The Poppy Fields Quotes

“Love changes us. It strengthens us, and dents us, and lifts us, and guides us. If we sleep, if we suffer the side effect, if we're no longer shaped by the people we love... who are we?”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“This was the other side of love. This was the aftermath, the cost, the opposite end of the bargain. This was the dirty, damp confetti and trampled flower petals, stamped into the muddy ground and tossed about by the wind, long after the parade had ended. This was the sad, lonely echo in the hall, now that the dance was over. Here, in this room, was grief. But grief was love in its second shape.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“Poppies are a ruderal species, which means that they grow from the rubble. If something so spectacular can still blossom in even the most disturbed earth, then doesn’t that mean there’s hope for even the most battered hearts to heal?”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“Grief. The moment when you realize that your world and the world are entirely separate. When your world has come to a grinding halt, when you’re drowning and flailing about, and the world just rolls on without you.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“The thing about grief is that it’s never just grief. For Sasha, grief was also fear. Fear that she might never love again, fear of her unknown future. For Ray, grief was also anger. Anger at the way he’d lost his brother, at the place he blamed for taking him. And, for both, grief was also guilt. It was living with the question: How much was my fault? It was wondering what you could have done differently.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“but any time Ellis invited a man into her bed—most recently her teammate at the Poppy Fields, Flynn, for just one night, though still it was a huge mistake—she remembered that she couldn’t sleep comfortably with someone else beside her, disrupting her peace whenever they turned. For someone rather neat and organized in her waking life, Ellis slept like a sloppy starfish, limbs akimbo across the mattress. She simply took up too much space to accommodate anyone else, and she declined to pursue the possibility that there could be someone out there for whom she might not mind moving over.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“And this meant that Johnny could exist not only in the memories that Ray preserved but also, somehow, in the days to come, as Ray unearthed even more about him. Past, present, and future.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“She simply took up too much space to accommodate anyone else.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“Grief. The Moment when you realize that your world and the world are entirely separate. When your world has come to a grinding halt, when you're drowning and flailing about, and the world just rolls on without you.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“Yes, we should feel free to critique the Poppy Fields, like all institutions." the commenter wrote. "But they've received *hundreds of thousands* of applicants. Should we be more distressed by the fact that so many of our fellow humans are living in such deep despair? Think of how severely they muse by hurting. Think of how badly we must be failing them. Maybe if we found a way to connect with each other more, to give each other a little more compassion and grace, to ask people what they need from us instead of always making assumptions, then maybe no one would fee the need to sleep there anymore...”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“Ellis had always thought that she had to leave home because she wanted to do something hard, something impressive. But maybe it was just as hard to stay, just as impressive to build a life and nurture one’s connections.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“Grief and faith could coexist.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“I’m hurting because I can’t do what I love anymore,” Dr. Robinson had told Ellis, in his interview to sleep. “I feel like everything is behind me, all the thrill and sense of accomplishment. And the only thing left in my future is feeling angry. And bored. And obsolete. I don’t want to be doomed to those feelings.” The”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields

“Ava knew that people would always form their opinions of small towns, especially in her part of the country, but she took pride in the fact that even the tiniest of towns around where she grew up—compact communities with little more than a grocery, a gas station, and a church—often had a public library, too. It was one of the essentials, like food and fuel, the nourishment of body and mind and soul. No matter how small of a city she lived in, no matter how quiet a life she led, Ava never felt bored or trapped or ignorant. She could travel the globe or travel through history, feel love or hate or envy or hope, any day she pleased, any time she checked out a new book.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Poppy Fields