Tammy > Tammy's Quotes

“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Is there a reason you look like you want to murder me?"
"Not particularly. You have that effect on people.”
― Martina Boone, Compulsion

“I think I can forgive a kind lie.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“Maybe you think you’re just one person. What you do doesn’t really matter. You can read a few tweets or blog posts and then publicly render your judgment of a total stranger. Who cares? You’re just one tiny voice in a huge ocean. But the thing about tiny voices is that when they band together they can be incredibly loud. Uncomfortably loud. Sometimes that’s a good thing—a strong thing. A group of voices can wake people up to the truth. But a group of voices can be a bad thing too, because we’re not always right. Or even when we are right, sometimes the things we do to each other still aren’t okay.”
― Paula Stokes, This is How it Happened

“I remember a time when all I wanted was a gun and to learn how to use it. I thought a gun would make me feel safe. I thought a gun would make me feel powerful. But right now I just feel . . . heavy. Like I live in this world of death and destruction and I’ll never escape alive.”
― Paula Stokes, Ferocious

“It’s terrifying to realize your own decisions are shaping your destiny.”
― S.J. Kincaid, The Diabolic

“Emotions I’ve been working hard to hold back all summer start to spill out of me as I pull Elliott’s mouth toward my own. I’m so eager and impatient that our noses bump and teeth knock together before our lips slide into place. The frigid water is still lapping at my legs, but I can’t feel it anymore. My entire body is flush with heat, with desire. If it weren’t for the faintest hint of dance music from the clearing, I’d think that the two of us were completely alone.

I wish the two of us were completely alone.”
― Paula Stokes, This is How it Happened

“Love is the kind of thing you have to nurture and care for. You can’t just lock it up in some faraway place if you want it to last.”
― Paula Stokes, Ferocious

“I get it. Traveling halfway across the world to run into the boy you grew up with, getting back together after years apart—that’s an epic fucking fairytale. I don’t blame you for being seduced by it. I guess I just thought what we had was better. You know, because it was real.”
― Paula Stokes, The Key to Everything

“Enough with the apologies. I can’t just forgive seventeen years of hurt all at once. But you can do better, all right? From today onward, do better. Not just for me. For my mom too.”
― Paula Stokes, Hidden Pieces

“I don’t think you can just choose to believe in God. You either do or you don’t, and no matter what camp you’re in, it would take something life-changing to truly lead you into the other one.”
― Paula Stokes, This is How it Happened

“You can’t explain love with experiments and MRIs. I don’t care what your research says. Some things are bigger than science.”
― Paula Stokes, The Key to Everything

“Killing someone is different in practice than it is in theory. There are factors you can’t prepare for, feelings in the moment where you’ll question everything you thought you knew about yourself, other feelings that might follow you long after the deed is done.”
― Paula Stokes, Ferocious

“There’s nothing abnormal about loneliness.”
― Paula Stokes, Hidden Pieces