The Wishing Game Quotes

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Hate is a knife without a handle. You can't cut something with it without cutting yourself.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“The stories write us, you see. We read something that moves us, touches us, speaks to us and it…it changes us.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Always be quiet when a heart is breaking.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Another thing I learned in therapy?" Angie said. "The kids in dysfunctional families who act out and rebel are the ones who are the healthiest mentally. They're the ones who see that something's wrong. That's why they act out, because they see the house is burning down, and they're screaming for help. That was you.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Sometimes the thing we want most in the world is the thing we're most afraid of. And the thing we're most afraid of is often the thing we most want.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Don’t give up, Lucy. Always remember that the only wishes ever granted are the wishes of brave children who keep on wishing even when it seems no one is listening because someone always is. Someone like me. Keep wishing. I’m listening.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“There is nothing braver than a child asking for help.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Ah, but that’s how life is,” Jack said. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty, they say, and they aren’t wrong. We only know the right thing to do after we’ve done the wrong one.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“I can't buy time. No one in the world can buy time. All those wasted years of my life... I can't buy them back. And if there was one thing I would buy if I could, it would be the time I wasted running from what I was afraid of instead of facing it.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“When you gotta scream, you gotta scream.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“God—or whoever is in charge of this planet—got drunk on the job one day and decided to give me the gift of writing. The way I see it, I have two choices. I can set that gift on a high shelf so it won’t get dinged up and nobody can make fun of me for playing with it.” He smiled until the crinkles at the corners of his eyes were deep enough to hide state secrets. “Or I can have fun with it and play with the gift I was given until the engine burns out and the wheels come off. I decided to play.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Always remember, that the only wishes ever granted are the wishes of brave children who keep on wishing even when it seems no-one is listening because someone always is. Someone like me. Keep wishing. I'm listening.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Hate is a knife without a handle. You can’t cut something with it without cutting yourself.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Because only brave children know that wishing is never enough. You have to try to make your own wishes come true.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“God—or whoever is in charge of this planet—got drunk on the job one day and decided to give me the gift of writing. The way I see it, I have two choices. I can set that gift on a high shelf so it won’t get dinged up and nobody can make fun of me for playing with it.' He smiled until the crinkles at the corners of his eyes were deep enough to hide state secrets. 'Or I can have fun with it and play with the gift I was given until the engine burns out and the wheels come off. I decided to play. I suggest you do the same, young man. Go paint or draw or collage or whatever you want to do. Come back when there's smoke coming off the canvas. And for God's sake, go have some fun. Please?”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“I’m a kindergarten teacher. I can multitask like an octopus.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Hope is the thing with feathers,’ the lovely Miss Emily Dickinson once wrote. Well, if that’s the case, then a wish is the thing with black feathers.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“But I can show up. I can do that.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“She kept her voice soft and low and gentle. Kids with hard lives deserved gentle words.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“I might owe her an apology.” He tapped his chin. “She won’t get it, but I do owe her one.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Ah, but that's the most important challenge of them all," Jack said as he set his mug aside on the fireplace mantel. "You can't win until you face your fears. Until you face your fears, your fears are winning.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“The kids in dysfunctional families who act out and rebel are the ones who are the healthiest mentally.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“you can’t understand the beginning until you’ve read the end.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Did you know that the kids who grow up as the ‘favorites’ in families are usually more screwed up than the kids who aren’t the favorites? The first lesson we learn is that our parents’ love is conditional and that failure to perform means that they can take all that love away. We see it with our siblings, so we do everything we can to make sure that never happens to us. Fun, right? I learned that in therapy.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Who knew happiness was the best muse of all?”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“I've always believed that children should never have to worry about adults, that something's gone very wrong when they do.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Hugo, always be quiet when a heart is breaking.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“Lucy Heart, you are going to be fine. You are going to be even better than fine, you are going to be loved like you deserve to be loved. And you are going to have a very magical life. If you want it.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game

“What’s a foot but not part of the body? Afoot, not a foot. As Sherlock Holmes once said, “The game is afoot.”
― Meg Shaffer, The Wishing Game