoon

prom*ise n. pl. -es.
1. The lie you want to keep.
{2015, Whittier} ~ Nicola Yoon

I don't know where I'm going, but I have to get to him. I don't know what I'm doing, but I have to protect him. ~ Nicola Yoon

If my life were a book and you read it backward, nothing would change. Today is the same as yesterday. Tomorrow will be the same as today. In the book of Maddy, all the chapters are the same.
Until Olly. ~ Nicola Yoon

I want to say something, not just something, but the perfect thing to comfort him, to make him forget his family for a few minutes, but I can't think of it. This is why people touch. Sometimes words are just not enough" -Madeline ~ Nicola Yoon

I understand his fear. Who are we if not a product of our parents and their histories? ~ Nicola Yoon

Be more specific, please. Olly: jesus. girls. ocean blue ~ Nicola Yoon

I'm on my way home. I'll remain trapped there forever. I'm alive and don't want to be. ~ Nicola Yoon

I wanted you and the whole wide world. I wanted everything. ~ Nicola Yoon

How can I live the rest of my life in this bubble now that I know all that I'm missing? ~ Nicola Yoon

Having dreams never killed anybody. ~ Nicola Yoon

I didn't know you this morning, and now I don't remember not knowing you. ~ Nicola Yoon

Some people you want to get to know and some people you want to know you....For whatever reason, there are people that you want to tell your weird, secret thoughts to. You want to show them your pimples and tell them about your braces. You want them to love you because of those things, not in spite of them. 'Some people make you want to be known,'" (p. 302) ~ Nicola Yoon

Considering what the future may hold, jumping off this cliff doesn't seem so scary at all. ~ Nicola Yoon