The collection / 150 fragments

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Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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150 results · Page 3 of 7Play this collection ▷

01c. 1970 AD

Concert' doesn’t mean standing up like a target in front of thousands of strangers. It means coming together. It means harmony.

Gayle Forman / quote

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02c. 1970 AD

After that, I became kind of fascinated by her and by what I guessed was her ability to hear music in the silence. Back then, I'd wanted to be able to do that, too. So I took to watching her play, and though I told myself the reason for my attention was because she was as dedicated a musician as I was and that she was cute, the truth was that I also wanted to understand what she heard in the silence.

Gayle Forman / quote

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03c. 1970 AD

I do have a point to all this,” she continues. “There are like twenty people in that waiting room right now. Some of them are related to you. Some of them are not. But we’re all your family.” She stops now. Leans over me so that the wisps of her hair tickle my face. She kisses me on the forehead. “You still have a family,” she whispers.

Gayle Forman / quote

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04c. 1970 AD

Life is a big fat gigantic stinking mess, that's the beauty of it, too.

Gayle Forman / quote

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05c. 1970 AD

There are like twenty people in that waiting room right now. Some of them are related to you. Some of them are not. But we're all your family. She stops now. Leans over me so that wisps of her hair tickle my face. She kisses me on the forehead.You still have a family, she whispers.

Gayle Forman / quote

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06c. 1970 AD

Dying is easy. Living is hard

Gayle Forman / quote

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07c. 1970 AD

I clap because I know what will happen when I stop. It's the same thing that happens when I turn off a really good movie - one that I've lost myself to - which is that I'll be thrown back to my own reality and something hollow will settle in my chest. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie all over again just to recapture that feeling of being inside something real. Which, I know, doesn't make any sense.

Gayle Forman / quote

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08c. 1970 AD

I clap so that I can hold on to this feeling. I clap because I know what will happen when I stop. It’s the same thing that happens when I turn off a really good movie - one that I’ve lost myself to - which is that I’ll be thrown back to my own reality and something hollow will settle in my chest.

Gayle Forman / quote

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09c. 1970 AD

One in a million cases; such comforting odds, except when you were the one

Gayle Forman / quote

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10c. 1970 AD

Mom was adamantly pro-choice. She had a bumper sticker on the car that read If you can't trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child? But in her case the choice was to keep me.

Gayle Forman / quote

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11c. 1970 AD

Every fiction has its base in fact.

Gayle Forman / quote

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12c. 1970 AD

We were all forged in the crucible.

Gayle Forman / quote

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13c. 1970 AD

...being Lulu, it made me realize that all my life I've been living in a small, square room, with no windows and no doors. And I was fine. I was happy, even. I thought. Then someone came along and showed me there was a door in the room. One that I'd never even seen before. Then he opened it for me. Held my hand as I walked through it. And for one perfect day, I was on the other side. I was somewhere else. Someone else. And then he was gone, and I was thrown back into my little room. And now, no matter what I do, I can't seem to find that door.

Gayle Forman / quote

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14c. 1970 AD

But then one time, you track down an email address and you're near a computer with Internet access so you don't have that nice cushion and you type what you're feeling and press send before you have a chance to talk yourself out of it. And then you wait, and wait, and wait, and nothing comes back, so all those things you thought were so important to say, really, they weren't. They weren't worth saying at all.

Gayle Forman / quote

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15c. 1970 AD

It's just accidental, just temporary. Until the next accident sends me somewhere new. That's how life works.

Gayle Forman / quote

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16c. 1970 AD

I want to undo this. To make it right. But I have no idea how. I don't seem to know how to open up to people without getting the door slammed in my face. So I do nothing.

Gayle Forman / quote

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17c. 1970 AD

Forgivenesss: It's a miracle drug. It's God's miracle drug.

Gayle Forman / quote

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18c. 1970 AD

I'm not sure if the question's rhetorical or if she thinks I have a clue to her metaphysical mystery. And I'm in no state to answer either way because I'm crying. I don't realize it till I taste the sale against my lips. I can't remember the last time I've cried but, once I accept the mortification of sniveling like a baby, the floodgates open and I'm sobbing now, in front of Mia. In front of the whole damn world.

Gayle Forman / quote

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19c. 1970 AD

Losing me will hurt; it will be the kind of pain that won't feel real at first, and when it does, it will take her breath away.

Gayle Forman / quote

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20c. 1970 AD

How is it possible that a boyfriend ceases to exist from one day to another?

Gayle Forman / quote

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21c. 1970 AD

My chips are all cashed out. There's nothing to lose. Or maybe I've already lost it and found it, and whatever else there might be to lose...

Gayle Forman / quote

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22c. 1970 AD

You can't undo loss. You can't unmake a mistake. (What The Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth?)

Gayle Forman / quote

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23c. 1970 AD

Adam's lips are set in a grime line. I can't tell if he's about to cry or about to punch the guard. For his sake, I hope it's the former. For you own, I hope the latter.

Gayle Forman / quote

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24c. 1970 AD

...Sleepovers and dance parties and those talks we would have until three in the morning that would make us feel lousy the next day because we’d slept like hell but also feel good because the talks were like blood transfusions, moments of realness and hope that were pinpricks of light in the dark fabric of small-town life.

Gayle Forman / quote

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