Ghost Boy Quotes

“Romantic love has always interested me: the way it ebbs and flows like a living thing, or how it is revealed in secret smiles or anguished conversations. Perhaps I've always found it captivating because it was the starkest reminder of how alone I was.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: My Miraculous Escape from a Life Locked Inside My Own Body

“It’s right to say that people fall in love. We don’t glide, slip, or stumble into it. Instead we tumble head first from the moment we decide to step off the edge of a cliff with someone and see whether we’ll fly together. Love might be irrational, but we make the choice to risk everything.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“And it was then that I realized that families might be the ones who pick us up time and again but strangers can also rescue us—even if they don’t know they’re doing so.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“If someone does not expect or is not expected to achieve, then they never will.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“No one seems to consider that even people who are thought to be intellectually impaired can change as they grow older.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“Sadness, though, is probably the hardest thing of all to hide because sorrow has a way of seeping out however well people think they’re containing it. You only have to look to see the signs, but most people don’t, which is why so many seem to end up feeling lonely.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“Dreams can be any size you want them to be. But the important thing is that you have one that is yours.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“I’d been put into a box long before, after all. Each of us has. Are you the “difficult” child or the “histrionic” lover, the “argumentative” sibling or the “long-suffering” spouse? Boxes make us easier to understand, but they also imprison us because people don’t see past them.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“Do they really think that a limited intellect means a child can’t feel viciousness in a person’s touch or hear anger in the tone of their voice?”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“None of us knows what we can bear until we’re asked,”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“God and I didn’t talk about the big things in life—we didn’t engage in philosophical debates or argue about religion—but I talked to Him endlessly because I knew we shared something important. I didn’t have proof that He existed, but I believed in Him anyway because I knew He was real. God did the same for me. Unlike people, He didn’t need proof that I existed—He knew I did.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“There is salt and sweet in every life.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: My Miraculous Escape from a Life Locked Inside My Own Body

“The one person I talked to was God, but He wasn’t part of my fantasy world. He was real to me, a presence inside and around that calmed and reassured me. Just as North American Indians might commune with their spirit guides or pagans look to the seasons and the sun, I spoke to God as I tried to make sense of what had happened to me and asked Him to protect me from harm. God and I didn’t talk about the big things in life—we didn’t engage in philosophical debates or argue about religion—but I talked to Him endlessly because I knew we shared something important. I didn’t have proof that He existed, but I believed in Him anyway because I knew He was real. God did the same for me. Unlike people, He didn’t need proof that I existed—He knew I did.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“Women seem to think they go on diets in order to feel happier, but I know from experience that this isn’t true. In fact, I can safely say that the less women eat, the grumpier they get.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“At times it felt confusing to be surrounded by people, utterly alone and yet aware that God was my companion.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“And it was only in that moment, as I felt my father’s arms holding me upright and his strength keeping me steady, that I knew his love was strong enough to protect me from an ocean.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“I’ve lived my whole life as a burden. She makes me feel weightless.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: My Miraculous Escape from a Life Locked Inside My Own Body

“Deep down I know, of course, that I no longer need to lose myself in fantasy because I’m living life at last. But I’ll always be thankful for my imagination because I learned long ago that it was my greatest gift: it was the key that unlocked my prison and allowed me to escape, the door through which I entered new worlds and conquered them—the place where I was free.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“Boxes make us easier to understand, but they also imprison us because people don’t see past them.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“That kind of love can be passed from one person to the next, like a life force that will comfort anyone it touches and creates memories that burn strong years after the events that inspire them.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: My Miraculous Escape from a Life Locked Inside My Own Body

“I know so much about other people’s expectations and so little about my own.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“I would like you all to stop for a moment and really think about not having a voice or any means to communicate,” my computer voice says. “You could never say, ‘Pass the salt’ or tell someone the really important things like ‘I love you.’ You can’t tell someone that you’re uncomfortable, cold, or in pain.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“Whatever else they talk about, though, I’ve come to know that there are three topics women will return to again and again in conversation: their husbands, who are often disappointment; their children, who are usually wonderful; and their weight, which is always too high. Again and again, I hear them commiserate with each other about how difficult it is to make men more responsible and diets more effective. While I don’t understand their problems with their husbands, my heart always sinks whenever I hear them talk about calorie counting. Women seem to think they go on diets in order to feel happier, but I know from experience that this isn’t true. In fact, I can safely say that the less women eat, the grumpier they get.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: My Miraculous Escape from a Life Locked Inside My Own Body

“I wondered if it was possible to get so used to joy that you stopped noticing it?”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: My Miraculous Escape from a Life Locked Inside My Own Body

“Their love had lasted a lifetime; their stories had become woven together so tightly that they’d forgotten where one ended and another began. All around us were scattered the tiny clues of their love, enmeshed in even the most mundane objects”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: My Miraculous Escape from a Life Locked Inside My Own Body

“How did people ever get anything done with their days when just choosing what to eat at the start of them could take hours?”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“I know a life can be destroyed in an instant: a car spins out of control on a busy road, a doctor sits down to break bad news, or a love letter is discovered hidden in a place where its owner thought it never would be found. All these things can shatter a world in just a few moments. But is it possible for the opposite to happen—for a life to be created in a moment instead of destroyed? For a man to see a face and know it belongs to the woman he will spend the rest of his life with?”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body

“What can I say? That I thought my life would change completely when I started to communicate, and now I know it isn't going to? That my greatest challenge is not learning to communicate but being listened to? That people don't hear what they don't want to, and I have no way of making them listen?”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: My Miraculous Escape from a Life Locked Inside My Own Body

“However important we think we are, we are but a footnote to the natural cycle.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: My Miraculous Escape from a Life Locked Inside My Own Body

“That’s how I feel—as if I’ve been shattered into a million pieces, and each one is hurting. Gravity is painful when it’s bearing down on a body that’s not fit for the purpose.”
― Martin Pistorius, Ghost Boy: My Miraculous Escape from a Life Locked Inside My Own Body