Real mothers don't just listen with humble embarrassment to the elderly lady who offers unsolicited advice in the checkout line when a child is throwing a tantrum. We take the child, dump him in the lady's cart, and say, "Great. Maybe you can do a better job." Real mothers know that it's okay to eat cold pizza for breakfast. Real mothers admit it is easier to fail at this job than to succeed.
Jodi Picoult
Related When did they stop putting toys in cereal boxes? When I was little, I remember wandering the cereal ... JODI PICOULT Beaming into the thick of a tree without becoming a lifelong tree hugger was a tricky business. A pr... CHRISTINA ENGELA It is raining in my heart. Humanity is shedding a tear. I asked, “Who is suffering?” DEBASISH MRIDHA M.D. How do we know we're not people in a movie?' she asked. I looked at her not knowing how t... JULIE METZ HARRY: “The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great ca... JACK THORNE How do you know if something is real? That’s easy. Does it change you? Does it form you? Does it g... C. JOYBELL C. Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child l... MARGERY WILLIAMS BIANCO The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following... SETH GODIN I know,” said Peter. “Perhaps better than anyone. But you can’t stay a child forever. To choos... JAMES A. OWEN Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child, Listen to the DON'TS Listen to the SHOULDN'TS The I... SHEL SILVERSTEIN BE REAL Bring it on- And let truth be my existence. Value my life- And tel... GIORGE LEEDY A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the chil... WALT WHITMAN A pause gives you breathing space so listen to the whispers of the real you TARA ESTACAAN So you think you know the real meaning of fear? Yeah, you think you do know, but I doubt it. ILYA SELVINSKIY Listen to the mustn'ts child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn't haves, the impossi... SHEL SILVERSTEIN The best thing you can do for your kids is to show them God working in you on a daily basis. CRAIG GROESCHEL This is Just to Say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox... WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS Okay," I said, "what's your biggest fear?" As always, he took a second to think about the answe... SARAH DESSEN Child, child, love while you can The voice and the eyes and the soul of a man; Never fea... SARA TEASDALE Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child l... MARGERY WILLIAMS BIANCO We were The Hottentot Venus Draped in our mothers' dresses, Wearing rouge & lipstick,<... YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA In spite of the seven thousand books of expert advice, the right way to disciplne a child is still a... BILL COSBY Song of myself A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How cou... WALT WHITMAN My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, t... LEE IACOCCA You told me you believed marriage was for other people." "You're the only man who could m... LISA KLEYPAS The best love in the world, is the love of a man. The love of a man who came from your womb, the lov... C. JOYBELL C. "The Lesson": Yes, my fretting, Frowning child, I could cross The room to y... CAROL LYNN PEARSON Mother's build character.. If one is honest or cheat.. The traits are beveled by care or ignorance o... TALEES RIZVI When God Created Mothers" When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth ... ERMA BOMBECK Mothers observe all, absorb all, give all, forgive all, offer all, suffer all, fee... RICHELLE E. GOODRICH Pray each morning and each night. Talk to God and be polite. Tell Him what you're grateful... RICHELLE E. GOODRICH What is so real as the cry of a child? A rabbit's cry may be wilder But it has no soul. SYLVIA PLATH The real flight of this hawk is impending. Still,this bird is yet to be tested for real.<... ARUNIMA SINHA The only ghosts, I believe, who creep into this world, are dead young mothers, returned to see... J.M. BARRIE To see you when I wake up Is a gift I didn't think could be real. To know that you feel the ... BRANDON BOYD No job is beneath you. You ought to be thrilled you got a job in the mailroom And when yo... RANDY PAUSCH You have to carry the fire." I don't know how to." Yes, you do." Is the fire real? Th... CORMAC MCCARTHY Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie Dust unto dust The calm, sweet earth that mothe... RALPH CHAPLIN Daily life is better when it involves interactions with real people who have a personal investment i... JULIAN BAGGINI Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie-- Dust unto dust-- The calm, sweet earth tha... RALPH CHAPLIN Maybe I could love you someday." If you ever do," he said, "come and let me know. You kn... CASSANDRA CLARE You’re thinking, maybe it would be easier to let it slip let it go say ”I give up” o... CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child... WALT WHITMAN Please be SILENT and LISTEN. I am the SCHOOLMASTER and you are in the CLASSROOM. Just... PSEUDONYMOUS BOSCH -Desiderata- Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may... MAX EHRMANN Caroline: He's Grant West and he actually wants to date you. That just doesn't happen in real life.<... BRYNNA GABRIELSON Music is supposed to enrich and change lives and I'm gonna keep making real music for real peo... JAGUAR WRIGHT A real prison breakfast" I said. "Yeah, but we are free." And that summed it up. PATTI SMITH Tikkun olam.” Exactly. Basically, it says that the world has been broken into pieces. A... DAVID LEVITHAN Can you sharpen this for me, please?” Logan leaned across the table and took the pencil... ELLA FRANK I’m well aware that this—that I—am the first man to ever do this to her. And yes, as a guy, th... EMMA CHASE Because we are the only women who are mothers of men." Gorgo: when asked by a woman from... GORGOS Problem is, you can’t accept that his relationship had a real short shelf life. You’re like a do... ELIZABETH GILBERT Was that me? Yes it was. Was that him? No it wasn't.. Just a trick of the woods! Just ... STEPHEN SONDHEIM And an unaware witch means a witch who doesn't know she's a witch, and because she's a women that ma... JOSEPH DELANEY We women, me and you. Tell me something real. Don’t just say I’m grown and ought to know. I don�... TONI MORRISON A brilliant idea is like a baby in a mothers womb. You need to bring it out in the world, nurtu... MANOJ ARORA Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For ... W.B. YEATS Lark’s Song That child who from Diana’s thought is born A huntress swift, who do... D. ALEXANDER NEILL Some people never take a chance and never know what it's like to live life to the full. CHLOE THURLOW She seemed dressed in all of me, stretched across my shame. All the torment and the pain leaked... SLIPKNOT We need a real citizen preparedness plan -- one that takes care of children, the elderly and the dis... BENNIE THOMPSON We need a real citizen preparedness plan ? one that takes care of children, the elderly and the disa... BENNIE THOMPSON Here’s something I bet you don’t know: every time someone writes a story about a dragon CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this gr... FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE Who says paper worlds Are an escape from what is real? As though the lives trapped in thei... ERIN HANSON We grow old without knowing the reason. We build the walls for no good reason. We start th... ANTHONY T. HINCKS Free Shoes The pairs of shoes stand in rows, polished and jet, like coffins... SHARON OLDS For millenia, scientists always try to measure the size of this vast universe. One way to know ... TOBA BETA My child, I know you're not a child But I still see you running wild Between those floweri... ANTONIA MICHAELIS Mothers who work full time - they're the real heroes. KATE WINSLET Is it just me, or do you also think this is unnatural behavior in a female parent? Isn't there a fed... ANN EDWARDS CANNON Rockabye Baby, in the treetop Dont you know a treetop is no safe place to rock? And who ... SHEL SILVERSTEIN Rockabye Baby, in the treetop Dont you know a treetop is no safe place to rock? And w... SHEL SILVERSTEIN Your name?"The movements of the man's mouth didn't quite match what he was saying, so seeing him spe... ANTHONY HOROWITZ Birth mothers choose life, and a family, for their child. But this choice is rarely celebrated. Wome... NINA EASTON We don't want to judge mothers and we don't want to know the reasons for them abandoning the babies.... KATE ALLEN I know what blood poisoning is, Katniss," says Peeta. "Even if my mother isn't a healer." I'm j... SUZANNE COLLINS That thing you thought you'd do You start to think you can't; You always say tomorrow, MARGO T. ROSE What do you know?” “Almost everything. That almost part can be a real kick in the teeth som... BRANDON SANDERSON The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown ... MARGERY WILLIAMS BIANCO Sweet girl, maybe close the world off and look at him for an hour or two. This is your fai... CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON ..when a war ends, what does that look like exactly? do the cells in the body stop detonating t... ANDREA GIBSON A sound idea is a form of energy. It can not be destroyed. It evolves from inspiration, ... ENIITAN AKINOLA A Work of Art ... is not a living thing ... that walks or runs. But the making of a life... LOUIS KAHN Start by pulling him out of the fire and hoping that he will forget the smell. He was supp... CAITLYN SIEHL From mothers come the first steps of a child, and the ideals that will shape a hero. So important is... SUNIL KHEMANEY Percy wakes me (fourteen) Percy wakes me and I am not ready. He has slept all night ... MARY OLIVER To wisely live your life, you don't need to know much Just remember two main rules for the begi... OMAR KHAYYáM Hello? This is Clary Fairchild.” “Clary? It’s me, Emma.” “Oh, Emma, ... CASSANDRA CLARE Happiness There's just no accounting for happiness, or the way it turns up like a pr... JANE KENYON … I don't know what to say.' ‘That’s okay. Sometimes talking is like singing in a storm.�... ÉLISE TURCOTTE . . . None of us are born as passive generic blobs waiting for the world to stamp its imprint on us.... STEVEN PRESSFIELD The Voice There is a voice inside of you That whispers all day long, "I feel th... SHEL SILVERSTEIN We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who Comes on at five She can tell you 'bout the pla... DON HENLEY Once upon a time there was a young prince who believed in all things but three. He did not believe i... JOHN FOWLES He who is in harmony with the Tao is like a newborn child. Its bones are soft, its muscles... LAO TZU Dream! Forge yourself and rise Out of your mind and into others. Men, be women. ... CLIVE BARKER The guilt you felt when you were smiling and others were suffering, the guilt you ... KAMAND KOJOURI Mr. Smith yelled at the doctor, What have you done to my boy? He's not flesh and blood, TIM BURTON
More Jodi Picoult
There is a reason the word belonging has a synonym for want at its center; it is the human condition... JODI PICOULT The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first gla... JODI PICOULT I hog the covers, and my second toe is longer than my big one. My hair has its own zip code...You do... JODI PICOULT What I really want to tell him is to pick up that baby of his and hold her tight, to set the moon on... JODI PICOULT You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank p... JODI PICOULT Embarrassment isn't a just cause of action. JODI PICOULT (24/7) once you sign on to be a mother, that's the only shift they offer. JODI PICOULT The apple . . . came before Adam and Eve in the story of creation. It had to have been there at leas... JODI PICOULT Fuck them all. I ought to have that tattooed on my forehead, for all the times I've thought it. Usua... JODI PICOULT In the English language there are orphans and widows, but there is no word for the parents who lose ... JODI PICOULT I wondered what happened when you offered yourself to someone, and they opened you, only to discover... JODI PICOULT It was one thing to make a mistake; it was another thing to keep making it. I knew what happened whe... JODI PICOULT You know it's never fifty-fifty in a marriage. It's always seventy-thirty, or sixty-forty. Someone f... JODI PICOULT If his voice hasn't been the melody of my life, it's been the bass line, so subtle you don't notice ... JODI PICOULT If you didn't remember something happening, was it because it never had happened? Or because you wis... JODI PICOULT Anxiety's like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you very far. JODI PICOULT Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed--sometimes it covers you just fine, and ... JODI PICOULT I have a sister, so I know-that relationship, it's all about fairness: you want your sibling to have... JODI PICOULT If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even... JODI PICOULT Once you had put the pieces back together, even though you may look intact, you were never quite the... JODI PICOULT Doing the right thing for someone else occasionally means doing something that feels wrong to you. JODI PICOULT if there isn’t a them, there can’t be an us. JODI PICOULT It was possible that a miracle was not something that happened to you, but rather something that did... JODI PICOULT It was the first time she'd discovered something she really didn't want to find, and she didn't know... JODI PICOULT and he suddenly knew that if she killed herself, he would die. Maybe not immediately, maybe not with... JODI PICOULT If you gave someone your heart and they died, did they take it with them? Did you spend the rest of ... JODI PICOULT You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not. JODI PICOULT Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewi... JODI PICOULT There are some things we do because we convince ourselves it would be better for everyone involved. ... JODI PICOULT Shooting stars are not stars at all. They re just rocks that enter the atmosphere and catch fire und... JODI PICOULT I didn't want to see her because it would make me feel better. I came because without her, it's hard... JODI PICOULT If you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s be... JODI PICOULT There are always sides. There is always a winner and a loser. For every person who gets, there's som... JODI PICOULT A real friend isn't capable of feeling sorry for you. JODI PICOULT Do you know how sometimes - when you are riding your bike and you start skidding across sand, or whe... JODI PICOULT You know how every now and then, you have a moment where your whole life stretches out ahead of you ... JODI PICOULT See, as much as you want to hold on to the bitter sore memory that someone has left this world, you ... JODI PICOULT Seeing her sitting there unresponsive makes me realize that silence has a sound. JODI PICOULT I learn from my own daughter that you don’t have to be awake to cry. JODI PICOULT It doesn't take a whole long life to realize that what we deserve to have, we rarely get. JODI PICOULT It's disappointing to know that someone can see right through you. JODI PICOULT Until this moment, I had not realized that someone could break your heart twice, along the very same... JODI PICOULT There should be a statute of limitation on grief. A rulebook that says it is all right to wake up cr... JODI PICOULT It's about a girl who is on the cusp of becoming someone.. A girl who may not know what she wants ri... JODI PICOULT true love is felonious… You take someone’s breath away… You rob them of the ability to utter a... JODI PICOULT Sometimes to get what you want the most, you have to do what you want the least. JODI PICOULT It is the things you cannot see coming that are strong enough to kill you. JODI PICOULT The bottom line is that we never fall for the people we're supposed to. JODI PICOULT I'm lonely. Why do you think I had to learn to act so independent? I also get mad too quickly, and I... JODI PICOULT Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look. JODI PICOULT Maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expe... JODI PICOULT Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy... JODI PICOULT You can't look back - you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your fu... JODI PICOULT I shouldn't have eavesdropped, but sometimes, that's the only way to find out the truth. JODI PICOULT When you're different, sometimes you don't see the millions of people who accept you for what you ar... JODI PICOULT Mistakes are like the memories you hide in an attic: old love letters from relationships that tanked... JODI PICOULT The best place to cry is on a mother's arms. JODI PICOULT If she spoke, she would tell him the truth: she was not okay at all, but horribly empty, now that sh... JODI PICOULT Gay teenagers are four times as likely to attempt suicide as straight ones. I wish they knew that th... JODI PICOULT The first question she was asked was What do you do? as if that were enough to define you. Nobody ev... JODI PICOULT They're fake bullets, so why do I feel like Im bleeding out? JODI PICOULT Envy, after all, comes from wanting something that isn't yours. But grief comes from losing somethin... JODI PICOULT My mother... she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to g... JODI PICOULT Most people in America want an easy read. I call it McFiction - books which pass right through you w... JODI PICOULT But Katie knew it was a sin, had known from the moment she made the decision to lie with Adam. Howev... JODI PICOULT As an American I wanted to explore... why are we the only first world country that still has capital... JODI PICOULT When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yo... JODI PICOULT A lie, as you probably know, has a taste all its own. Blocky and bitter and never quite right, like ... JODI PICOULT You can argue that it's a different world now than the one when Matthew Shepard was killed, but ther... JODI PICOULT And that was the greatest heartbreak of all- no matter how spectacular we want our children to be, n... JODI PICOULT You’ll tell yourself anything you have to, to pretend that you’re still the one in control. JODI PICOULT There are just as many stories to be told in the dark spots s there are in the bright ones. JODI PICOULT This was something she would keep hidden within herself, maybe in place of the knot of pain and ange... JODI PICOULT God, what had we done? It didn't really matter. Piper had been the kind of friend with whom I... JODI PICOULT What you didn't tell someone was just as debilitating as what you did. JODI PICOULT I woke up one morning thinking about wolves and realized that wolf packs function as families. Every... JODI PICOULT Once upon a time there were two sisters. One of them was really, really strong, and one of them wasn... JODI PICOULT Raw love, like raw heartache, could blindside you. JODI PICOULT Do you know how there are moments when the world moves so slowly you can feel your bones shifting, y... JODI PICOULT Suddenly this is all too hard. I am tired of putting up walls. I want someone with the strength - an... JODI PICOULT I can see myself now, she said. And I can see what I want to be, ten years from now. But I don't und... JODI PICOULT It's never the differences between people that surprise us. It's the things that, against all odds, ... JODI PICOULT I wondered about the explorers who'd sailed their ships to the end of the world. How terrified they ... JODI PICOULT The desperate usually succeed because they have nothing to lose. JODI PICOULT I always hated when my scars started to fade, because as long as I could still see them, I knew why ... JODI PICOULT The damage was permanent; there would always be scars. But even the angriest scars faded over time u... JODI PICOULT She sobbed the way she did everything else- with passion and excess. JODI PICOULT Just because you can't see the wound doesn't mean it isn't hurting. JODI PICOULT In the end, though, I did not kill my sister. She did it all on her own. Or at least thi... JODI PICOULT You know how the tightrope guy at the circus wants everyone to believe his act is an art, but deep d... JODI PICOULT There are all sorts of experiences we can't really put a name to...The birth of a child, for one. Or... JODI PICOULT I would tell them that when you look at a person, you never know what the're hiding. JODI PICOULT Three months ago, if you asked me, I would have told you that if you really loved someone, you’d l... JODI PICOULT Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, ... JODI PICOULT Maybe that's what we do to the people we love: take shots in the dark and realize too late that we'v... JODI PICOULT When you care more if someone else lives than you do about yourself- is that what [love is]? JODI PICOULT He smiles at me, and I am suddenly seventeen again - the year I realize that love doesn't follow the... JODI PICOULT The bottom line is that we never fall for the person we're supposed to. JODI PICOULT Love is not an equation, it is not a contract, and it is not a happy ending. Love is the slate under... JODI PICOULT An oncology ward is a battlefield, and there are definite hierarchies of command. The patients, they... JODI PICOULT ...People do belong to each other. Once you make a sacrifice for someone, you own part of his or her... JODI PICOULT words are like nets - we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that ... JODI PICOULT Researching 'Lone Wolf,' I was amazed at how thoughtful and intelligent these animals are. T... JODI PICOULT Life was what happened when all the what-if’s didn’t, when what you dreamed or hoped or – in t... JODI PICOULT I consider myself spiritual and I'm married to a man who is both an atheist and a humanist, and ... JODI PICOULT Edward: "Wait--you were trying to hit on me?" Susan: "Damn straight." Edward: "The ... JODI PICOULT Scars are just a treasure map for pain you've buried too deep to remember. JODI PICOULT Clearly God was in some kind of mood on my birthday. JODI PICOULT You don't love someone because they're perfect," she says. "You love them in spite of the fact that ... JODI PICOULT What looks like garbage from one angle might be art from another. Maybe it did take a crisis ... JODI PICOULT Love has all the lasting permanence of a rainbow — beautiful while it’s there, and just as likel... JODI PICOULT Gay rights is not something most of us think about - because most of us happen to have been born str... JODI PICOULT It's a fallacy that writers have to shut themselves up in their ivory towers to write. I have al... JODI PICOULT You saved me," I said. Nathaniel put his hands on either side of my face. "I had to," he said. "So y... JODI PICOULT Things that look impossible suddenly seem a lot better, once you get God on board. JODI PICOULT I'm the kind of person you want to kill. I had an incredibly happy childhood. I married a terrif... JODI PICOULT Sometimes you can see things happen right in front of your eyes and still jump to the wrong conclusi... JODI PICOULT See, as much as you want to hold on to the bitter sore memory that someone has left this world, you ... JODI PICOULT What if the one I choose to discount is one who has been truly hurt? JODI PICOULT Life, it turns out, goes on. There is no cosmic rule that grants you immunity from the details just ... JODI PICOULT I wonder if what makes a family a family isn't doing everything right all the time but, instead, giv... JODI PICOULT You lie to convince people you are not a monster . . . not that you are one. JODI PICOULT Do you know what it's like to love someone so much, that you can't see yourself without picturing he... JODI PICOULT Take it from me: love has all the lasting permanence of a rainbow- beautiful while it's there, and j... JODI PICOULT Love is the most dangerous craving of all, if you ask me. It turns us into people we aren't. It make... JODI PICOULT I know better than most people that a criminal isn't always a thug in a black leather jacket with a ... JODI PICOULT Sometimes parents don't find what they're looking for it their child, so they plant seeds for what t... JODI PICOULT I could tell her from personal experience that when people we love make choices we don't always unde... JODI PICOULT When I'm with you, bells go off in my head like a moving truck that's backing up. JODI PICOULT That's the strange thing about being a mother: until you have a baby, you don't even realize how muc... JODI PICOULT Who I am, and what I am capable of doing has always managed to surprise me. JODI PICOULT If you want something to be true badly enough, you can rewrite it that way, in your head. You can ev... JODI PICOULT Sometimes we find ourselves walking through life blindfolded, and we try to deny that we're the ones... JODI PICOULT We make messes of our lives, but every now and then, we manage to do something that's exactly right.... JODI PICOULT It's choice that makes us human. JODI PICOULT What if it turns out that a life isn’t defined by who you belong to or where you came from, by wha... JODI PICOULT When you love someone more than he loves you, you'll do anything to switch the scales. You dress the... JODI PICOULT The only way someone can leave you is if you let them. JODI PICOULT Sometimes I think my whole life has been about holding on to you. JODI PICOULT Is Fate getting what you deserve, or deserving what you get? JODI PICOULT If it had been easy for Romeo to get to Juliet, nobody would have cared. Same goes for Cyrano and Do... JODI PICOULT Bad is not an absolute, but a relative term. Ask the robber who used the cash he stole to feed his i... JODI PICOULT Just because you keep something a secret doesn't mean it never happened, no matter how much you want... JODI PICOULT It took me a lifetime to realizethings don't get lost if they don't have value- you don't miss what ... JODI PICOULT You can't exist in this world without leaving a piece of yourself behind. JODI PICOULT Some lessons can't be taught, they simply have to be learned. JODI PICOULT You make yourself strong because it's expected of you. You become confident because someone beside y... JODI PICOULT It takes two people to make a lie work: the person who tells it, and the one who believes it. JODI PICOULT How could he convey to someone who'd never even met her the way she always smelled like rain, or how... JODI PICOULT I wondered how long it took for a baby to become yours, for familiarity to set in. Maybe as long as ... JODI PICOULT I know you love me. The question is, how much? JODI PICOULT What was the point of being able to forgive, when deep down, you both had to admit you'd never forge... JODI PICOULT Nobody wants to admit to this, but bad things will keep on happening. Maybe that's beause it's all a... JODI PICOULT In the space between yes and no, there's a lifetime. It's the difference between the path you walk a... JODI PICOULT Love is not a because, it's a no matter what. JODI PICOULT You know how sometimes, your life is so perfect you’re afraid for the next moment, because it coul... JODI PICOULT I knew what it was like to lose someone you loved. You didn't get past something like that, you got ... JODI PICOULT You were in business making meth? Do you have any idea what that drug does to people?" We... JODI PICOULT Campbell" Julia says "Don't do this to me" "Do what?" "Push me off the same cliff twice JODI PICOULT Most people who offer their help do it to make themselves feel better, not us. To be honest, I don't... JODI PICOULT People ask all the time how I'm doing, but the truth is, they don't really want to know. JODI PICOULT The moral of this story is that sometimes, you can attempt to make all the difference in the world, ... JODI PICOULT Everyone thinks you make mistakes when you're young. But I don't think we make any fewer when we're ... JODI PICOULT Every life has a soundtrack. There is a tune that makes me think of the summer I spent ru... JODI PICOULT You can fool yourself, you know. You'd think it's impossible, but it turns out it's the easiest thin... JODI PICOULT I feel I'm able to get rid of any demons lurking in my psyche through my writing, which leaves m... JODI PICOULT Is it a crime when you love someone so much that you can't stand the thought of them changing? Is it... JODI PICOULT Heroes didn't leap tall buildings or stop bullets with an outstretched hand; they didn't wear boots ... JODI PICOULT On my license, it says I'm an organ donor, but the truth is I'd consider being an organ martyr. I'm ... JODI PICOULT I love you," he whispered, and that was the moment he knew what he was going to do. When you loved s... JODI PICOULT When you showed someone how you felt, it was fresh and honest. When you told someone how you felt, t... JODI PICOULT Everyone knew that if you divided reality by expectation, you got a happiness quotient. But when you... JODI PICOULT Maybe you had to leave in order to miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved y... JODI PICOULT There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations JODI PICOULT I close my eyes, thinking that there is nothing like an embrace after an absence, nothing like fitti... JODI PICOULT It was possible that a miracle was not something that happened to you, but rather something that did... JODI PICOULT It was that she truly believed you could be fourteen when you learned how love could change the spee... JODI PICOULT Could you really love someone who was capable of falling in love with someone else? JODI PICOULT ...in the blink of an eye, you might reinvent yourself...the person you were yesterday might not be ... JODI PICOULT I'm really proud of ( JODI PICOULT When you read the art, JODI PICOULT You have to create characters who will whisk people away from their ordinary lives. JODI PICOULT Vengeance was a funny thing: You wanted the satisfaction of knowing it had occurred, but you never w... JODI PICOULT In the wake of a disaster, the last thing you needed to do was set off another bomb; instead, you wa... JODI PICOULT They were at different places in the same relationship and like anything that's out of alighment, th... JODI PICOULT She wondered how many hours it had been since she'd talked out loud. If you didn't use your voice, e... JODI PICOULT The truth is the truth. JODI PICOULT Change is a funny thing. We never are quite sure what we are becoming or even why. Then one day we l... JODI PICOULT High school students were cannibals; they fed off your broken heart while you watched and then shrug... JODI PICOULT When heaven breaks, who fixes it? JODI PICOULT Dante believed God punished suicides by trapping the person's spirit in a tree trunk. On Judgement D... JODI PICOULT newborns reminded her of tiny buddhas JODI PICOULT From that point of view, I realized that my hole was not miles deep after all. My father, in fact, c... JODI PICOULT His grandmother had taught him that there was no such thing as coincidence. There are millions of pe... JODI PICOULT Antony was also obsessive, judgmental, and paranoid. JODI PICOULT Just because you didn't put a name to something did not mean it wasn't there. JODI PICOULT Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life. JODI PICOULT When you're a parent you find yourself looking at the unknown that is your child, trying to find a p... JODI PICOULT I used to think I'd be just like them when I grew up, but I am not. And the thing is, somewhere alon... JODI PICOULT Other people look at me and think: That poor woman; she has a child with a disability. But al... JODI PICOULT