Dear Edward Quotes

“The air between us is not empty space.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“Humans need community, for our emotional health. We need connection, a sense of belonging. We are not built to thrive in isolation.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“So much could be solved, she thinks, if we simply held hands with each other more often.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“Take stock of who we are, and what we have, and then use it for good.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“What happened is baked into your bones, Edward. It lives under your skin. It’s not going away. It’s part of you and will be part of you every moment until you die. What you’ve been working on, since the first time I met you, is learning to live with that.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“Everything ends,” she says. “That’s nothing to be sad about. What matters is what starts in that moment.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“This was not a tragedy. Dying on your couch watching TV by yourself is a tragedy. Dying while doing something you love with every part of your body is magic. I wish you magic, Edward.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“When in doubt, read books. Educate yourself. Education has always saved me Edward. Learn about the mysteries.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“There was no reason for what happened to you, Eddie. You could have died; you just didn’t. It was dumb luck. Nobody chose you for anything. Which means, truly, that you can do anything.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“Since death is certain, but the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing?” —PEMA CHÖDRÖN”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?” —GEORGE ELIOT”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“I wouldn’t have done that to you”—Edward looks at his uncle and then over at Shay; this applies to her too—“because I know what it’s like to be left behind.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“Eddie was leaning against his father's chest, and the sensation of that weight -- the complete trust and lack of inhibition with which the boy relaxed every ounce of his body into his father's -- was one of the things that made parenthood unmissable.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“if you think about one memory for most of a day, is that not your present? Some people live in the now; some people prefer to reside in the past—either choice is valid.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“My wife is pregnant, and her physician told her that physiologically and medically speaking, there are three different kinds of humans: men, women, and pregnant women. I think the same idea applies to you, Edward. There are grown-ups, children, and then you. You don’t feel like a kid anymore, right?” Edward nods. “But you won’t be an adult for years. You’re something else, and we need to figure out what you are, so we can figure out how to help you.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“We contain the other, hopelessly and forever.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“Take stock of who we are and what we have and then use it for good.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“When frazzled, people tend to revert to the familiar and the well rehearsed.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“Edward wasn't supposed to leave Jordan, though. They were meant to age together. That loss continues to be spiked with pain; it will never be soothed. And he can see, objectively, that Shay's life without him would have been woven with different moments, friends or lack of friends, different fights with Besa, different books and different struggles.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“Because there are so many kids, they run schools like factories, or dare I say, jails. You're put into lines and rows and moved when a bell rings. None of this is conducive to deep thinking or creativity. You start to go deep into a subject, and a bell rings to pull you out of it.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“It feels unkind that they are shoving their emotions at him when his own sadness and fear are so vast that he has to hide from them.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“I'll do this," John says. "I'll let you know what's out there, within limits. But I want you to understand that there can't be information about you--that is true--that you don't already know. Your life takes place in your skin. No one else knows a goddamn thing, and the Internet is full of cowboys and sad people making stuff up." He pauses. "I love the Internet, or at least I used to, but it's not where you go for the truth.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“Moonlight beams through his eyelids and he can see, as if it’s the lake in front of him, the pain and loss he’s been swimming in for years. In the moonlight, though, the pain is revealed to be love. The emotions are entwined; they are the two sides of the same gleaming coin.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“All motivators are valid if they produce good work, son. And frustration can be a powerful motivator.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“They want to share something extraordinary about themselves, because you’ve experienced something extraordinary.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“You are special. You are meant to survive, to go on and do great things.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“Intense psychological stress tends to shut down the part of the brain responsible for innovative, creative thought.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“that the smallest, truest reason he will never fly again is that the last airplane seat he ever sits in has to be the one beside his brother.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

“That’s easy. The same thing we all must do. Take stock of who we are, and what we have, and then use it for good.”
― Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward