Jodi Picoult Quotes (175 Quotes)

A real friend isn't capable of feeling sorry for you.

Here's my question: What age are you when you're in Heaven?

I realize then that we never have children, we receive them. And sometimes it's not for quite as long as we would have expected or hoped. But it is still far better than never having had those children at all

It is so easy to presume that while your own world has ground to an absolute halt, so has everyone else's.

My chest feels full of glitter and helium, the way it used to when I was little and riding my father's shoulders at twilight, when I knew that if I held up my hands and spread my fingers like a net, I could catch the coming stars.

There are some things we do because we convince ourselves it would be better for everyone involved. We tell ourselves that it's the right thing to do, the altruistic thing to do. It's far easier than telling ourselves the truth.

You know how every now and then, you have a moment where your whole life stretches out ahead of you like a forked road, and even as you choose one gritty path you've got your eyes on the other the whole time, certain that you're making a mistake.

Isn't it amazing how, when you strip away everything, people are so much alike?

What she hadn't realized was that sometimes when your vision was that sharp and true, it could cut you. That only if you'd felt such fullness could you really understand the ache of being empty.

She was all the things I wasn't. And i was all the things she wasn't. she could paint circles around anyone; I couldn't even draw a straight line. She was never into sports; I've always been. Her hand, it fit mine.

And if your parents have you for a reason, then that reason better exist. Because once it's gone, so are you.

How am I suppose to think about Anna Fitzgerald when I'm wondering whether Julia has ever woken up in someone's arms and for just a moment, before the sleep cleared from her mind, thought maybe it was me?

I sometimes wonder if it is just me, or if there are other women who figure out where they are supposed to be by going nowhere.

It is so easy to think that the world revolves around you, but all you have to do is stare up at the sky to realize it isn't that way at all.

My mother moves so fast I do not even see it coming. But she slaps my face hard enough to make my head snap backward. She leaves a print that stains me long after it's faded. Just so you know: shame is five-fingered.

There are two reasons not to tell the truth--becuase lying will get you what you want, and because lying will keep someone from getting hurt.

You know how the tightrope guy at the circus wants everyone to believe his act is an art, but deep down you can see that he's really just hoping he makes it all the way across?

It reminded Lacy of running into someone you hadn't seen for a while, and finding her bald and missing her eyebrows: you knew she was in the throes of chemotherapy, but pretended you didn't, because it was easier that way for both of you.

What's the difference between spending your life trying to be invisible, or pretending to be the person you think everyone wants you to be? Either way, you're faking.

The mind is a remarcable thing. Just because you canÆt see the wound doesnÆt mean it isnÆt hurting

And the very act of living is a tide; at first it seems to make no difference at all, and then one day you look down and see how much pain has eroded

How does someone go from thinking that if he cannot rescue, he must destroy? And do you blame him, or do you blame the folks who should have told him otherwise?

I thought lightning wasn't supposed to strike in the same place twice....sure it does...but only if you're too dumb to move.

It is the things you cannot see coming that are strong enough to kill you.

No matter who you are, there is some part of you that always wishes you were someone else.

There is a curious thing that happens with the passage of time: a calcification of character.

And that was the greatest heartbreak of all- no matter how spectacular we want our children to be, no matter how perfect we pretend they are, they are bound to disappoint. As it turns out, kids are more like us than we think: damaged, through and through.

It struck Lacy that she didn't really know what color a chameleon was before it started changing

When feeling came back, in a storm of color and force and sensation, the most you could do was hold on to the person beside you and hope you could weather it. Alex closed her eyes and expected the worst-but it wasn't a bad thing; it was just a different thing. A messier one, more complicated one. She hesitated, and then she kissed Patrick back, willing to concede that you might have to lose control before you could find what you'd been missing.

There is no one truth. ThereÆs only what happened, based on how you perceive it.

As for his name, well, what attorney wouldn't want to be able put a Judge in a crate every now and then?

I ...understand how a parent might hit a child- it's because you can look into their eyes and see a reflection of yourself that you wish you hadn't.

I used to pretend that I was just passing through this family on my way to my real one.

It's about a girl who is on the cusp of becoming someone.. A girl who may not know what she wants right now, and she may not know who she is right now, but who deserves the chance to find out.

Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed--sometimes it covers you just fine, and other times it leaves you cold and shaking; and worst of all, you never know which of the two it's going to be.

There is nothing worse than silence, strung like heavy beads on too delicate a conversation.

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

Once the world was pulled out from beneath your feet, did you ever get to stand on firm ground again?

When this is over...we will got to the rainforest, or a beach as white as bone. We will eat grapes from the vine, we will swim with sea turtles, we will walk miles on cobblestone streets. We will laugh and talk and confess. We will.

You know, the mind is a remarkable thing. Just because you can't see the wound doesn't mean it isn't hurting. It scars all the time, but it heals.

But it was like wearing a size five sneakers when your foot is a seven- you can get by for a few steps, and then you set down and pull off the shoes because it just plain much

I asked her sister for a cell number, at least, but something tells me that 401-GO2-HELL is out of service.

I used to think I'd be just like them when I grew up, but I am not. And the thing is, somewhere along the way, I stopped wanting to be like them, anyway.

It's disappointing to know that someone can see right through you.

Nowadays, I dont have expectations, and this way she beats them all.

They don't really pay attention to me, except when they need my blood or something. I wouldn't even be alive, if it wasn't for Kate being sick.

But will you miss me? More importantly - will I miss you? Does either one of us really want to hear the answer to that question?

One person's trauma is another's loss of innocence.

When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself.

Change isn't always for the worst; the shell that forms around a piece of sand looks to some people like an irritation., and to others, like a pearl.