Quotes from Cynthia Lord

Not everything worth keeping has to be useful.

Stay because you want to be here. Stay because we would miss you. And stay because you can belong in more than one place, and one of your places is with us.

It hurts how life goes on, unknowing.

Looking closer can make something beautiful

When someone is upset, it's not a good time to bring up your own problems.

Sometimes people don't answer because they didn't hear you, Other times it's because they don't want to hear you!

Not everything worth keeping has to be useful.

Just this once, let it be easy.

I wish everyone had the same chances," I say. "Because it stinks a big one that they don't." - Catherine

Stay because you want to be here. Stay because we would miss you. And stay because you can belong in more than one place, and one of your places is with us.

choosing words is harder than I thought.

Just because other people think something, that doesn't make it true. Maybe there's some truth in that, but it's unsatisfying, bitter-tasting truth.

People say it's better to know the truth, but what if the ending's a bad one? Is it still better to know? Or is it kinder to keep that string of hope dangling? To believe that maybe if you just wait long enough, everything could still end the way you want.

Why can't the world be simpler, like it is for guinea pigs? They only have a few rules: Crying will get you attention. If it fits in your mouth, it's food. Scream if you don't get your share.

It hurts how life goes on, unknowing.

Wishes are slippery things. You have to be very specific or you can get exactly what you wished for and still end up with nothing.

No toys in the fish tank

It's easy to remember only the good parts of people if you never see them. Real people are much more complicated.

When someone is upset, it's not a good time to bring up your own problems.

One problem with agreeing to keep a secret is that it always starts off feeling like an easy, little decision. But it doesn't stay easy or little. it sits there like one of those jagged ledges hiding under the surface of the ocean at high tide—quietly waiting to rip everything apart if you forget, for even a second, it's there.

How else can hopes go but up?

Sometimes I wish someone would invent a pill so David'd wake up one morning without autism, like someone waking from a long coma, and he'd say, "Jeez, Catherine, where have I been?

At some point, you just have to choose. And then be brave enough to stand up to the people who think you made the wrong choice.

It's hard to think of anything being gone forever. Most things that go come back again, even if they're a little different when they return. But not always, and when something has gone forever, it can hurt so much you start wondering if it would've been easier if you'd never had it at all.