Vivian Apple at the End of the World Quotes

“Don't be the kind of person who sees groups instead of people.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“The way we live our lives is not sustainable. I don’t just mean recycling and turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth. I mean the way we treat each other. The way we pick and choose whose lives are important – who we actually treat as human. There is nobody on this earth whose life is not of value. And that includes those of us who have been left behind. Maybe they did go to some Christian heaven. But what I’m saying is, we’re good people too. We’re worthwhile people. I’d vouch for every last one of you.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“But Viv, if I've learned anything at all in the last eight years of my life? It's that people just like to tell themselves stories about where they came from. They can't help themselves. They don't trust the world around them--it's too good for them, or not good enough--so they tell themselves stories about it. They tell themselves an old magician who lives up in the sky made them out of clay and put them here until whenever he makes up his mind to take them out again. Your parents didn't like their creation myth, that's all--it had pain in it, and chaos, and their own parents were ashamed. So they told themselves a story that was at least partially true: about two good people who deserved happy lives. And probably at some point they started to believe that story. But the thing is, really, that it doesn't matter. For your parents or anyone else. It doesn't actually matter where we came from, or where we're going, or when. The only thing that matters is what we have to do while we're here and how well we do it.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“The best I can hope for is the occasional moment of loose happy freedom—found usually with Harp but once or twice on this trip with Peter—that tells me it’s okay. That if I was put on this earth for any particular reason, it was to experience love and joy, just like anybody else.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“Oh, Vivian Apple," Harp says. "You beautiful, crazy bitch.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“But the thing is, really,” Peter continues, “that it doesn’t matter. For your parents or anyone else. It doesn’t actually matter where we came from, or where we’re going, or when. The only thing that matters is what we have to do while we’re here and how well we do it.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“This is car theft. This is running away. This is some punk-rock New Orphans shit. This is not like any Vivian Apple I have ever been before. But this is Vivian Apple at the end of the world.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“You can't go through life distinguishing the Believers from the Non-Believers and divvying up your love and trust accordingly. It's more complicated than that, Viv, and you know it. Don't be the kind of person who sees groups instead of people.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“What the Church wanted from you wasn't goodness; it was meekness. And I know because I've been meek for seventeen years. That's what you just called godliness. It's so much easier to be meek--to read the guidelines and submit and obey, instead of actually dealing with chaos, or pain--but that's not what good is.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“It doesn’t actually matter where we came from, or where we’re going, or when. The only thing that matters is what we have to do while we’re here and how well we do it.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“The way we live our lives is not sustainable. I don’t just mean recycling and turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth. I mean the way we treat each other. The way we pick and choose whose lives are important—who we actually treat as human. There is nobody on this earth whose life is not of value.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“I know Harp doesn’t really regret it either, because it meant she got to scream “FUCK YOU, OLD MAN” at Mr. Knackstedt as we walked out the door.”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World

“The group’s camaraderie had a certain level of appeal in a city where a sexually active girl could find herself waking up in a house on fire,”
― Katie Coyle, Vivian Apple at the End of the World