Quotes by Jandy Nelson

Isnt that what I always think when I get The Poor Motherless Girl Look? Like Ive been shoved out of the airplane without a parachute because mothers are the parachutes.

Its like having explosives on board 24/7, the way I feel. I cant believe when I touch things they dont blow to bits. I cant believe I was so way off.I thought, I dont know, I thought wrong.

The guys life drunk, I think, makes Candide look like a sourpuss. Does he even know that death exists?

I do find the sibling connection endlessly fascinating, as I do all family dynamics. I like how siblings seem to create their own parentless mini-civilization within a family, one that has its own laws, myths, language, humor, its own loyalties and treacheries.

“My sister will die over and over again for the rest of my life. Grief is forever. It doesnt go away; it becomes a part of you, step for step, breath for breath. I will never stop grieving Bailey because I will never stop loving her. Thats just how it is. Grief and love are conjoined, you dont get one without the other. All I can do is love her, and love the world, emulate her by living with daring and spirit and joy.”

“Remember how it was when we kissed? Armfuls and armfuls of light thrown right at us. A rope dropping down from the sky. How can the word love and the word life even fit in the mouth?”

“And even as Im kissing him and kissing him and kissing him, I wish I were kissing him, wanting more, more, more, more, like I cant get enough, never will be able to get enough.”

“They do make love stories for girls with black hearts after all. They go like this.”

“I drop on my back on the bed, panting and sweating. How will I survive this missing? How do others do it? People die all the time. Every day. Every hour. There are families all over the world staring at beds that are no longer slept in, shoes that are no longer worn. Families that no longer have to buy a particular cereal, a kind of shampoo. There are people everywhere standing in line at the movies, buying curtains, walking dogs, while inside, their hearts are ripping to shreds. For years. For their whole lives. I dont believe time heals. I dont want it to. If I heal, doesnt that mean Ive accepted the world without her?”

“People die, I think, but your relationship with them doesnt. It continues and is ever-changing.”

“When people fall in love, they burst into flames.”