Quotes by Jodi Picoult

But Katie knew it was a sin, had known from the moment she made the decision to lie with Adam. However, the transgression wasnt making love without the sanction of marriage. It was that for the first time in her life, Katie had put herself first. Put her own wants and needs above everything and everyone else.

The music we listen to may not define who we are. But it’s a damn good start.

Every life has a sound

I wondered why the head could move so swiftly while the heart dragged its feet.

To find out a heart shed believed irrevocably broken had somewhere along the way been fixed.

What she really meant was: here is my heart, have a care.

Grief is a curious thing, when it happens unexpectedly. It is a Band-aid being ripped away, taking the top layer off a family. And the underbelly of a household is never pretty, ours no exception.

If you live in each others pockets long enough, youre related.

No matter what Joe Hoffman and Wade Preston say, its not gender that makes a family; its love. You dont need a mother and a father; you dont necessarily even need two parents. You just need someone whos got your back.

Then Henry speaks again. Did he do it?I turn to him slowly. Does it matter?

You want to know what I want? Im sick of being a guinea pig. Im sick, but Im never f*cking sick enough for this family.

Turn around, and the people you thought you knew might change. Your little boy might now live half a world away. Your beautiful daughter might be sneaking out at night. Your ex-husband might by dying by degrees. This is the reason that dancers learn, early on, how to spot while doing pirouettes: we all want to be able to find the place where we started.

I used to wonder about the fake pictures that came in frames you buy at the store—ladies with smooth brown hair and show-me smiles, grapefruit-headed babies on their siblings knees—people who in real life probably were strangers brought together by a talent scout to be a phony family.Maybe its not so different from real photos, after all.

But even if every house looked identical-if all the furnishings were the same- it still wouldnt feel like yours.Thats because home isnt where you are. Its who youre with.

Eric understands that the world is rarely the way it is supposed to be. And he knows that, given the chance, we dont have to wait for someone to make messes of our lives. We do a good enough job, ourselves.

What if the puzzle of the world was a shape you didnt fit into? And the only way to survive was to mutilate yourself, carve away your corners, sand yourself down, modify yourself to fit? How come we havent been able to change the puzzle instead?

Was that all it took to be brave? Knowing that someone believed in you?

...courage wasn’t something you were bequeathed at birth, and it wasn’t a lack of fright. It was overcoming your fear, because the ones you love mattered more.

If you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.

...in a fairy tale, the story cant be altered. The prince and princess will never have a fight. Youll never hear the queen raise her voice. No on ever gets sick; no one ever gets hurt. Maybe love is only safe in places where it cant change.