Small Fry Quotes

“When I was reading, I was not lonely or self-aware. I felt upheld by the stories. I read a whole stack of fiction at one time, alternating between books so I could finish all of them together, the multiple endings crashing around me like the cymbals in a musical finale. When I stopped reading, I felt lonely again, like a window had been thrown open.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“I see now that we were at cross-purposes. For him, I was a blot on a spectacular ascent, as our story did not fit with the narrative of greatness and virtue he might have wanted for himself. My existence ruined his streak. For me, it was the opposite: the closer I was to him, the less I would feel ashamed; he was part of the world, and he would accelerate me into the light.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“I wished that I wanted less, needed less, was one of those succulents that have a tangle of wiry, dry roots and a minty congregation of leaves and can survive on only the smallest bit of moisture and air.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry: A Memoir

“Trees need sunlight, water, nutrients,” she said. “But if they have too many, too abundantly, they also don’t flourish. Some struggle makes them stronger, makes the fruit trees produce better fruit.” She would repeat this idea many times over the years, past the point when I understood it was a metaphor.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“What I wanted, what I felt owed, was some clear place in the hierarchy of those he loved.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“He wanted to make sure the name would be good enough for a whole life of use.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“About heartbreak my parents gave, separately, the same advice: “You’ve got to feel all your feelings. That way, next time, when you fall in love again, it will be just as meaningful and profound.” “The first heartbreak brings up the pain of the past,” my father said. “The first big loss. Harness it.” “If something is really painful, it’s the undertow of a big, beautiful wave,” my mother said. Other people said, “Get over it,” and “Go out.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“My happiness had been pulled from the reserve of hers, a limited string we had to share.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“I was terrified my father and Laurene might tell me at some point how insignificant I was, what a disappointment I was, sloppy and repulsive, breaking things like a baby. They already had a baby. How little I fit into the picture of family. I could see it and they'd made a mistake in allowing me to live here; I was unsure of my position in the house, and this anxiety—combined with a feeling of immense gratitude so overwhelming I thought I might burst—caused me to talk too much, to compliment too much, to say yes to whatever they asked, hoping my servile quality would ignite compassion, pity, or love.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry: A Memoir

“They teach you how other people think, during your most productive years,” he said. “It kills creativity. Makes people into bozos.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“When my parents were together, I felt something inside me click into place, like the magnet clasp.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“We could not both be happy at once. Her eagerness—for more life, for fun, the prickly pear—felt to me like danger. My happiness had been pulled from the reserve of hers, a limited string we had to share. If she has it, I must not; if I have it, she must wilt. As if the emotional thrift of the world meant there was never enough for both of us at any one time.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“candles for her”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“It turns out that to return stolen things and not get caught is just as difficult as stealing them in the first place.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“Lisa’s going to find out she can’t replace her parents, and Kevin and Dorothy are going to learn they can’t buy a daughter.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“He’ll go away,” she said, a sad note in her voice, “and then maybe someday he’ll realize that he did the same thing to you that was done to him.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“The trouble came with cashing the hundreds. They weren’t accepted everywhere—”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“Even laws,” he said. “They aren’t about what you can and can’t do. They’re based on whether or not you get caught.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“but I like them best when they’re yellow, dry.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“For the past year I’d visited for a weekend every other month or so.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“for your college, I will,” Mona said, apropos of nothing. College was a long way off, but it worried me in a way I had not been able to articulate”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“It was hard to understand why someone who had enough money would create a sense of scarcity, why he wouldn’t lavish us with it.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry: A Memoir

“How good it would be to know one’s limitations and say them with unapologetic conviction.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“It left an impression on me for the idea of cell memory—that whatever we undergo is stored within the physical body, even when conscious memory of the event has disappeared.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“Some say children choose the parents too. Before they’re born.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“The fragrance was stronger at night, sweet and cool, as if the flowers were exhaling. The air smelled of flowers, decay and salt.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry: A Memoir

“If you look where you’re going, your hands naturally know how to steer toward that point. It’s really amazing.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“we were mistaken.” “That’s great,” my father said. “In general, I think middle school is so awful it would be better if kids just sailed around the world instead. Just put them all on a boat. But this place is an exception.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“Lis, do you know about Risk and Consequence?” he asked. “It’s a way of evaluating whether to do something, a sliding scale. For example, if the risk is low, but the consequence is high, you might decide not to do something.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry

“Good driving, as Kevin defined it, involved making the passenger comfortable, unaware of the speed and acceleration of the car. If this was true, my father did not have that skill; his driving was like a wire in my stomach.”
― Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Small Fry