I'll Stop the World Quotes

“I swallow, staring at my hand, my throat tight. “Mrs. Hanley, I appreciate this a lot, like, a whole lot, but . . . I feel like I should tell you, I’m not sure I even believe in God.” “That’s all right, sugar,” she says, patting me gently on the cheek. “Maybe he believes in you.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“To not knowing everything that’s happening, everywhere, all the time. If not for the whole being-stuck-in-the-wrong-decade thing, I think I’d actually find it kind of soothing.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“It doesn’t get any less overwhelming when they get older,” Diane said. “Just in a different way. And you just learn to take what they give you as it comes and love them through it all no matter what. There’s no secret. Just love.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“I’d tell him we were both right about the song.” She understood now. Death, but also love. The end of the world, but also hope for the future. All of it could be true at the same time.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“Dr. Hanley, I’m not sure what happens when you die . . .” Rose sucked in a sharp breath. How many times had she heard him start a thought just like that? “But I think, if there was something you wanted to tell him, there’s a chance he already knows. Or that you can still tell him, if you want.” He shrugged, looking”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“Rose, who was never supposed to die here tonight. Rose, the girl the whole universe bent to save. I told her that I didn’t know if I believed in God. I told Mrs. Hanley the same thing. Mrs. Hanley told me that maybe God believed in me. That never felt right. But maybe that’s because it was never about me. Maybe I’m here because God—or the universe, or whatever it is—believes in Rose.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“It’s not that I don’t care about my civic duty or whatever; it’s just that it feels a little like getting excited about a glass of water while the whole building burns.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“(E.T.). I get the impression that this is a kid without many—or possibly any—friends, and that he doesn’t get the opportunity to talk about the stuff he likes with an actual human being very often. I don’t weigh in much, but just nodding along and adding the occasional oh wow seems to be enough for him.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“It’s not that I don’t want to make the most of the day, or that I don’t care about getting home. It’s that I want those things so badly that I feel paralyzed. I know it doesn’t make sense. It’s just the way I’ve always been. Alyssa used to get on my case about procrastinating on stuff, but the truth is, I don’t think that what I do counts as procrastination. Procrastinating is telling yourself, I’ll do it later. What I do is tell myself, I’ll do it now, and then I just . . . don’t. When I’m on my medication, it’s better, but still hard. When I’m off it . . . well. You may as well ask me to run a triathlon as do my homework. Beginning either seems equally daunting.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“he couldn’t see another way out. Staying here would kill him. Maybe not right away, maybe not in a way anyone else would notice, but eventually, Gabe would drain the life from him, leaving nothing but a shell. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate the opportunity,” Shawn said, still—foolishly—hoping he might convince his father to see his side. “But with this award, I could—” “We all could do a lot of things, son,” his father said. “But most people won’t do a fraction of what they could do. I’m giving you the opportunity to do something, never mind the could. And you’re throwing it all away for a shot at a maybe.” He shook his head, looking disgusted. “Maybe this is for the best. Maybe I don’t want someone so selfish and short-sighted working for me anyway.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“Eventually, he’d said the thing she had been dreading for months, and she hadn’t been able to say it back, as much as she wished she could. For a moment, she’d been relieved. Now that he knew she didn’t feel the way she was supposed to, she was certain he’d cut her loose and find someone who could love him back. But he hadn’t. She’d broken his heart, and still he stayed, leaving her holding all the pieces. Now that she knew what it was like to say it to someone and mean it, she wished more than ever that she could give those pieces back. But he didn’t seem to want them. So she shaved off tiny bits of her heart and offered him those instead—nothing much, just what she could spare. Barely more than crumbs, really. It wasn’t enough, for either of them. But it was all she had to give.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“Shawn’s expression changed like a channel, flipping from frustrated to cheerful in the blink of an eye. Sometimes it was unnerving to Lisa, just how good he was at dusting away the parts of himself he didn’t want anyone else to see, leaving nothing but a gleaming facade.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World

“Yet faith in God wasn’t something she remembered deciding to have; faith simply felt like something that had always been inside her. She knew some people found it hard to believe in something they couldn’t see or prove, but for Rose, it was impossible not to.”
― Lauren Thoman, I'll Stop the World