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Handle with Care: A Novel

Book by Jodi Picoult · 6 quotes · Knows, Felt, Thinking

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Handle with Care: A Novel Quotes

“Was it the act of giving birth that made you a mother? Did you lose that label when you relinquished your child? If people were measured by their deeds, on the one hand, I had a woman who had chosen to give me up; on the other, I had a woman who'd sat up with me at night when I was sick as a child, who'd cried with me over boyfriends, who'd clapped fiercely at my law school graduation. Which acts made you more of a mother? Both, I realized. Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life.”

PeopleIfsGivingChildrenMadeHandsSchoolLawMotherNightParentLosesBirthSickGive MeParentingDeedsI RealizedChosenWitnessLabelsYour ChildrenSatCriedAdoptionBeing A ParentLaw SchoolGiving BirthSchool GraduationBearing Witness
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“Once upon a time there were two sisters. One of them was really, really strong, and one of them wasn't.' You looked at me. 'Your turn.' I rolled my eyes. 'The strong sister went outside into the rain and realized the reason she was strong was because she was made out of iron, but it was raining and she rusted. The end.' No, because the sister who wasn't strong went outside into the rain when it was raining, and hugged her really tight until the sun came out again.”

MadeTwoEndsReasonEyeTurnsStrongSunRainIronOnce Upon A TimeTwo Sisters
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“Words got in the way. The things we felt the hardest--like what it was like to have a boy touch you as if you were made of light, or what it meant to be the only person in the room who wasn't noticed--weren't sentences; they were knots in the wood of our bodies, places where our blood flowed backward. If you asked me, not that anyone ever did, the only words worth saying were I'm sorry.”

IfsWayPersonsMadeBodyLightFeltRoomsBoysBloodSorryWoodsSentencesHardestMeant To BeI'm SorryKnots
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“But love wasn't about sacrifice, and it wasn't about falling short of someone's expectations. By definition, love made you better than good enough; it redefined perfection to include your traits, instead of excluding them. All any of us wanted, really, was to know that we counted. That someone else's life would not have been as rich without us here.”

KnowsHas BeensMadeEnoughWantedFallRichSacrificeExpectationsPerfectionDefinitionsGood EnoughTraits
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