The Book of Two Ways Quotes

“There are five things we need to say to people we love before they die…: I forgive you. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you. Goodbye.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“Life asked death, “Why do people love me but hate you?” Death responded, “Because you are a beautiful lie and I am a painful truth.” —Unknown”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“I think that you can love more than one person in a lifetime. There's the one who teaches you what love is, even if it doesn't last. … And then there's the one who makes you a better human than you were, even as you do the same form him. … And then there's the last one ... The one that you never get enough time with. But who sees you through to the end.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“I once read that every story is a love story. Love of a person, a country, a way of life. Which means, of course, that all tragedies are about losing what you love.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“When you lose someone you love, there is a tear in the fabric of the universe. It's the scar you feel for, the flaw you can't stop seeing. It's the tender place that won't bear weight. It's a void.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“I think people assume death is all or nothing. Someone is here, or they’re not. But that’s not what it’s like, is it? The echo of you is still here—in your children or grandchildren; in the art you made while living; in the memories other people have of you.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“Everyone is afraid of saying the wrong thing. It’s more important to be there than to be right.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“Sometimes you hurt the people you love. And sometimes you love the people who hurt you.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“Love isn’t a perfect match, but an imperfect one. You are rocks in a tumbler. At first you bump, you scrape, you snag. But each time that happens, you smooth each other’s edges, until you wear each other down. And if you are lucky, at the end of all that, you fit.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“After fifteen years, love isn’t just a feeling,” he says. “It’s a choice.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“I love her. I love her to death.” “You love her through death,” I correct gently. “You don’t stop loving someone just because they’re not physically with you.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“Ancient Egyptians believed that the first and most necessary ingredient in the universe was chaos. It could sweep you away, but it was also the place from which all things start anew.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“When you're an artist, it's because there's something inside you that you can't keep from spilling out. Maybe it comes in the form of sentences, or a grand jete, or stroke of a paintbrush. The end result can be a million different things. But the seed, it's always the same. It's the emotion there isn't a word for. The feeling that's too big for your body. To show someone your soul, you have to bleed. People who are comfortable, people who are content, they don't create art.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“You know that the Greeks used to believe that people were made up of two heads and two bodies. But Zeus was afraid of how powerful that could be, so he split people in two. That way, instead of causing trouble for him, they spent the rest of their lives trying to find their other half.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“We all have stories we tell ourselves, until we believe them to be true.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“I’m at the age where that’s a surprise, where I still think I’m going to see a younger woman rather than the one who blinks back at me.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“Appreciate what you have now, because there may be no tomorrow. If your life span is decreasing every day, what are you doing now to appreciate what you have left? What gives your life meaning?”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“There is something bleak and barren about a world that is missing the person who knows you best.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“The thing about death is that we're all terrified of it happening, and we're devastated when it does, and we go out of our way to pretend that neither of these things is true.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“What you know isn't nearly as important as who you know. Who will miss you. Who you will miss.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“You can plan for something your whole life, and still get taken by surprise,”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“if there is a garden of maybes, you are the invasive plant I can’t ever get rid of.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“Maybe this is all love is - twin roots of pain and pleasure. Maybe the miracle isn't where we wind up, but that we get there at all.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“There’s really no such thing as a right or wrong choice. We don’t make decisions. Our decisions make us.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“did not realize at that time that when you plant seeds, you also get roots.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“When you have a child, you will do anything for her. You may not do it well, but you will kill yourself trying. You will trip over obstacles as you clear them out of her path. You will give her the choices you didn’t have.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“I once read that every story is a love story. Love of a person, a country, a way of life. Which means, of course, that all tragedies are about losing what you love.
When someone with a terminal disease can't stop fearing the future, it's comforting to look to the past. We tend to forget that we were all young, once. And that there was a time when we had beginnings, instead of endings.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“having someone with you when you die should not be a privilege but a right.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“Art isn’t what you see. It’s what you remember.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways

“I know this much: morality is meant to be a clear line, but it’s not really. Things change. Shit happens. Who we are is about not what we do, but why we tell ourselves we do it.”
― Jodi Picoult, The Book of Two Ways