Emma > Emma's Quotes

“Books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“That's who you really like. The people you can think out loud in front of.”
― John Green, An Abundance of Katherines

“Sometimes I think it's better to suffer bitter unhappiness and to fight and to scream out, and even to suffer that terrible pain, than to just be... safe. At least she knows she's living.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“She had become accustomed to being lonely. She was used to walking alone and to being considered 'different.' She did not suffer too much.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Who wants to die? Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no sun, and water only when it rains. It's growing out of sour earth. And it's strong because its hard struggle to live is making it strong. My children will be strong that way.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“And always, there was the magic of learning things.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“If there was only one tree like that in the world, you would think it was beautiful. But because there are so many, you just can't see how beautiful it really is.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“A person who pulls himself up from a low environment via the bootstrap route has two choices. Having risen above his environment, he can forget it; or, he can rise above it and never forget it and keep compassion and understanding in his heart for those he has left behind him in the cruel upclimb. The nurse had chosen the forgetting way. Yet, as she stood there, she knew that years later she would be haunted by the sorrow in the face of that starveling child and that she would wish bitterly that she had said a comforting word then and done something towards the saving of her immortal soul. She had the knowledge that she was small but she lacked the courage to be otherwise.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“There are very few bad people. There are just a lot of people that are unlucky.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“In teaching your child, do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“All my life I've been lonely. I've been lonely at crowded parties. I've been lonely in the middle of kissing a girl and I've been lonely at camp with hundreds of fellows around. But now I'm not lonely any more.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“I want to live for something. I don't want to live to get charity food to give me enough strength to go back to get more charity food.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“If you care about something enough, it’s going to make you cry. But you have to use it. Use your tears. Use your pain. Use your fear. Get mad. Arnold, get mad.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“We all have to find our own ways to say good-bye.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“I suddenly understood that if every moment of a book should be taken seriously, then every moment of a life should be taken seriously as well.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“When anybody, no matter how old they are, loses a parent, I think it hurts the same as if you were only five years old, you know? I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“Somebody dies and people eat your food. Funny how that works.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“Listen you have to read a book three times before you know it.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“Did she say anything before she died?" he asked.
"Yes," the surgeon said. "She said, 'Forgive him'"
"Forgive him?" my father asked.
"I think she was referring to the drunk driver who killed her."
Wow.
My grandmother's last act on earth was a call for forgiveness, love and tolerance.
She wanted us to forgive Gerald, the dumb-ass Spokane Indian alcoholic who ran her over and killed her.
I think My Dad wanted to go find Gerald and beat him to death.
I think my mother would have helped him.
I think I would have helped him, too.
But my grandmother wanted us to forgive her murderer.
Even dead, she was a better person than us.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push it just the same.”
― Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why

“You should approach each book -- you should approach life -- with the real possibility that you might get a metaphorical boner at any point.”
― Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

“A lot of you cared, just not enough.”
― Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why

“It's hard to be disappointed when what you expected turns out to be true.”
― Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why

“Sometimes we have thoughts that even we don't understand. Thoughts that aren't even true—that aren't really how we feel—but they're running through our heads anyway because they're interesting to think about.”
― Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why