Quotes from Catherine Ryan Hyde

I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.

Hard work can sometimes substitute for natural ability, but natural ability almost never makes up for not being willing to do the work.

the school was the problem, August thought. Maybe everybody wants a science lesson if they're sitting in the middle of one of the greatest geothermal wonders of the world. Maybe we've removed all the relevance from the information we teach kids so they have no idea why they should care. Maybe it's not the kids' fault. Maybe we made the first mistake.

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.

I just think it's odd how we parse out our empathy," he said. "Why we only have empathy for those who remind us most of ourselves. I'm not saying I don't understand it. Sure, it's easy to have empathy for someone who's just like us. It comes naturally. I just think it's a shame we can't take it a bit further. I can't help wondering what the world would be like if our empathy muscle were a bit more developed.

Blood family, that's something we get dealt. Sometimes we get a bad hand. Not much way around it. You just have to grow up and get more family. The kind you get to pick out yourself.

There's two things you can do with a kid like that. Way I see it. You can burst his bubble. Or you can wait and let life burst it. Let life do the dirty work for you. If you burst it he'll hate you forever. And he'll never really believe he couldn't have made it. He'll always think it's your fault for standing in his way. For not having more faith in him. Now, life. When life bursts your bubble, well. It's a little harder to argue with life.

You can put any kind of judgment you want on the way you feel, but that won't make it go away. Unfortunately you can't insult your feelings out of existence. Trust me. People try all the time. If it worked, we'd know about it by now.

sex is what you make it, and we have always made do. To assume sex must take place within touching distance seems, to me, limited thinking.

Never be afraid to look, Raymond. It's always better to look. Whatever you're afraid of, turn toward it, not away. Once you're willing to do that, it loses all its power over you. Trust me. I know this. I don't always do it. But I really, truly know.

Life gives us nothing outright. It only lends. Nothing is ours to keep.

I guess life is just a series of our own choices catching up with us.

I have always felt," Nathan said, "that 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.

Maybe the school was the problem, August thought. Maybe everybody wants a science lesson if they're sitting in the middle of one of the greatest geothermal wonders of the world. Maybe we've removed all the relevance from the information we teach kids so they have no idea why they should care.

Situations are like that. They take up all the time you used to use for working and eating and sleeping. They soak up your whole life like a black hole in space soaks up the sunlight. And then, where you used to have a life, all you have left is a situation.

But I think it might be fair to say that all the reasons intersect and have one thing in common: too many people can't believe they deserve someone wonderful.

The value of your life is your own choosing," Nathan said.

World is full of people so troubled they don't even understand themselves. You could offer them a thousand dollars to explain their motivations, but they can't tell you what they don't know.

we can't even say what it is we're missing. It's like you can feel the hole, but you don't know what's supposed to fill it, because it's something you've never seen. You don't want it to be every man for himself, but it sort of is. And there's not much you can do about it. I don't mean to talk in riddles.

Rayleen talking to Billy.] "Grace is thriving here, and I dare anybody to challenge that. Anybody who has a problem with that can come take it up with me." "Thank God," Billy said, "because I really hate it when people come take things up with ME.

And the looks on their faces were caught just right. You could see them loving dancing and loving each other. The expressions just said it all. It was so nice to look at. I was even able to stand outside the fact that it was Molly and Frank and enjoy the look of love on their faces. Love always looks nice.

when you're thinking bad thoughts about yourself, to remember that they might turn out to be wrong.

We all have to go from not knowing to knowing. If you have shortcomings, I fully believe it's better to look them in the eye. Pretending otherwise gets you nowhere.

That's the thing about days. No matter what your opinion of days, they always go by.