The Girl and the Black Christmas Quotes

“All I am is God coloring outside the lines. Who am I to think I could do any better?”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“To protect the bloom. Without them, it couldn’t exist. Remember the thorns, cherish the petals.”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“And it scares the living hell out of them. They aren’t seeing the worst in you. They’re seeing the worst in themselves,”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“Space in the universe doesn’t just go untouched when something horrific happens.”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“You are,” Xavier says. “You walked across this ground and left footprints, softened the earth so plants could grow. You breathed and the trees drew it in. Those breaths are a part of the leaves and the shade. Whatever you touched took on your energy and holds you there. Close your eyes. You can feel everyone who has ever walked through these woods. You’re still here, Emma. You always will be.” I”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“Pictures shouldn’t be a construct. They shouldn’t tell a story. They should be a candid slice of time.”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“What is the right path, Dean? Is it the one that brings you most easily through the maze? The way that is expected of you? Or is it the one you follow because it’s the only one your feet can follow with righteousness?”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“Then the guy, for instance, goes through an emotional journey displayed with a montage. The audience sees him remember everything about the woman and their relationship, but it’s always the softened parts. The guy doesn’t remember how high-pitched and loud the woman laughed, just that she laughed. He doesn’t remember getting woken up by the woman’s snoring and glaring down at her, just how she looked while she was sleeping. He remembers eating takeout in bed together, not that they had to order it”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“draw that brought them to that moment. As soon as he saw her that first time, he knew there was nothing he could do to stop himself.  Not that he really wanted to.  He knew he shouldn’t do it. He knew every thought, every breath, every movement, every touch, every last moment weren’t right. No one needed to tell him that. No one needed to lecture him or get through to him. He knew. It wasn’t a question or hesitation. He simply didn’t care that it was wrong. It was what he wanted. What he needed. But it was only supposed to be that one time.  He wasn’t going to let himself fall into that deep well of fantasy and fulfillment any more than that. Once was a taste, a dip that washed over him and quelled the endless gnawing need. Another time and he might drown.  But no matter how much he told himself that, no matter how many times he promised it, the need rose up again. Only this time, it was more than just the urge. It wasn’t just the fantasy. He had experienced it now. It wasn’t thought or imagination. It wasn’t just a feverish dream that left him lying awake. That wasn’t enough to make it irresistible.  It was the reaction of the people around him. Before he gave in the first time, he wondered what it would be like to walk out of that room and back into the reality of his regular life. To step out of the pages of a fantasy and back into his neatly organized and structured datebook. How would people look at him? Would they be able to tell? As soon as it was done, would there be a change that came over him, letting anyone who came close to him sense the shift? And afterwards, he watched. He waited for the reaction and gauged everyone around him. He watched how people looked at him, some with hope, others with something close to suspicion. There were moments, singular seconds that hung, frozen in the flow of a day, when he thought for sure somebody knew. That they heard something or saw something. That he slipped and wasn’t holding it all in as well as he thought he was. But those passed. Everyone knew something had changed with her. There was no question in their minds about that. They just didn’t know what it was. There were so many questions, but none of them swirled over to him, and somehow that just made the hunger stronger. He didn’t know if it was because he was going undetected and could continue his easy walk through his day-to-day life, or if it was because he was enjoying watching the reaction and wondering if it would change if he did it again. Would another dip down that well alter what people were thinking? Will it build up on him until it became so obvious no one would look past him anymore? It was only weeks later he found himself moving down that spiral again.  As it had before, it started with a look.  This time, it wasn’t in sunlight.  A chill wind whipped up, sending red and gold leaves”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“Everybody needs people. We’re not made to be isolated. We feed off of each other, getting validation, energy, love, support. All those things we need to thrive. You get them from a lot of people. You share the crayons you have with the people you meet, and you borrow ones from them to color your world. It’s constant. You know you can always find somebody who has the color you need.”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“Your surroundings become your identity. They are your reality. You can always hope for something different, or dream that you’re somewhere else. But you are where you are. There’s never a guarantee you’ll be anywhere else.”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“I don’t have enough slots in my crayon box. But I still need that. Just in a different way. You may need a lot of colors, but the ones I need are the most important ones. I only have space for those. And there is no replacing them. I don’t connect two people just because they’re people. I don’t miss people. I can find use in someone and even like them, but that doesn’t mean I attach to them. Lakyn saw me. She did her best to connect to me. But even she was temporary. I know that. That sounds harsh, but I don’t mean it to. It’s not an insult to her. It’s an awareness of my own ability to stay connected. “It’s different when I find one of the colors that I need. There’s a drawer; an attachment. It never goes away, and that slot can’t be just filled up again. People from my past don’t come into my mind. I wouldn’t want to see any of them because I don’t know how to react. I remember tiny details, but sometimes not the big things. I don’t know how much of me”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“Everybody needs people. We’re not made to be isolated. We feed off of each other, getting validation, energy, love, support. All those things we need to thrive. You get them from a lot of people. You share the crayons you have with the people you meet, and you borrow ones from them to color your world. It’s constant. You know you can always find somebody who has the color you need. I can’t.”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas

“reality becomes a part of the story. “The man who sat beside you in the bus becomes the voice of the neighbor. The little girl who disappears at the beginning of the book looks like your best friend’s grandchild. You visualize the towns you’ve visited and the restaurants you’ve eaten in. What you love becomes what you love in the book, and the fears of the characters become your own. It’s immersive, but also transient. It’s like when you watch a movie made from a book. It probably doesn’t look exactly like what you thought it would, because you’re seeing the experience another person had with that book.”
― A.J. Rivers, The Girl and the Black Christmas