Michelle Stahlman > Michelle's Quotes

“Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“If you stay, I'll do whatever you want. I'll quit the band, go with you to New York. But if you need me to go away, I'll do that, too. I was talking to Liz and she said maybe coming back to your old life would be too painful, that maybe it'd be easier for you to erase us. And that would suck, but I'd do it. I can lose you like that if I don't lose you today. I'll let you go. If you stay.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“And that's just it, isn't it? That's how we manage to survive the loss. Because love, it never dies, it never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“I'm not sure this is a world I belong in anymore. I'm not sure that I want to wake up.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“It's okay,' he tells me. 'If you want to go. Everyone wants you to stay. I want you to stay more than I've ever wanted anything in my life.' His voice cracks with emotion. He stops, clears his throat, takes a breath, and continues. 'But that's what I want and I could see why it might not be what you want. So I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. It's okay if you have to leave us. It's okay if you want to stop fighting.'

For the first time since I realized that Teddy was gone, too, I feel something unclench. I feel myself breathe. I know that Gramps can't be that late-inning pinch hitter I'd hoped for. He won't unplug my breathing tube or overdoes me with morphine or anything like that. But this is the first time today that anyone has acknowledged what I have lost. I know that the social worker warned Gran and Gramps not to upset me, but Gramps's recognition, and the permission he just offered me--it feels like a gift.

Gramps doesn't leave me. He slumps back into the chair. It's quiet now. So quiet you can almost hear other people's dreams. So quiet that you can almost hear me tell Gramps, 'Thank you.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“Girlfriend is such a stupid word. I couldn't stand calling her that. So, we had to get married, so I could call her 'wife.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“But I'd understand if you chose love, Adam love, over music love. Either way you win. And either way you lose. What can I tell you? Love's a bitch.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“All I can think about is how fucked up it would be for your life to end here, now. I mean I know that your life if fucked up no matter what now, forever. And I'm not dumb enough to think that I can undo that, that anyone can. But I can't wrap my mind around the notion of you not getting old, having kids, going to Juilliard, getting to play that cello in front of a huge audience, so that they can get the chills the way I do every time I see you pick up your bow, every time I see you smile at me.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“This is the you I like. You definitely dressed sexier and are, you know, blond, and that's different. But the you who are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the same you I'll be in love with tomorrow. I love that you're fragile and tough, quiet and kick-ass. ”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“I have a feeling that once you live through something like this, you become a little bit invincible.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“Sleep would be so welcome. A warm blanket of black to erase everything else. Sleep without dreams. I've heard people talk about the sleep of the dead. Is that what death would feel like? The nicest, warmest, heaviest never-ending nap? If that's what it's like, I wouldn't mind. If that's what dying is like, I wouldn't mind that at all.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“We are like Humpty Dumpty and all these king's horses and all these king's men cannot put us back together again”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“You just work through it. You just hang in there.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“I don't really care. I shouldn't have to care. I shouldn't have to work this hard. I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“You can have your wishes, your plans, but at the end of the day, it's out of your control.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“But the you who you are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the same you I’ll be in love with tomorrow.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“How am I supposed to decide this? How can I possibly stay without mom and dad? How can I leave without Teddy? Or Adam? This is too much. I don’t even understand how it all works, why I’m here in the state that I’m in or how to get out of it if I wanted to. If I were to say, I want to wake up, would I wake up right now? I’ve already tried snapping my heels to find Teddy and tried to beam myself to Hawaii, and that didn’t work. This seems a whole lot more complicated.
But in spite of that, I believe it’s true. I hear the nurse’s words again. I am running the show. Everyone’s waiting on me.
I decide. I know this now.
And this terrifies me more than anything else that has happened today.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“I understood all that in my head, but I still didn‟t believe it in my heart.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“Life might take you down different roads. But each of you gets to decide which one to take.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“If I stay. If I live. It's up to me.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“And now I am here, as alone as I've ever been. I am seventeen years old. This is not how it's suppose to be. This is not how my life is suppose to turn out.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“I know that all the magic kisses in the world probably couldn't have helped him today. But I would do anything to have been able to give him one.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“If you stay, I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll quit the band; go with you to New York. But if you need me to go away, I’ll do that too. .. And that would suck, but I’ll do it. I can lose you like that, if I don’t lose you today. I’ll let you go. If you stay.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“Even going to jail would be easy compared to losing you.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“It's ok if you want to stop fighting.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“he kissed me hard. "Promise me. Promise me you'll spend New Year's with me next year," he whispered into my ear.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“If you can't trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child?”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay

“Adam lay perfectly still, little groans escaping from his lips. I looked at the bow, looked at my hands, looked at Adam's face and felt this surge of love, lust, and an unfamiliar feeling of power.”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay