Quotes from Jodi Picoult

Happiness is what you choose to remember.

Life sometimes gets so bogged down in the details, you forget you are living it. There is always another appointment to be met, another bill to pay, another symptom presenting, another uneventful day to be notched onto the wooden wall. We have synchronized our watches, studied our calendars, existed in minutes, and completely forgotten to step back and see what we've accomplished.

That's what happens to dreams, life gets in the way.

If you didn't remember something happening, was it because it never had happened? Or because you wished it hadn't?

This was something she would keep hidden within herself, maybe in place of the knot of pain and anger she had been carrying under her breastbone...a security blanket, an ace up her sleeve. She might never use it, but she would always feel its presence like a swelling secret stone, and that way when she let go of the rage, she would not feel nearly as empty.

See, as much as you want to hold on to the bitter sore memory that someone has left this world, you are still in it. And the very act of living is a tide: at first it seems to make no difference at all, and then one day you look down and see how much pain has eroded.

History isn't about dates and places and wars. It's about the people who fill the spaces between them.

The best place to cry is on a mother's arms.

Things that break - be they bones, hearts, or promises - can be put back together but will never really be whole.

I knew that somewhere God was laughing. He had taken the other half of my heart, the one person who knew me better than I knew myself, and He had done what nothing else could do. By bringing us together, He had set into motion the one thing that could tear us apart.

You know how sometimes, your life is so perfect you're afraid for the next moment, because it couldn't possibly be quite as good? That's what it felt like.

Do you know how there are moments when the world moves so slowly you can feel your bones shifting, your mind tumbling? When you think that no matter what happens to you for the rest of your life, you will remember every last detail of that one minute forever?

After all, how many of us had tried to forget something traumatic...only to find it printed on the back of our eyelids, tattooed on our tongues?

I have only known her for two years. But if you took every memory, every moment, if you stretched them end to end-they'd reach forever.

And the very act of living is a tide; at first it seems to make no difference at all, and then one day you look down and see how much pain has eroded

You don't have to say I love you to say I love you, you said with a shrug. All you have to do is say my name and I know. ...Can't you hear it? you said. When you love someone, you say their name different. Like it's safe inside your mouth.

Traveling is all very well and good as long as you knew there is a place or person you can call home

The bottom line is that we never fall for the person we're supposed to.

What we all want, really, is to be loved. That craving drives our worst behavior.

Lie to yourself until it's true.

You might have to lose control before you could find out what you'd been missing.

I ...understand how a parent might hit a child- it's because you can look into their eyes and see a reflection of yourself that you wish you hadn't.

Sometimes I think the human heart is just a simple shelf. There is only so much you can pile onto it before something falls off an edge and you are left to pick up the pieces.

I know you love me. The question is, how much?