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Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult Quotes

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Jodi Picoult is an American best-selling author known for her emotionally rich and engaging novels. Her works often revolve around family, legal, and moral dilemmas, and are highly appreciated by readers.

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All Ifs Knows Thinking People Want Way Persons World Feels Children

Famous Jodi Picoult Quotes

“It doesn't matter what it is that leaves a hole inside you. It just matters that it’s there.”

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“It turns out that sharing the past with someone is different from reliving it when you’re alone. It feels less like a wound, more like a poultice.”

Feels Different Past Turns Wounds

Book:Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

Source: Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

“I don't know what it is about death that makes it so hard. I suppose it's the one-sided communication; the fact that we never get to ask our loved one if she suffered, if she is happy wherever she is now...if she is somewhere. It's the question mark that comes with death that we can't face, not the period.”

Ifs Knows Hard Facts Faces Asks Communication Periods Mark Loved Ones One Sided Question Mark

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“People have to experience things that terrify them. If they don't, how will they ever come to appreciate safety?”

People Ifs Appreciate Safety

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“Each memory is like a paper flower stowed up a magician's sleeve: invisible one moment and then so substantial and florid the next I cannot imagine how it stayed hidden all this time. And like those paper flowers, once they've been let loose in the world, the memories are impossible to tuck away again.”

World Moments Next Memories Imagine Impossible Flower Paper Invisible Magician Sleeves Paper Flowers

Book:Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

Source: Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

“If history has a habit of repeating itself, doesn't someone have to stay behind to shout out a warning?”

Ifs Behinds Habit Warning Shout Out

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“I don't believe in God. But sitting there, in a room full of those who feel otherwise, I realize that I do believe in people. In their strength to help each other, and to thrive in spite of the odds, I believe that the extraordinary trumps the ordinary, any day. I believe that having something to hope for -- even if it's just a better tomorrow -- is the most powerful drug on this planet.”

Source: The Storyteller

“Inside each of us is a monster; inside each of us is a saint. The real question is which one we nurture the most, which one will smite the other.”

Life Real Saint Monsters Nurture Real Questions

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“I have loved before, but it didn’t feel like this. I have kissed before, but it didn’t burn me alive. Maybe it lasts a minute, and maybe it’s an hour. All I know is that kiss, and how soft her skin is when it brushes against mine, and that, even if I did not know it until now, I have been waiting for this person forever.”

Ifs Knows Feels Persons Has Beens Lasts Waiting Hours Forever Alive Minutes Mines Kissing Skins Brushes

Author:Jodi Picoult

“I don’t think anyone who falls in love has a choice. You’re just pulled to that person like true north, whether it’s good for you or bound to break your heart.”

Thinking Heart Persons Choices Fall Break Falling In Love Bounds Break Your Heart True North

Book:Sing You Home: A Novel

Source: Sing You Home: A Novel

“Religion isn't in your DNA. you don't believe just because your parents believe.”

Believe Parent Don't Believe Dna

Book:Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

Source: Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

“Even the most beautiful things can be toxic.”

Beautiful Toxic Beautiful Things

Book:Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

Source: Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

“Power isn't about doing something terrible to someone who's weaker than you, Reiner. It's having the strength to do something terrible, and choosing not to.”

Author:Jodi Picoult

“The reason I am still sitting at Josef's kitchen table is the same reason traffic slows after a car wreck- you want to see the damage; you can't let yourself pass without that mental snapshot. We are drawn to horror even as we recoil from it.”

Want Stills Reason Car Horror Sitting Tables Damage Kitchen Traffic Wrecks Snapshots Kitchen Table Recoil Car Wreck

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“Forgiveness is spiritual. Punishment is legal," Leo says. "They're not mutually exclusive.”

Spiritual Punishment Exclusive

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“My grandmother told me that her father used to ask her a riddle: What must you break apart in order to bring a family close together? Bread, of course.”

Together Used Order Courses Asks Father Break Bread Grandmother My Grandmother Riddle

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“There was no black or white. Someone who had been good her entire life could, in fact, do something evil. People were just as capable of committing murder, under the right circumstances, as any monster.”

People Facts Evil Black White Circumstances Capable Murder Monsters Evil People Black Or White

Author:Jodi Picoult

“Sometimes, all it takes to become human again is someone who can see you that way, no matter how you present on the surface.”

Way Humans Sometimes Matter Surface

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“What is the point of trying to put down on paper emotions that are too complex, too huge, too overwhelming to be confined by an alphabet? Love isn't the only word that fails. Hate does, too.”

Trying Doe Hate Emotion Failing Huge Paper Complexes Overwhelming Confined Alphabet

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“There are so many ways to betray someone. You can whisper behind his back. You can deceive him on purpose. You can deliver him into the hands of his enemy, when he trusts you. You can break a promise. The question is, if you do any of those things, are you also betraying yourself?”

Ifs Way Hands Purpose Behinds Enemy Break Promise Betray Deceiving

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“Sometimes all you need to live one more day is a good reason to stick around.”

Needs Sometimes Reason Sticks One More Day Sometimes All You Need

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“Fiction is like that, once it is released into the world: contagious, persistent. Like the contents of Pandora's box, a story that's freely given can't be contained anymore. It becomes infectious, spreading from the person who created it to the person who listens, and passes it on.”

World Persons Stories Given Fiction Boxes Persistent Contagious Pandora Pandora's Box

Author:Jodi Picoult

“There are all sorts of losses people suffer - from the small to the large. You can lose your keys, your glasses, your virginity. You can lose your head, you can lose your heart, you can lose your mind. You can relinquish your home to move into assisted living, or have a child move overseas, or see a spouse vanish into dementia. Loss is more than just death, and grief is the gray shape-shifter of emotion.”

Source: Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

“My brother believed in all sorts of mythical creatures: pixies, dragons, werewolves, honest men.”

Men Honest Brother Creatures My Brother Dragons Werewolf Honest Man Mythical Creatures Pixies

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“Whether it was power they sought, or revenge, or love-well, those were all just different forms of hunger. The bigger the hole inside you, the more desperate you became to fill it.”

Wells Different Form Bigger Hunger Revenge Holes Desperate

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“What he did was wrong. He doesn't deserve your love. But he does deserve your forgiveness, because otherwise he will grow like a weed in your heart until it's choked and overrun. The only person who suffers, when you squirrel away all that hate, is you.”

Heart Persons Doe Suffering Hate Grows Deserve Weed Squirrels

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, 'You're not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.' It's saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future.”

Important Enough Past Forgiving Worthy Traps Power Of Forgiveness

Author:Jodi Picoult

“That's the paradox of loss: How can something that's gone weigh us down so much?”

Loss Gone Paradox

Book:Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

Source: Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

“Loneliness is a mirror, and recognizes itself.”

Loneliness Mirrors

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“I never said I do not remember, my grandmother corrects. I said I prefer to forget.”

Said Remember Forget Grandmother My Grandmother

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“sometimes words are not big enough to contain all the feelings you are trying to pour into them.”

Trying Sometimes Enough Feelings Bigs

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“be a good listener, don't judge and don't put boundaries on someone else's grief.”

Grief Judging Boundaries Listeners Good Listener

Book:Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

Source: Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

“The person may have a scar, but it also means they have a story”

May Mean Persons Stories Scar

Book:Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

Source: Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

“That's why we read fiction, isn't it? To remind us that whatever we suffer, we're not the only ones?”

Suffering Fiction

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“Be kind to others before you take care of yourself; make whoever you're with feel like they matter.”

Feels Kind Matter Care Take Care Be Kind Take Care Of Yourself Be Kind To Others

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“The only monsters I have ever known were men.”

Men Known Monsters

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“[There's a] point where you have to leave the dough alone. It's silly to anthropomorphize bread, but I love the fact that it needs to sit quietly, to retreat from touch and noise and drama, in order to evolve. I have to admit, I often feel that way myself.”

Way Needs Feels Facts Order Drama Silly Bread Noise Evolve Retreat Dough

Book:Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

Source: Atria Book Club Bites: A Free Sampling of Ten Books Guaranteed to Feed Your Discussion

“You can blame your ugliness for keeping people at bay, when in reality you're crippled by the thought of letting another person close enough to popentially scar you even more deeply. You can tell yourself that it's safer to love someone who will never really love you back, because you can't lose someone you never had.”

People Persons Enough Reality Loses Love You Blame Scar Ugliness Love Someone Crippled

Author:Jodi Picoult

“We believe what we want to, what we need to. The corollary is that we choose not to see what we'd rather pretend doesn't exist.”

Want Needs Believe

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“Life was what happened when all the what-ifs didn't.”

Author:Jodi Picoult

“I realize how quickly lies compound. They cover like a coat of paint, one on top of the other, until you cannot remember what color you started with.”

Remember Lying Realizing Color Paint Coats Compounds

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“If words had flavors, hers would be bitter almonds and coffee grounds.”

Ifs Would Be Coffee Bitter Flavor Almonds

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“When a freedom is taken away from you, I suppose, you recognize it as a privilege, not a right.”

Taken Privilege Away From You

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“But that's what love is, isn't it? When it hurts you more to see someone suffer than it does to take the pain away?”

Doe Pain Suffering Hurt Love Is It Hurts

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“But if you seek forgiveness, doesn't that automatically mean you cannot be a monster? By definition, doesn't that desperation make you human again?”

Ifs Humans Mean Definitions Monsters Desperation

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“There are so many ways a family can unravel. All it takes is a tiny slash of selfishness, a rip of greed, a puncture of bad luck. And yet, woven tightly, family can be the strongest bond imaginable.”

Way Luck Greed Tiny Selfishness Strongest Rip Woven Bad Luck Puncture

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“If you end your story, it's a static work of art, a finite circle. But if you don't, it belongs to anyone's imagination. It stays alive forever.”

Ifs Art Ends Stories Imagination Forever Alive Circles Works Of Art Finite Static Staying Alive

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

“The thing that most people didn't understand, if they weren't in his line if work, was that a rape victim and a victim of a fatal accident were both gone forever. The difference was that the rape victim still had to go through the motions of being alive.”

People Ifs Stills Differences Lines Gone Forever Alive Victim Accidents

Book:The Tenth Circle: A Novel

Source: The Tenth Circle: A Novel

“It was a catch-22: If you didn’t put the trauma behind you, you couldn’t move on. But if you did put the trauma behind you, you willingly gave up your claim to the person you were before it happened.”

Ifs Persons Moving Behinds Happened Claims Trauma Gave Up Behind You

Book:The Jodi Picoult Collection #3: Vanishing Acts, The Tenth Circle, and Nineteen Minutes

Source: The Jodi Picoult Collection #3: Vanishing Acts, The Tenth Circle, and Nineteen Minutes

“If you had to pack your whole life into a suitcase-not just the practical things, like clothing, but the memories of the people you had lost and the girl you had once been-what would you take?”

People Ifs Whole Girl Lost Memories Whole Life Practicals Clothings Holocaust Packs Suitcases Practical Things

Book:The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

About the Author

Born: May 19, 1966
Known for: Author
Quotes: 1371

Related Topics

Ifs Knows Thinking People Want Way Persons World Feels Children

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

My Sister's Keeper - Movie Tie-In: A NovelRelated source material

My Sister's KeeperRelated source material

Handle with Care: A NovelRelated source material

The StorytellerRelated source material

Between the LinesRelated source material

The Jodi Picoult Collection #3: Vanishing Acts, The Tenth Circle, and Nineteen MinutesRelated source material

Vanishing ActsRelated source material

My Sister's Keeper: A NovelRelated source material

The Jodi Picoult Collection #4: Change of Heart, Handle with Care, and House RulesRelated source material

Sing You Home: A NovelRelated source material

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