Elly Swartz > Elly's Quotes

“Why do you do that?

Do what?

Blow off compliments.

I don't.

You kind of do.

Sorry.

Don't apologize. Just learn to say thanks.”
― Marisa Reichardt, Underwater

“It turned out I wasn't dying on the outside. I was only dying on the inside, where nobody could see.”
― Marisa Reichardt, Underwater

“It was exactly one month since the Worst Thing had happened, and almost as long since I'd started not-talking. Which isn't refusing to talk, like everyone thinks it is. It's just deciding not to fill the world with words if you don't have to. It is the opposite of constant-talking, which is what I used to do, and it's better than small talk, which is what people wished I did.”
― Ali Benjamin, The Thing About Jellyfish

“I'd always thought that being seen was about what people perceived with their eyes. But by the time the Eugene Field Memorial Middle School made the fall trip to the aquarium, I, Suzy Swanson, had disappeared entirely. Being seen is more about the ears than the eyes, it turns out.”
― Ali Benjamin, The Thing About Jellyfish