Quotes from Justina Chen

If there was one thing I refused to be, it was an insignificant footnote in some boy's history.

You raze the old to raise the new.

No power was total, no power permanent, no power absolute.

What was so miraculous about a relationship that was based more on my gratitude than on mutual self respect?

Adventure in life is good; consistency in coffee even better.

Teachers wondered why I didn't speak up more in class. Why would I when I knew how precarious words could be, how betraying they were, how vulnerable they made you?

Maybe getting around in life was nothing but map-reading. A skill that required practice. A key to unlock where you wanted to go. A legend to show where you were.

I didn't know that the world could be so mind-blowingly beautiful.

Forgiving others is easier when I remember that I'm human and stupid, too.

When you think about it, life is a risk. Every day is a risk. Getting in a car is a risk. Loving is a risk. But, darling, losing it all means that you have a chance to rebuild, better than before.

I swallowed hard. Erik thought my body was beautiful, Karin that it was enviable. At random times, people had noted that my hands were beautiful, or my hair. The Twisted Sisters had called my art beautiful. Mom had the best intentions and always told me before and after my laser surgeries that I would be beautiful. But no one had ever said that I was beautiful, all my parts taken together, not just the bits and pieces.

Isn't it funny that what the Japanese authors consider their first page is our happily-ever-after last one? When you think about it, it's not a bad way to approach life. What appears to be an ending--heartbreaking wounds that you can and cannot see--may just be a beginning, a start of a brand-new adventure.

that even within its ugliness, there lay a surprising beauty, breathtaking because it was so unexpected.

Getting lost is just another way of saying 'going exploring'.

Because freedom may be a forbidden fruit in tyrannies, but once tasted, it is unforgettable.

We can choice to cower at the river's edge, watching as life sails past us, always the bystander, never the participant. We can shade our eyes and fret about all the untold dangers below the surface. We can play and replay all the warnings we've ever heard. Or. Or we can equip ourselves with what we need to survive

No experience is wasted.

these two people who had everything money could buy but the one thing that could be given freely: love.

Even geniuses can be A class assholes.

Mom was crying while she cooked, salting domesticity with anguish, the recipe of her life.

Call yourself a tea drinker all you want, but I know your sneaking in a cup of Kona....

Like all judgmental people, she thought she knew best.

That made her first bark with laughter, then hoot loudly, ending with a horsey snort. She was a symphony of animal noises.

I never let fear stop me from having an experience.