Quotes from Catherine Ryan Hyde

Loving someone is knowing them.

It was not news to him that many people in the world—the entire population of grown-ups, for example—behaved in ways he could not understand.

No. It's not your job to convince him. It's his job to believe it. This is his shortcoming, not yours. He needs to think well enough of himself to believe it. And that's always been a problem for him." Carol sat a moment with her mouth open before answering. "But…I can't do anything about that." "That's right," Nathan said. "You can't.

used to think everybody got over everything. We always say we never will. But then we do. Because, really, what choice do we have?

How can you do that to a person? Hate them when they haven't even done anything to you?

he was upset. Though hopefully not at her. But upset is a funny thing. It looks for places to direct itself. It's an emotion given to action, and it needs somewhere to go. Even if it has to make something up as it goes along. He

I'm not saying this to be mean, Estelle, but this is not your day. I'm sorry. You have to let go and let things change.

does it seem to you like she's right around here somewhere?" I watched his forehead furrow. I think he knew what I was asking. That I was talking about some kind of sixth sense knowing. Which made my question nearly impossible to answer.

Until you get it that's he's only what his experience has shaped him to be, you're seeing him as subhuman. As 'other' somehow. And the danger in the meantime is that he'll see that. He'll know how you view him. When you see a child as 'less than,' it's not long before self-fulfilling prophecy comes into play.

When you've only ever had one child, and she's gone, are you still a mother? Maybe. But I don't even know.

best way to judge what a man will do is by looking at what he's

can live through everything or I can answer for everything, but sometimes both is just too much for one day.

Ben prioritizes my sorrow over his own.

To this very day, I wonder why, when a man wants to insult another man, he calls him a woman or a girl. Now that I'm grown, I notice that these are guys with wives and girlfriends and daughters. Don't they see what they're saying?

Things don't wait for you to believe them. They happen. God is not Tinkerbell. He does what he does whether you clap your hands or hide behind the comfort of your disbelief. Besides, you know all this. You just forgot.

the problem with people is that we forget that something unexpected can happen at any time.

Every night I lie in bed and try to go to sleep. And then the next thing I know, I'm opening my eyes and it's morning. I never feel myself fall asleep. Ever. Do you?

What did it mean to be friends in a world where just walking down the street together could get someone viciously beaten? In what ways could that friendship be expressed?

There's a full moon tonight, so everything is Peary and shadowy but visible. It gives me the feeling of something stolen, something I wasn't supposed to be able to see. Some treasure not normally mine.

The 'J' is for 'Jackie,' " he said. "But why don't you just call her 'Mom'?" "Oh. So I don't get her mixed up with my other mom. P-Mom. The 'P' is for 'Paula.

She placed the judgment of her humans ahead of her own, as a matter of courtesy and pride, even if she was always right and we were always wrong. Good dogs are like that.

I wondered how things had gotten so complicated. But as far as I could remember, they always had been. I couldn't remember when life had ever been any easier than this.

As long as you think you know everything, nothing changes.

We all go around saying we don't know where we stand with other people, because we don't know what they're thinking. Which is true. But we can feel where we stand with them. But then we get back into our heads and start second-guessing what we feel and get ourselves all confused and tangled up again.