Quotes by Jodi Lynn Anderson

She hated his need to always win and he hated her coldness during their arguments. They fought about the exact color of the sky and which path they should take on a hunt. They disagreed passionately about whose fish was the best tasting. They could work up extreme hatred for each other at a moments notice.

Ive made a discovery, and its that grief isnt like sadness at all. Sadness is only something thats part of you. Grief becomes you, it wraps you up and changes you and makes everything--every little thing--different than it was before. I remember the me before we got the telegram saying he was gone, but its like Im remembering someone else. It feels like an earthquake has gone through me...

We are here to take chances, and fail, and keep trying.

I think we could be friends, he said, falling into step with her. Its perfect because I wouldnt fall in love with you, like I do with the mermaids. Girls always seem so exotic. But it would be okay with you, because youre more like...you know. Not like a girl. He shrugged.

Do you think magic exists if it can be explained?

And though, truly, she sometimes felt like something inside her had disappeared, it seemed that must be a natural part of growing up. Standing out too much made one feel too alone to do it forever.

Im not myself, she offered, guiltily. She softened around Tik Tok, and when she did she was, for those rare moments, girlish.He smiled. You can never say that. Youre just a piece of yourself right now that you dont like.

What mattered was stil there. That was what they all felt, and what surprised them all. What mattered couldnt be shaken.

. . . And as fall turned to winter, the Darlington peach trees started dropping their leaves again, gently, like they were letting them go. It wasnt the same as giving them up. It wasnt the same as losing them.

One by one they dissapeared Pumpkin last of all. The last May saw of himwas his sad face under his waving tuft of hair and then his long fingers,reaching out toward her for a hug that would never happen now as they turned around the bend.

Everyone will think Im ugly.Tik Tok smiled. Thats true. But we are a small village. We have narrow tastes. Theres no telling who else in the world would think youre beautiful.

So many lights you’d think we were living in a constellation

As they grew sloppier and less alert, the twins argued too loudly about whether Tiger Lily was ugly or beautiful, and finally agreed that she was ugly beautiful.Tiger Lily pretended she hadnt heard, but her heart slowed to absorb the blow.

It was almost as if he was giving her his silence, so that all of her anger had a place to go.

Every kind of love, it seems, is the only one. It doesn’t happen twice. And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn’t seem broken at all.

P.S. Please give my love to Tink, she always was such a funny little bug

Things hurt, and dont hurt, and hurt again.

You love me, she said. Thats enough. We love each other.Yes. Yes, thats true. He smiled. We are a love story.

Earth, Alexa finally said. Its not that great anyway. And they all smiled sadly. Because, of course, it was everything.

Tiger Lily made an attempt at a smile. After having felt the need to glower at other children for most of her life, smiles never came easily to her face. But this one was half all right.I miss you already, he said.Tiger Lily wanted to say it back. But she held on to the words greedily, too caught in the habit of keeping herself a secret. And Peter-half sadly, half-expectantly-let her go.