“ Well, it seems to me that there are books that tell stories, and then there are books that tell truths... The first kind, they show you life like you want it to be. With villains getting what they deserve and the hero seeing what a fool he's been and marrying the heroine and happy endings and all that... But the second kind, they show you life more like it is... The first kind makes you cheerful and contented, but the second kind shakes you up. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 3.7K
“ DNA tells you all the secrets of life,’ he used to say. Except for one—how to live it. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 2.9K
“ As I nodded and smiled and ummhmm'd and oh, my'd my way down the drive, I wondered if boys had any sort of magazine that told them how to attract women and, if so, did it ever tell them to put the girls' interests first? ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 1.8K
“ And then I remember this morning and I wonder if it really happened or if I dreamed it. It was nice. And weird. And tender. I'm not used to tender. It's a fossil, that word. Conditions changed and it died out. Like the woolly mammoth. It just couldn't live in the same world as dick box. Ho dog. Or wiener cousins. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 2.3K
“ I'm wishing he could see that music lives. Forever. That it's stronger than death. Stronger than time. And that its strength holds you together when nothing else can. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 2K
“ You can't argue with the dead, no matter what you say, they always have the last word. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 3.5K
“ There were times when I lifted my face to the sky, stretched my arms wide to the winter night, and laughed out loud, so happy was I. The memory of it makes me laugh now, but not from happiness. Be careful what you show the world. You never know when the wolf is watching. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 3.1K
“ I don't like hope very much. In fact, I hate it. It's the crystal meth of emotions. It hooks you fast and kills you hard. It's bad news. The worst. It's sharp sticks and cherry bombs. When hope shows up, it's only a matter of time until someone gets hurt. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 1.9K
“ Hope is the crystal meth of emotions. It hooks you fast and kills you hard. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 1.4K
“ There is magic in this sad, hard world. A magic stronger than fate, stronger than chance. And it is seen in the unlikeliest of places. By a hearth at night, as girl leaves a bit of cheese for a hungry mouse. In a slaughter yard, as the old and infirm, the weak and discarded, are made to matter more than money. In a poor carpenter's small attic room, where three sisters learned that the price of forgiveness is forgiving. And now, on a battlefield, as a mere girl tries to turn the red tide of war. It is the magic of a frail and fallible creature, one capable of both unspeakable cruelty and immense kindness. It lives inside every human being ready to redeem us. To transform us. To save us. If we can only find the courage to listen to it. It is the magic of the human heart. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 295
“ Believe that you can make your way. Or don't. Either way, you are right. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 2.5K
“ What's done is done. Whether to you, or by you, and you cannot change it. But what's not done is not done. And there, both hope and hazard lie. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 467
“ And I knew in my bones that Emily Dickinson wouldn't have written even one poem if she'd had two howling babies, a husband bent on jamming another one into her, a house to run, a garden to tend, three cows to milk, twenty chickens to feed, and four hired hands to cook for. I knew then why they didn't marry. Emily and Jane and Louisa. I knew and it scared me. I also knew what being lonely was and I didn't want to be lonely my whole life. I didn't want to give up on my words. I didn't want to choose one over the other. Mark Twain didn't have to. Charles Dickens didn't. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
“ ...Listen to your own thoughts and feelings very carefully, be aware of your observations, and learn to value them. When you're a teenager—and even when you're older—lots of people will try to tell you what to think and feel. Try to stand still inside all of that and hear your own voice. It's yours and only yours, it's unique and worth of your attention, and if you cultivate it properly, it might just make you a writer. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
“ A new word. Bright with possibilities. A flawless pearl to turn over and over in my hand, then put away for safekeeping. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
“ When you can write music that endures, bravo. Until then, keep quiet and study the work of those who can. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
“ You should spend more time reading the Good Book and less reading all those novels. What are you going to tell the Lord on Judgement Day when He asks you why you didn't read your bible? Hmm?" I will tell Him that His press agents could have done with a writing lesson or two, I said. To myself. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
“ I don't know what I was hoping for. Some small praise, I guess. A bit of encouragement. I didn't get it. Miss Parrish took me aside one day after school let out. She said she'd read my stories and found them morbid and dispiriting. She said literature was meant to uplift the heart and that a young woman such as myself ought to turn her mind to topics more cheerful and inspiring than lonely hermits and dead children. "Look around yourself, Mathilda," she said. "At the magnificence of nature. It should inspire joy and awe. Reverence. Respect. Beautiful thoughts and fine words." I had looked around. I'd seen all the things she'd spoken of and more besides. I'd seen a bear cub lift it's face to the drenching spring rains. And the sliver moon of winter, so high and blinding. I'd seen the crimson glory of a stand of sugar maples in autumn and the unspeakable stillness of a mountain lake at dawn. I'd seen them and loved them. But I'd also seen the dark of things. The starved carcasses of winter deer. The driving fury of a blizzard wind. And the gloom that broods under the pines always. Even on the brightest days. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
“ He who cannot endure the bad will not live to see the good. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 2.9K
“ I'm wishing he could see that music lives. Forever. That it's stronger than death. Stronger than time. And that its strength holds you together when nothing else can. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 1.1K
“ I need a name for this ink ... A name for the feeling you get when you see someone again. After many years. Someone lost to you. Or so you thought. And you remember them a certain way. In your mind, they never age. But then suddenly, there they are. Older. Changed by time. Different, but exactly the same. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 4K
“ What I saw next stopped me dead in my tracks. Books. Not just one or two dozen, but hundreds of them. In crates. In piles on the floor. In bookcases that stretched from floor to ceiling and lined the entire room. I turned around and around in a slow circle, feeling as if I'd just stumbled into Ali Baba's cave. I was breathless, close to tears, and positively dizzy with greed. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 2.1K
“ I listened as the words became sentences and the sentences became pages and the pages became feelings and voices and places and people. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 2.8K
“ Well, it seems to me that there are books that tell stories, and then there are books that tell truths... The first kind, they show you life like you want it to be. With villains getting what they deserve and the hero seeing what a fool he's been and marrying the heroine and happy endings and all that... But the second kind, they show you life more like it is... The first kind makes you cheerful and contented, but the second kind shakes you up. ”
- Jennifer Donnelly- Copy
- 3.7K
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