Quotes from Gabrielle Zevin

Since i couldn't remember the "real" first time i'd lost my virginity, this would have become my de facto first time. I wanted a better story then: I did it with this boy who i wasn't very into and who had mysterious Gaterade breath; in his room decorated with sports equipment; at least he was nice enough to provide condoms and get his ancient, horny dog to leave us along.

Sadie ground pounded a Goomba, one of the mushroom-like creatures that were abundant in Super Mario. "I feel bad for the Goombas." "They're just henchmen," the boy said. "But it feels like they've gotten mixed up in something that has nothing to do with them." "That's the life of a henchman.

Tragedy is when someone ends up dead. Everything else is just a bump in the road.

What a funny turn of phrase, she thought. Licking your wounds would only make them worse, no? The mouth was filled with so much bacteria. But Sadie knew it was easy to get addicted to the taste of your own carnage.

Violence should not always beget more violence.

Win walked over to me. He held out his palm. In the middle of it was a single black sequin from the dress Scarlet had lent me. "You lost this," he said. I giggled, slightly embarrassed to be leaving bits of myself behind. "I'm shedding.

It isn't a sadness, but a joy, that we don't do the same things for the length of our lives.

When Sam had described the relationship between Marx and his father, he had said it was fraught, that Watanabe-san was demanding and sometimes even demeaning to Marx. Sadie saw no evidence of that. She found Marx's father to be bright, interesting, and engaged. Other people's parents are often a delight.

Fuck you. I like you. I'm used to you. You are the one, you asshole. I can't meet someone new.

i've made room for you, she said. if you want it, there's room.

The fish does not die with regrets because the fish cannot love. I die with regrets, and yet I am glad I am not a fish.

In Amelia's experience, most people's problems would be solved if they would only give more things a chance.

My dad always says to listen for the pauses when you want to know if someone's hiding something.

But now, at this moment, you can't hook your boat to mine, 'cause I'm liable to sink us both.

My grandmother was married for fifty-two years, until my grandfather died. She used to say that a bad marriage was one that hadn't had enough time to get good again.

I like all weddings, but isn't it particularly lovely when two grown-ups decide to get married?

My beautiful Win. I wanted to kiss him on every last broken place, but his mother and my lawyer were there. So, instead I started to cry.

All I can say is . . . All I can say is we'll figure it out, I swear. When I read a book, I want you to be reading it at the same time. I want to know what would Amelia think of it. I want you to be mine. I can promise you books and conversation and all my heart, Amy.

All of these teeth had once been in real, live people. They had talked and smiled and eaten and sang and cursed and prayed. They had brushed and flossed and died. In English class, we read poems about death, but here, right in front of me was a poem about death too.

In truth, she hadn't put much thought into whether she was happy before. She supposes that since she never thought about it, she must have been happy. People who are happy don't really need to ask themselves if they are happy or not, do they? They just are happy, she thinks.

In my opinion, wounds are like water boiled--they heal best left unwatched.

The Beauties" by Anton Chekhov, "The Doll's House" by Katherine Mansfield, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by J. D. Salinger, "Brownies" or "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" both by ZZ Packer, "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried" by Amy Hempel, "Fat" by Raymond Carver, "Indian Camp" by Ernest Hemingway.

what greater enemy does one have than oneself?

If we did not mark the days, we would not know how much we had survived.