01UndatedWell, it seems to me that there are books that tell stories, and then there are books that tell truths... The first kind, they show you life like you want it to be. With villains getting what they deserve and the hero seeing what a fool he's been and marrying the heroine and happy endings and all that... But the second kind, they show you life more like it is... The first kind makes you cheerful and contented, but the second kind shakes you up.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
02UndatedDNA tells you all the secrets of life,’ he used to say. Except for one—how to live it.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
07UndatedThere were times when I lifted my face to the sky, stretched my arms wide to the winter night, and laughed out loud, so happy was I.The memory of it makes me laugh now, but not from happiness.Be careful what you show the world.You never know when the wolf is watching.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
09UndatedAnd then I remember this morning and I wonder if it really happened or if I dreamed it. It was nice. And weird. And tender. I'm not used to tender. It's a fossil, that word. Conditions changed and it died out. Like the woolly mammoth. It just couldn't live in the same world as dick box. Ho dog. Or wiener cousins.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
10UndatedI don't like hope very much. In fact, I hate it. It's the crystal meth of emotions. It hooks you fast and kills you hard. It's bad news. The worst. It's sharp sticks and cherry bombs. When hope shows up, it's only a matter of time until someone gets hurt.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
11UndatedHope is the crystal meth of emotions. It hooks you fast and kills you hard.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
12UndatedWe all make mistakes, the danger lies in letting those mistakes make us. Make us believe we can't put things right. Make us think there's no hope. Make us give up.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
13UndatedI'm wishing he could see that music lives. Forever. That it's stronger than death. Stronger than time. And that its strength holds you together when nothing else can.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
14UndatedYou can't argue with the dead, no matter what you say, they always have the last word.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
15UndatedAnd I knew in my bones that Emily Dickinson wouldn't have written even one poem if she'd had two howling babies, a husband bent on jamming another one into her, a house to run, a garden to tend, three cows to milk, twenty chickens to feed, and four hired hands to cook for. I knew then why they didn't marry. Emily and Jane and Louisa. I knew and it scared me. I also knew what being lonely was and I didn't want to be lonely my whole life. I didn't want to give up on my words. I didn't want to choose one over the other. Mark Twain didn't have to. Charles Dickens didn't.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
16UndatedA new word. Bright with possibilities. A flawless pearl to turn over and over in my hand, then put away for safekeeping.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
17Undated...Listen to your own thoughts and feelings very carefully, be aware of your observations, and learn to value them. When you're a teenager—and even when you're older—lots of people will try to tell you what to think and feel. Try to stand still inside all of that and hear your own voice. It's yours and only yours, it's unique and worth of your attention, and if you cultivate it properly, it might just make you a writer.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
18UndatedWhen you can write music that endures, bravo. Until then, keep quiet and study the work of those who can.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
19UndatedYou should spend more time reading the Good Book and less reading all those novels. What are you going to tell the Lord on Judgement Day when He asks you why you didn't read your bible? Hmm?" I said. To myself.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
20UndatedI don't know what I was hoping for. Some small praise, I guess. A bit of encouragement. I didn't get it. Miss Parrish took me aside one day after school let out. She said she'd read my stories and found them morbid and dispiriting. She said literature was meant to uplift the heart and that a young woman such as myself ought to turn her mind to topics more cheerful and inspiring than lonely hermits and dead children."Look around yourself, Mathilda," she said. "At the magnificence of nature. It should inspire joy and awe. Reverence. Respect. Beautiful thoughts and fine words."I had looked around. I'd seen all the things she'd spoken of and more besides. I'd seen a bear cub lift it's face to the drenching spring rains. And the sliver moon of winter, so high and blinding. I'd seen the crimson glory of a stand of sugar maples in autumn and the unspeakable stillness of a mountain lake at dawn. I'd seen them and loved them. But I'd also seen the dark of things. The starved carcasses of winter deer. The driving fury of a blizzard wind. And the gloom that broods under the pines always. Even on the brightest days.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
21UndatedYou, on the other hand, wish to know things. And no one can forgive a girl for that.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
23UndatedAn escape can become escapism before we even know it. Books are wonderful things, but you can't live in someone else's story. You have to live your own story.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
24UndatedI listened as the words became sentences and the sentences became pages and the pages became feelings and voices and places and people.Jennifer Donnelly / quote ↗
