Quotes from Jodi Picoult

having someone with you when you die should not be a privilege but a right.

Happiness was relative

Success would come only at the expense of losing her cool, at the risk of turning into someone she did not want to be.

did not realize at that time that when you plant seeds, you also get roots.

Unlike the characters in the book, however, these different sorts of people don't seem to mix well. It is like the salad dressing Jessamyn makes: a little bit of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, and some red wine vinegar. If whipped, they combine. But leave them to their own devices and they will sort themselves out again. I don't really understand this. When you have so many people, each one inevitably fascinating, why would you limit yourself to only those like you?

A lot of people have opinions, but I don't think they ever ask themselves why their opinions are what they are.

She lashed out because when you hurt someone else, you're less likely to feel your own pain.

There are just as many stories to be told in the dark spots as there are in the bright ones.

I'm sick and tired of people in my life abandoning me, and she will be just one more. So I do what is easiest, when I feel like I'm in danger of being left behind. I make sure I'm the one to walk away first.

At seventeen, the smallest crises took on tremendous proportions; someone else's thoughts could take root in the loam of your own mind; having someone accept you was as vital as oxygen.

Life is what happened when all the 'what-ifs' didn't . . . .

Maybe this was the job of a mother: to buy time for her child, no matter what. Even if it meant doing something she'd rather not; even if it left her flat on her back.

People do belong to each other. Once you make a sacrifice for someone, you own part of his or her soul.

I didn't know why it's called getting lost. even when you turn down the wrong street, when you find yourself at the dead end of a chain-link fence or a road that turns to sand, you are somewhere. It just isn't where you expected

Cuando eres adolescente no eres intocable. Eres estúpido.

we have to put one foot in front of the other every day and pray it will be better the next time the sun rises.

Please come to the dance, because you're my music.

Las cosas existen mientras haya quien que las recuerde.

What did you say to the people who had given you life, when you were about to intentionally throw that gift away?

This wasn't the first time he'd be saving her by letting her go.

But identification is not the same as knowing someone through and through—the man you fell in love with years ago might look the same and speak the same and smell the same yet be completely different.

You see, Minka, my father would say. Anything is possible. Even the most terrible beast might one day be a distant memory. He would hold my hand in his, tracing my finger along the brightest stars in the constellation. Look, he would say. There is the head, and the tail. There's the heart.

Recollections are in the eye of the beholder. No two held side by side can ever quite match.

When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself. —CHINESE PROVERB