Ericka May > Ericka's Quotes

“I wonder why bereaved people even bother with mourning clothes when the grief itself provides such an unmistakable wardrobe.”
― Jandy Nelson, The Sky Is Everywhere

“My sister will die over and over again for the rest of my life. Grief is forever. It doesn't go away; it becomes a part of you, step for step, breath for breath. I will never stop grieving Bailey because I will never stop loving her. That's just how it is. Grief and love are conjoined, you don't get one without the other. All I can do is love her, and love the world, emulate her by living with daring and spirit and joy.”
― Jandy Nelson, The Sky Is Everywhere

“grief is a house
where the chairs
have forgotten how to hold us
the mirrors how to reflect us
the walls how to contain us

grief is a house that disappears
each time someone knocks at the door
or rings the bell
a house that blows into the air
at the slightest gust
that buries itself deep in the ground
while everyone is sleeping

grief is a house where no one can protect you
where the younger sister
will grow older than the older one
where the doors
no longer let you in
or out”
― Jandy Nelson, The Sky Is Everywhere

“Each time someone dies, a library burns.”
― Jandy Nelson, The Sky Is Everywhere

“There once was a girl who found herself dead.
She peered over the ledge of heaven
and saw that back on earth
her sister missed her too much,
was way too sad,
so she crossed some paths
that would not have crossed,
took some moments in her hand
shook them up
and spilled them like dice
over the living world.
It worked.
The boy with the guitar collided
with her sister.
"There you go, Len," she whispered. "The rest is up to you.”
― Jandy Nelson, The Sky Is Everywhere

“This is our story to tell. You’d think for all the reading I do, I would have thought about this before, but I haven’t. I’ve never once thought about the interpretative, the story telling aspect of life, of my life. I always felt like I was in a story, yes, but not like I was the author of it, or like I had any say in its telling whatsoever.”
― Jandy Nelson, The Sky Is Everywhere

“Everyone has that moment I think, the moment when something so momentous happens that it rips your very being into small pieces. And then you have to stop. For a long time, you gather your pieces. And it takes such a very long time, not to fit them back together, but to assemble them in a new way, not necessarily a better way. More, a way you can live with until you know for certain that this piece should go there, and that one there.”
― Kathleen Glasgow, Girl in Pieces

“I'm tired and angry at me. For letting myself get smaller and smaller in the hopes that he would notice me more. But how can someone notice you if you keep getting smaller?”
― Kathleen Glasgow, Girl in Pieces

“That's how hearts get broken, you know. When you believe in promises.”
― Kathleen Glasgow, Girl in Pieces

“I just want to feel better. My own body is my deepest enemy. It wants, it wants, it wants and when it does not get, it cries and cries and I punish it. How can you live in fear of your own body?”
― Kathleen Glasgow, Girl in Pieces

“But it occurred to me suddenly that trust wasn't an object, not something that arrived on your doorstep, solid and absolute. It was a decision, a leap.”
― Jenn Marie Thorne, The Wrong Side of Right

“It’s amazing how much one person can change the world, even if they don’t know they’re doing it.”
― Jenn Marie Thorne, The Wrong Side of Right

“There’s no shame in being born. I don’t have to apologize for that.”
― Jenn Marie Thorne, The Wrong Side of Right

“It's about the important things, like the way their face lights up when they laugh, or the way they move as they're walking towards you, or the way their freckles create a map of the stars.”
― Jennifer Niven, Holding Up the Universe

“People are shitty for a lot of reasons. Sometimes they're just shitty people. Sometimes people have been shitty to them and, even though they don't realize it, they take that shitty upbringing and go out into the world and treat others the same way. Sometimes they're shitty because they're afraid. Sometimes they choose to be shitty to others before others can be shitty to them. So it's like self-defensive shittiness.”
― Jennifer Niven, Holding Up the Universe

“This is what I know about loss. It doesn't get better. You just get (somewhat) used to it.”
― Jennifer Niven, Holding Up the Universe

“It's my experience that the people who are most afraid are the ones who hide behind mean and threatening words.”
― Jennifer Niven, Holding Up the Universe

“Life is too short to judge others. It is not our job to tell someone what they feel or who they are. Why not spend some time on yourself instead? I don't know you, but I can guarantee you have some issues you can work on. And maybe you've got a fit body and a perfect face, but I'll wager you've got insecurities too, ones that would keep you from stripping down to a purple bikini and modeling it in front of everyone.

As for the rest of you, remember this. YOU ARE WANTED. Big, small, tall, short, pretty, plain, friendly, shy. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise not even yourself.

Especially not yourself.”
― Jennifer Niven, Holding Up the Universe

“All over the planet women were being tormented, yet if you took sexism seriously, you were a bore, an idiot, or a pain in the ass.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Commencement

“We don't always do the things our parents want us to do, but it is their mistake if they can't find a way to love us anyway.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Commencement

“Women leave their marriages when they can't take any more. Men leave when they find someone new.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Commencement

“The girls said she was too cynical about love, but how could you not be? On the surface, relations between men and women were all soft kisses and white gowns and hand-holding. But underneath they were a scary, complicated, ugly mess, just waiting to rise to the surface.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Commencement

“She had once said that she believed the women's liberation movement of the sixties and seventies was actually a ploy by men to get women to do more.”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Commencement

“She often wondered what the hell was wrong with men. Sex could be fun, natural, good. Why did they have to corrupt it? Why did so many of them prefer to have sex with a victim or a child rather than a willing partner? For that matter, why was it better to have sex with a stranger than with your own wife?”
― J. Courtney Sullivan, Commencement

“My dear, I don't give a damn.”
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

“Hardships make or break people.”
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

“It was better to know the worst than to wonder.”
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

“I'd cut up my heart for you to wear if you wanted it.”
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

“You're so brutal to those who love you, Scarlett. You take their love and hold it over their heads like a whip.”
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

“Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect. We take what we get and are thankful it's no worse than it is.”
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind