Lois Lowry, A Summer to Die
19 quotes
"It was the helplessness that scared the both of us."
"It's hard to give up the being together with someone."
"But there's a whole world waiting, still, and there are good things in it."
"...you can pretend that bad things will never happen. But life's a lot easier if you realize and admit that sometimes they do."
"It is so good to have friends who understand how there is a time for crying and a time for laughing, and that sometimes the two are very close together."
"We're so accustomed to laughing. It's harder for us when the time comes that we can't laugh."
"Oh, sometimes it's just easier to please people," Maria said finally."
"I don't know what she is now. A stranger, mostly. It's as if she has become a part of a different world, one that doesn't include me anymore...."
"I laugh, because he knew what I was thinking, and very few people ever know what I'm thinking."
"You know, sometimes it's nice to just have someone to blame, even if it has to be yourself, even if it doesn't make sense."
"Dying is a very solitary thing. The only thing we can do it be there when she wants us there."
"She's sure, absolutely sure, that what she's waiting for will happen, just the way she wants it to; and I'm so uncertain, so fearful my dreams will end up forgotten somewhere, someday, like a piece of string and a paperclip lying in a dish."
"She smiles, and her eyes look as if they can see back into her memory, into all the things that have gone into making a person what they are."
"It wasn't the same. I'm pretty good at making the best of things, but it wasn't the same."
"It's a funny thing about names, how they become a part of someone."
"It was because someone who was a real friend was having the exact same feelings I was having, about something that was more important to me than anything else. I bet there are people who go through a whole life and never experience that."
"Time goes on, and your life is still there, and you have to live it. After a while you remember the good things more often than the bad. Then, gradually, the empty silent parts of you fill up with sounds of talking and laughter again, and the jagged edges of sadness are softened by memories."
"Maybe someday, if I succeed at something, I'll stop saying, "It isn't fair" about everything else."
"I'm trying to ruin it!" Will had bellowed back. "So I can figure out how to do it perfectly! How can you learn anything if you won't take risks?"