Quotes by Jodi Picoult

You cant hate someone until you know what it might be like to love them.

As Lacy waited for her turn to speak on Peters behalf, she thought back to the first time she realized she could hate her own child.

You cannot hate someone until you know what it might be like to love them.

She wanted him to tell her that when you love someone so hard and so fierce, it was all right to do things that you knew were wrong.

When it comes to memories, the good and the bad never balance.

Something still exists as long as theres someone still around to remember it.

For better or for worse, music is the language of memory. It is also the language of love.

The first Abenaki word I ever learned was Bitawbagok – the word they use for Lake Champlain. It means, literally, the waters between. Since I’ve come back from Quebec, I have thought of my address as Bitawkdakinna. I don’t know enough Abenaki to be sure it’s a real word, but translated, it is the world between. I had become a bridge between the natural world and the human one. I fit into both places and belonged to neither. Half of my heart lived with the wild wolves, the other half lived with my family.

Like the teens I worked with, I understood the need for miracles--they kept reality from paralyzing you

Shes not classically beautiful, but somehow that only makes her more interesting.

What you didnt tell someone was just as debilitating as what you did.

(24/7) once you sign on to be a mother, thats the only shift they offer.

I would have given anything to keep her little. They outgrow us so much faster than we outgrow them.Brian Fitzgerald, talking about his children.

Parenting is really just a matter of tracking, of hoping your kids do not get so far ahead you can no longer see their next moves.

Were [parents]) always bluffing, pretending we know best, when most of the time were just praying we wont screw up too badly.

The best parenting advice I ever got was from a labor nurse who told me the following:1. After your baby gets here, the dog will just be a dog.2. The terrible twos last through age three.3. Never ask your child an open-ended question, such as Do you want to go to bed now? You wont want to hear the answer, believe me. Do you want me to carry you upstairs, or do you want to walk upstairs to go to bed? That way, you get the outcome you want and they feel empowered.

We are all, I suppose, beholden to our parents - the question is, how much?

If you want to love a parent you have to understand the incredible investment he or she has in you. If you are a parent, and you want to be loved, you have to deserve it.

I thought of all the magazine article Id read on mothers who worked and constantly felt guilty about leaving their children with someone else. I had trained myself to read pieces like that and silently say to myself, See how lucky you are? But it had been gnawing at the inside, that part that didnt fit, that I never let myself even think about. After all, wasnt it a worse kind of guilt to be with your child and to know that you wanted to be anywhere but there?

But kids dont stay where theyre supposed to. You turn around and find her not in the bedroom but hiding in a closet; you turn around and see shes not three but thirteen. Parenting is really just a matter of tracking, of hoping your kids do not get so far ahead you can no longer see their next moves.