Quotes from Catherine Ryan Hyde

Hurt and relieved, all at the same time. It always made my chest ache to feel two things at once, each so strongly.

Run, Steven. Run fast and far.

Besides, they looked like brothers. They looked like two examples of the same theme.

This is one of the advantages of dying young. Everybody you left behind will need your help

He wished he could communicate what he knew to this frightened boy. But that never did any good anyway. People learned by what they experienced. It mattered little what anyone said to anyone.

How do you gauge normal? To do so, you'd have to know how everybody else lives.

feel that the truth is simply the truth. And that to shield someone from it is only a manner of treating that person with a lack of respect.

Make your peace with that. Then, if you get to keep talking to them or seeing them, it'll be a happy surprise.

I'm just floating along in this state of elation because all of life's normal responsibilities and irritations are gone. It's like a sheet of blue-lined paper, the kind you write on at school, but with the lines suddenly missing. No structure. Nothing is predictable. Everything that might happen now is new.

I just thought maybe if I knew more, I could worry less." "Oh, I doubt that," she said. Then, "I can't really tell you how it's going, because I don't really know. He's talking to me. Talking is better than not talking. But beyond that it's hard to say.

How would you feel if somebody blamed you for something your mother did?

Funny how you can take a thing like carpet for granted if you always had it and you figure you always will.

Simon came and found me in time, and from then on they'd call him to come get me. Since he couldn't be reached at work, and he didn't come home until six, and since it caused a great stampede to scare me in any way, I found plenty of time to pursue equine grace.

If you have shortcomings, I fully believe it's better to look them in the eye. Pretending otherwise gets you nowhere.

And that, I realized, is the worst price we pay for living in a dearth of true communication. We go through our whole lives thinking it's only us.

So I know. It's an illness, just like it says in the phrase. It's not a moral failing. It's funny how people have empathy for a physical illness. They see it as bad luck, and they never question whether you can help it. But mental illness we still treat with shame.

Even armed with my new information, this strip of city was still one large haystack. And Molly was still one small needle.

the truth is simply the truth. And perhaps does not exist for us to bend and revise. Or even filter to suit the feelings of those we love and want to protect." He

Thing is," he said, "there's only just so many times people can break their promises to you before you start figuring everybody does it.

Sooner or later you have to recognize the old patterns. But even that wasn't enough, she now realized. It wasn't sufficient to simply watch them play out while thinking, Yes, indeed, that is my pattern, and then continue to do it that way all the same. No. Sooner or later you had to get up off your sorry butt and do a little better for yourself.

Nobody said we would get out unscarred, I guess. Nobody said it was a beautiful work with no scars

Ethan wondered if it was the first time any of his emotions had ever felt free.

Petey boy?" "No, sir." "Guess." "Before just now I would've said zero.

Willie sat with her elbow on the table, her hand shading her eyes. "I wish you knew how remarkable you are, Ella. So much deeper than anybody else I know. Even the grownups." "Is that good, Willie? To be deep?