The Shippers Quotes

“I’m telling you you’re my favorite person on this overcrowded earth. I’m telling you that I loved you my whole life long. I’m telling you I’ve had my own Operation Conquest going this whole time. And the person I was trying to conquer… was you.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“I think those of us who love love stories are junkies for that joyful, blissed-out feeling of anticipating the happily ever after that’s a guarantee of the genre.
All genres have their guarantees, by the way: Sleuths will solve the mystery, thrillers will save the hero in the nick of time, superheroes will vanquish the villains at last. Part of what we like about the genres we like is the anticipation of those guarantees. We like to see the mystery solved, and the hero saved, and the villains vanquished. It feels good.”
― Katherine center, The Shippers

“Cooper looked straight into my eyes. “That was me.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“In my defense, though-how do you even begin to solve…your entire personality? Get into therapy? Confront your absentee father? Join a fight club?”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“I thought you said someplace private.” Cooper gestured at the empty deck and the ocean beyond it. “Who’s going to see us? A whale?”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“There is no universe where you call me for help and I don’t come running.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“You can't force people to care about you. If you didn't matter to someone, you didn't matter.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“A really well-done story of any kind makes you believe it’s real. The best stories make you forget you’re reading at all—and the boundaries between you and the characters dissolve. You empathize so hard that you step into the shoes—even climb into the skin—of those people. Their story becomes your story. It’s happening all around you—and to you.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“Moments you wished could last forever moved at the exact same tempo as moments you wished were already over.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“I understood how love is not just an underlying structure holding our human universe together, but also a glimpse of something divine. Something awe-inspiring and infinite. Not the kind of infinite that’s out there far away, like the stars, but the kind of infinite that’s embedded in us—and between us. A pattern we follow, yes, but a pattern we also create. An emotional structure built out of the mathematical principles of who we”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“don’t have claustrophobia,” Cooper said. “Yes, you do.” Our whole neighborhood knew that. “I have cleithrophobia,” Cooper said. “Which is not the same thing.” “What is it, then?” “It’s a fear of getting trapped.” “Yeah,” I said. “Claustrophobia.” But Cooper shook his head. “Claustrophobia is a fear of small spaces.” Huh. Interesting. “Your phobia should rebrand,” I said. “It sounds like a knockoff.” “I agree.” “I’ve never even heard of it.” “No one has,” Cooper said. “It’s very niche.” Then he added, “My case is mild, if that’s any comfort.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“But Cooper didn’t buy any of it. He said, and I quote, “That’s ridiculous.” “It’s science,” I insisted. “It’s bullshit,” Cooper said. And so we just kept arguing. We argued about it all the way through the line. And then we argued up the gangway. And then we argued as we journeyed into the bowels of the ship to look for the cabin I’d be sharing with Cousin Harmony.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“He held my gaze for a second before saying, “I’ve always been on your team, Joey. Since day one.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“I’m telling you you’re my favorite person on this overcrowded earth. I’m telling you that I’ve loved you my whole life long. I’m telling you I’ve had my own Operation Conquest going this whole time. And the person I was trying to conquer … was you.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“Then Cooper looked straight into my eyes and said, “There is no universe where you call me for help and I don’t come running.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“Not just to see our lives, but to feel them.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“I comforted myself with the idea that time doesn’t play favorites. It tromps along at its own pace no matter what. Moments you wished could last forever moved at the exact same tempo as moments you wished were already over. All you had to do was just not die.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“I missed being a kid. I missed the momentum of childhood—that feeling like you were working toward something that mattered. Growing up, if nothing else. The comforting notion I used to carry that one day not far off, I’d have it all figured out.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“I'm changing the story of your life.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“Then, before we took our first step, Cooper reached down and clasped my hand. Then he said, “Be the unicorn.” And this time, I knew what he meant.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“Didn’t Cooper realize that nobody wanted to talk about math? Most people on earth had either (worst-case scenario) active PTSD from terrible math teachers growing up or (best-case) a pleasant, glazed-over disinterest. Math was the last subject on earth anybody should use for small talk.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“Audrey Hepburn quote in modern calligraphy that read The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“So I took a breath and just said it: “Finn Turner.” At the name, Cooper’s head fell forward in exasperation. And when he lifted it again, he looked right into my eyes and said, “That’s the worst idea you’ve ever had.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“feistier than the whole lot of us put together. She lived with us now, and she was cultivating antique roses in the side yard, and taking an art history class on the Impressionists, and baking her own sourdough every week. She’d founded an old lady workout group called the Screaming Mimis that walked three miles every day. She had a whole crew of travel friends who had nursed their husbands through long, final illnesses and were “ready to have some fun”—and they went to see Broadway shows, and took riverboat cruises, and spent random weekends in Marfa, Texas, drinking Tito’s and tonic at the hotel where they’d filmed Giant.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“Then Cooper said, “If I could go back and rewrite her life, I’d make it so she never even met my dad.” “But then you wouldn’t exist.” “That’s fine. I wouldn’t know.” “I can’t support that idea.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“And I’d learned a lesson from my dad a long time ago: You can’t force people to care about you. If you didn’t matter to someone , you didn’t matter.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“She’s rooting for your relationship,” Cooper explained. “Ship comes from relationship.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“And isn't that what all the searching we do is for, in the end? Not just to see our lives, but to feel them.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“Finn was your first kiss?” Cooper asked, seeming baffled. “Do you want me to tell you about it?” I asked. “Absolutely not.”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers

“googled kayaking after he asked me,”
― Katherine Center, The Shippers