Quotes from Gabrielle Zevin

Sadie was nearing the end of the level. "What's the secret to landing high on the flagpole?" "Hold down the run button as long as you can, then crouch down and jump just before you're about to fall," the boy said. Sadie/Mario landed on the top of the flagpole.

Because we never say anything real to each other. We play games, and we talk about games, and we talk about making games, and we don't know each other at all." He was about to tell her that that was bullshit, that no two people had ever shared more of their lives together. That if she didn't know him, no one knew him, and he might as well not exist.

Promise me, we won't ever do this again," Sadie said. "Promise me, that no matter what happens, no matter what dumb thing we supposedly perpetrate on each other, we won't ever go six years without talking to each other. Promise me you'll always forgive me, and I promise I'll always forgive you." These, of course, are the kinds of vows young people feel comfortable making when they have no idea what life has in store for them.

When you think about it, isn't a person just a structure built in reaction to the landscape and the weather?

And I know that bad people deserve what they get, but oh, how we hate to be alone.

To design a game is to imagine the person who will eventually play it.

The real gift of the holiday season, A.J. thinks, is that it ends. He likes the routine. He likes making breakfast in the morning. He likes running to work.

Life is messy," Dr. Lau was fond of saying. "Deal with it. If you're judging it, you're not really seeing it.

But jackets are the redheaded stepchildren of book publishing.

You have had tragedy, yes, but you have had many good friends as well. "Have I?" "Yes, Marx and Sadie. They loved you." "Is two considered many?" Sam asked. "It depends on how good the friendships are," Dong Hyun said.

Hi," Sam said, without looking at her. "You can watch if you want. I'm going to play until the end of this life." "That's a good philosophy," Anna said.

they were still young enough to understand time in semesters

W-MT: There was a book I read about in the New York Times Book Review. It had a red cover, maybe? A.J.: Yeah, that sounds familiar. [Translation: That is excessively vague. Author, title, description of the plot—these are more useful locators. That the cover might have been red and that it was in the New York Times Book Review helps me far less than you might think.] Anything else you remember about it? [Use your words.]

My point is, it's tempting," she said. "It is certainly tempting to continue on with something because it has already begun.

There were so many people who could be your lover, but, if she was honest with herself, there were relatively few people who could move you creatively.

How do I go on when the person I love most in the world is in love with someone else? Someone tell me the solution, he thought, so I don't have to play this losing game all the way through.

Though I hadn't had a stroke like Uncle Yuri, it was still difficult for me to express what was in my heart. I wanted to tell her that I loved her, that she was the most important person in the world to me, that I was truly sorry for having lied to her about Liberty. Instead, I asked her what she wanted for dinner.

But it's the only way I know to move forward. You make a list and then you go and do the things on it.

Computers are great for experimentation, but they're bad for deep thinking.

Does it count for anything that I just told you I love you?" Gable asked. I considered this briefly before deciding that it didn't. "Not really. Not when I know you don't mean it.

They...think their traumas are the most interesting thing about them." "If their traumas are the most interesting things about them, how do they get over any of it?

Anticipating the worst doesn't provide insurance from the worst happening

Los Angeles, especially when taken from a distance, was not a beautiful city, but she could will herself to be beautiful, if only for two weeks. Beauty, after all, is almost always a matter of angles and resolve.

Always remember, mine Sadie: life is very long, unless it is not." Sadie knew this to be a tautology, but it also happened to be true.