Kiley Brennan > Kiley's Quotes

“The problem is, March snow days are miracles. You can't live for miracles.”
― Jasmine Warga, My Heart and Other Black Holes

“I watch him throw his head back in supreme happiness, like he's hearing that he gets to choose the colors for all the sunsets from now on.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“Because who knows? Who knows anything? Who knows who's pulling the strings? Or what is? Or how? Who knows if destiny is just how you tell yourself the story of your life? Another son might not have heard his mother's last words as a prophecy but as drug-induced gibberish, forgotten soon after. Another girl might not have told herself a love story about a drawing her brother made. Who knows if Grandma really thought the first daffodils of spring were lucky or if she just wanted to go on walks with me through the woods? Who knows if she even believed in her bible at all or if she just preferred a world where hope and creativity and faith trump reason? Who knows if there are ghosts (sorry, Grandma) or just the living, breathing memories of your loved ones inside you, speaking to you, trying to get your attention by any means necessary? Who knows where the hell Ralph is? (Sorry, Oscar.) No one knows.

So we grapple with the mysteries, each in our own way.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. —E.E. CUMMINGS”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“How can people die when you’re in a fight with them? When you’re smack in the middle of hating them? When absolutely nothing between you has been worked out?”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“To draw you must close your eyes and sing.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“I have an allergy to catching and throwing and kicking and dribbling of any kind. Noah is not a team player. Well, duh. Revolutionaries aren’t team players.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“And some thoughts once thought are very hard to unthink.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“I love pizza, meaning: Even when I’m in the middle of eating pizza, I wish I were eating pizza.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“It takes a lot of courage to be true to yourself, true to your heart.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“One day, I wish to find a man like in my
books. He has to be just like in one of my books.
And he has to love me, love me more than anything
in the world. Most important of all, he has
to think I’m beautiful.”
“Lily, I need to tell you something.” Fazire
was going to tell her about Becky’s wish and his
mistake and let her look forward to something, let
her look forward to the incomparable beauty she
was going to be.
Most of all, he had to stop her wish now. He
didn’t want her wasting it on some fool idea. He
wanted it to be special, perfect, to make her world
better like she had made Becky and Will’s and,
indeed, his.
But again she didn’t hear him. Her eyes were
bright and they were steady on his.
“He has to be tall, very tall and dark and
broad-shouldered and narrow-hipped.”
Fazire stared. He didn’t even know what
“narrow-hipped” meant.
“And he has to be handsome, unbelievably
handsome, impossibly handsome with a strong,
square jaw and powerful cheekbones and tanned
skin and beautiful eyes with lush, thick lashes.
He has to be clever and very wealthy but hardworking.
He has to be virile, fierce, ruthless and
rugged.”
Now she was getting over his head. He didn’t
think there was such a thing as impossibly handsome.
How cheekbones could be powerful,
Fazire didn’t know. He was even thinking he
might have to look up “virile” in the dictionary
Sarah had given him.
“And he has to be hard and cold and maybe a
little bit forbidding, a little bit bad with a broken
heart I have to mend or one encased in ice I have
to melt or better yet… both!”
Fazire thought this was getting a bit ridiculous.
It was the most complicated wish he’d ever
heard.
But she wasn’t yet finished.
“We have to go through some trials and tribulations.
Something to test our love, make it strong
and worthy. And… and… he has to be daring and
very masculine. Powerful. People must respect
him, maybe even fear him. Graceful too and lithe,
like a… like a cat! Or a lion. Or something like
that.”
She was losing steam and Fazire had to admit
he was grateful for it.
“And he has to be a good lover.” Lily shocked
Fazire by saying. “The best, so good, he could almost
make love to me just by using his eyes.”
Fazire felt himself blush. Perhaps he should
have a look at these books she was reading and
show them to Becky. Lily was a very sharp girl,
sharp as a tack (another one of Sarah’s sayings,
although Fazire couldn’t imagine a tack ever being
as clever as Lily) but she was too young to
be reading about any man making love to her
with his eyes. Fazire had never made love, never
would, genies just didn’t. But he was pretty certain
fourteen year old girls shouldn’t be thinking
about it.
Though, he was wrong about that, or at least
Becky would tell him that later.
Then Fazire realised she’d stopped talking.
“Is that it?” he asked.
She thought for a bit, clearly not wanting to
leave anything out.
Then she nodded.”
― Kristen Ashley, Three Wishes

“Revolutionaries aren't team players.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“Every picture taken of you reduces your spirit and shortens your life”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“I don’t deserve a love story. Not anymore. Love stories aren’t written for girls who could do what I just did to my brother, for girls with black hearts.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“We are not broken things, neither of us. We are cracked pottery mended with laquer and flakes of gold, whole as we are, complete unto each other. Complete and worthy and so very loved.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Love may be a grand thing, but goddamn if it doesn't take up more than its fair share of space inside a man.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“It's beginning to feel like he's shuffling his way through the seven deadly sins, in ascending order of my favourites.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“I love you, but I don’t know how to help you. I still don’t! I’m an emotional delinquent and I say wrong things all the time, but I want to be better for you. I promise that. It doesn’t matter to me that you’re ill and it doesn’t matter if I have to give up everything, because you’re worth it. You’re worth it all because you are magnificent, you are. Magnificent and gorgeous and brilliant and kind and good and I just . . . love you, Percy. I love you so damn much.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Life isn't fair, it's just fairer than death, that's all.”
― William Goldman, The Princess Bride

“Who says life is fair, where is that written?”
― William Goldman, The Princess Bride

“Love is many things none of them logical.”
― William Goldman, The Princess Bride

“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.”
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It

“It is remarkable how much courage it takes to kiss someone, even when you are almost certain that person would very much like to be kissed by you. Doubt will knock you from the sky every time.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“There’s a Japanese phrase that I like: koi no yokan. It doesn’t mean love at first sight. It’s closer to love at second sight. It’s the feeling when you meet someone that you’re going to fall in love with them. Maybe you don’t love them right away, but it’s inevitable that you will.”
― Nicola Yoon, The Sun Is Also a Star

“The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real place does not exist in all the universe.”
― P.S. Baber, Cassie Draws the Universe

“Maybe part of falling in love with someone else is also falling in love with yourself.”
― Nicola Yoon, The Sun Is Also a Star

“I'll never understand how time can make a moment feel as close as yesterday and as far as years.”
― Adam Silvera, History Is All You Left Me

“People are complicated puzzles, always trying to piece together a complete picture, but sometimes we get it wrong and sometimes we’re left unfinished. Sometimes that’s for the best. Some pieces can’t be forced into a puzzle, or at least they shouldn’t be, because they won’t make sense.”
― Adam Silvera, History Is All You Left Me