Noi (in & out) > Recent Status Updates

“I can grant you a wish or tell you a truth,” she says when you meet her, “but not both. “I can forgive you a sin or permit you a wrong,” she adds, “but not both. “And lastly,” she murmurs, “I can give something back that you’ve lost, or I can remove something you wish to have excised, but not both."

OK I'm already invested in this

this book feels so long :(

How I know my GR addiction went too far - I wrote IMO in a group chat and someone had to ask what I meant and it took me a second to realize what she was referring to because it was so obvious to me

“Andrea, you’re allowed to live. You were given this life, you’re allowed to live it. Stop punishing yourself.”

“I want to see you smile. You used to be fire, not ice.”

I AM PISSED OFF

"She’s my anchor. In the stormy sea of all those faces, she keeps me steady."

"... I know I’m not able to give her the life she had, but I can give her love, and I was raised knowing that love is much more important than money. I think she knows that too."

“I’m sorry,” he says, his breath a whisper against my cheek. I turn up to him. “Why? You never did anything but make me happy.” “If you like,” Jace says, “you can stay with us. You can come with us. With me. And just so you know, you don’t have to do anything to make me love you, I’m already gone.”

"I had no idea that a kiss was like a song. That it could make you fly. While I soar, I pray please, don’t let us crash, don’t let us crash, don’t let us crash."

"I told him I was too afraid. Then he said that fear and courage felt the same. Same queasy stomach, same shaking hands, same adrenaline pumping through you. He figured someday I’d meet someone that would make me flip from fear to courage."

“Jace, at first when you play, you’re going to want to get every note right, every rhythm. You’re going to want to play the perfect... Better every time. Right?

Eventually though, there’s going to come a time when you stop caring about playing the perfect note... and you’ll only care about creating the perfect experience... the perfect emotion... Okay? That’s when you’ll stop being scared. Don’t worry. It’ll come.”

"What if… I shake my head and stop playing the what if game. I learned years ago that what ifs are like a whirlpool and they’ll suck you under and drown you if you let them."

"I’d felt alone my entire life, until the minute I first heard the notes of his song. After that, I didn’t feel lonely anymore."

"The minute I saw Jace playing his guitar in the park, a secret smile on his face, the sun falling over him, I didn’t need to make up a story about him. The story was already there. He was mine. And I was his. I felt it, like someone had reached out, shaken me, and said, “That boy, that one right there? He’s yours. And you are his.”

"Some people, when you meet them, your notes clash, like a B flat with an A. It’s a horrible, discordant noise, and you can’t mesh, no matter how hard you try. But sometimes, when you meet someone, it’s like you’re each other’s keynote. The third. The fifth. An octave. You don’t even have to try to be in tune. You’re a harmony."

"He thought that the best way to make people realize we were all the same was through music. Music doesn’t have color. Everyone, no matter their age, their background, they all can connect through music. He could make a whole crowd of people dance, and laugh, and smile—they wouldn’t have anything in common... He could make a stone-cold man cry... a hateful man smile... two people fall in love. All from a song.”

“I think, when we play music, we can reach anyone, anywhere. Music transcends the known world. If you love someone, all you have to do is play music, from your heart”—she touches her hand to her heart and says—“and they’ll hear you, no matter where they are.”

"It’s the moment I love, when a song comes to you and you decide whether or not it’ll be written. It’s the space between dream and reality."

“How do you know I won’t hurt you?” I ask.
“Will you?”
"No.”
“I didn’t think so. Besides, maybe you should be worried about me hurting you.”
“Will you?”
“I don’t know,” she says, “I’ll try not to. But I can’t promise anything.” She says the last cheerfully, although it seems like a warning. As we walk toward the edge of the Ramble I think about heeding it, but what’s life without risks?"

"I guess, though, it’s hard to notice that she isn’t what you’d consider beautiful, because there’s something about her that’s arresting. Something that makes it almost impossible to turn away. I think it’s the way she carries herself. Like she knows something. Some secret. And the expression on her face…"

"But then, out of the darkness... jogging over the rocky path. They lean close and peer down at me. They’re so close their nose nearly touches my own. I lose my breath again. The world tilts. I’m punched right in the gut. But this time... it’s all in my head. “Well, are you alright, or aren’t you?” asks the most beautiful girl in the world."

"I never thought I’d feel that kind of love again... Not until I saw her. The girl in the red silk scarf. While my guitar vibrated under my fingers, and I squinted into the bright setting sun, I took one look at her and knew—that girl, with her haughty brown eyes and condescending look... that girl had my heart, and I was never getting it back."

"Sometimes, when I played my guitar, tears would leak out, racing down my cheeks, falling like rain flooding the city streets, overflowing into the East River. Dean pretended not to notice. He isn’t good with feelings. River understood. But he’s like that. He understands everyone and everything."

Tell me we get a River book

"The all-consuming, soul mate, need-you-so-much-I’m-not-whole-without-you kind of love."

Where's mine? 🥲

"My dad would pull out a vinyl record, hold it up to my mom with a smile, then drop it into the record player... And my dad would take my mom in his arms... They would dance, folding into each other, until they became whole. That’s what it was like. When they were apart they weren’t complete. But as soon as they held each other, they were exactly as they were meant to be. One couldn’t exist without the other."

"He loved the music, he loved my mom, and he loved us. And if he could have all that combined into one—our band—then that was his version of heaven."

It's the simple things that get me

"I am not a good man.” He swallowed hard. “But I am trying to be right now.”

"It didn’t make any sense, and all of this back and forth was starting to make my head hurt."

LOOK! It's not just me lol

My brain hurts, I need to reread this part and hopefully understand it better this time around 😵‍💫