Nicola Yoon, The Sun Is Also a Star
30 quotes
"Names are powerful things."
"What are we talking about again?” he asks.I say science at the same time that he says love, and we both laugh.“What are the ingredients?” he prompts me again.“Mutual self-interest and socioeconomic compatibility.”“Do you even have a soul?”“No such thing as a soul,” I say."
"I've never understood the phrase they have chemistry before now. After all, everything is chemistry. Everything is combination and reaction. The atoms in by body align themselves with the atoms in his."
"Dark matter is love. It's the attracting force."
"How can he not share his newfound joy with his fellow man? And it is joy. There’s a pure kind of joy in the certainty of belief. The certainty that your life has purpose and meaning."
"Should I tell him that I think dreams never die even when they're dead?"
"I wonder if she realizes how passionate she is about not being passionate."
"Did your parents care that he was white?""They never met him." I couldn't imagine taking him to meet my dad. Watching them talk to each other would've been tortuous. Also, I never wanted him to see how small our apartment was. In the end, I guess I really didn't want him to know me.With Daniel, it's different somehow. I want him to see all of me."
"However, if the long shot is your only shot, then you have to take it."
"Words, Natasha thinks, should behave more like units of measure. A meter is a meter is a meter. Words shouldn't be allowed to change meanings. Who decides that the meaning has changed, and when? Is there an in-between time when the word means both things? Or a time when the word doesn't mean anything at all?"
"But can you trust something that can end as suddenly as it begins?"
"And what about the lovers who spend hours staring into each other's eyes? Is it a display of trust? 'I will let you in close and trust you not to hurt me while I'm in this vulnerable position.' And if trust is one of the foundations of love, perhaps the staring is a way to build or reinforce it. Or maybe it's simpler than that.A simple search for connectionTo see.To be seen."
"And what about the lovers who spend hours staring into each other's eyes? Is it a display of trust? I will let you in close and trust you not to hurt me while I'm in this vulnerable position. And if trust is one of the foundations of love, perhaps the staring is a way to build or reinforce it. Or maybe it's simpler than that. A simple search for connection.To see.To be seen."
"How can you trust something that can end as suddenly as it begins?"
"maybe part of falling in love with someone else is also falling in love with yourself"
"Growing up and seeing your parents' flaws is like losing your religion. I don't believe in God anymore. I don't believe in my father either."
"I kiss him to get him to stop talking. If he keeps talking I will love him, and I don't want to love him. I really don't. As strategies go, it's not my finest. Kissing is just another way of talking except without the words."
"They don't know what poor is. They don't know that poverty is a sharp knife carving away at you. They don't know what it does to the body. To a mind."
"Do you think it’s funny that both of our favorite memories are about the people we like the least now?” I ask.“Maybe that’s why we dislike them,” she says. “The distance between who they were and who they are is so wide, we have no hope of getting them back."
"Observable Fact: I don’t believe in magic.Observable Fact: We are magic."
"Hearts don’t break.It’s just another thing the poets say.Hearts are not madeOf glassOr boneOr any material that couldSplinterOr FragmentOr Shatter.They don’tCrack Into Pieces.They don’tFall Apart.Hearts don’t break.They just stop working.An old watch from another time and no parts to fix it."
"But I like my big Afro. I also liked when my hair was longer and relaxed. I’m happy to have choices. They’re mine to make"
"I’m kind of a contagion cryer. You know how when one person starts yawning, everyone else starts yawning too? Or when someone vomits, the smell makes you want to hurl? I’m like that, except with crying."
"He thinks my hair smells like spring rain. I'm really trying to remain stoic and unaffected. I remind myself that I don't like poetic language. I don't like poetry. I don't even like people who like poetry.But I'm not dead inside either."
"If people who were actually born had to prove they were worthy enough to live in America, this would be a much less populated country."