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Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult Quotes

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Famous Jodi Picoult Quotes

“There are certain things that I'll hear about and that I think will make a great book and I put it in a file. Sometimes it's a situation that interests me, and I don't even realize what I'm trying to say about it until I get closer to it. Sometimes the book after that I've written 125 pages of, and I can tell you what the book is after that. I just sort of have a linear progression, but more than anything, the topics land in your lap. I don't feel that I go out searching for them.”

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Author:Jodi Picoult
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“Africa - You can see a sunset and believe you have witnessed the Hand of God. You watch the slope lope of a lioness and forget to breathe. You marvel at the tripod of a giraffe bent to water. In Africa, there are iridescent blues on the wings of birds that you do not see anywhere else in nature. In Africa, in the midday heart, you can see blisters in the atmosphere. When you are in Africa, you feel primordial, rocked in the cradle of the world.”

WorldFeelsBelieveHeartHandsWaterForgetWatchesBirdWingsBreatheAtmosphereSunsetBentCradleSlopesHands Of GodGiraffeBlistersLionessIridescentTripods
Author:Jodi Picoult
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“Sometimes when you pick up your child you can feel the map of your own bones beneath your hands, or smell the scent of your skin in the nape of his neck. This is the most extraordinary thing about motherhood - finding a piece of yourself separate and apart that all the same you could not live without.”

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Book:Perfect Match
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“When you don't fit in, you become superhuman. You can feel everyone else's eyes on you, stuck like Velcro. You can hear a whisper about you from a mile away. You can disappear, even when it looks like you're still standing right there. You can scream, and nobody hears a sound. You become the mutant who fell into the vat of acid, the Joker who can't remove his mask, the bionic man who's missing all his limbs and none of his heart. You are the thing that used to be normal, but that was so long ago, you can't even remember what it was like.”

MenFeelsLooksHeartLongStillsEyeRememberUsedSoundMissingLike YouFitNormalStandingDisappearMilesStuckUsed To BeMaskRemoveScreamLong AgoLimbsAcidMiles AwaySuperhumanMutantsVatVelcroBionics
Book:Nineteen Minutes: A novel
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“There should be a statute of limitation on grief. A rulebook that says it is all right to wake up crying, but only for a month. That after 42 days you will no longer turn with your heart racing, certain you have heard her call out your name. That there will be no fine imposed if you feel the need to clean out her desk; take down her artwork from the refrigerator; turn over a school portrait as you pass - if only because it cuts you fresh again to see it. That it's okay to measure the time she has been gone, the way we once measured her birthdays.”

IfsWayNeedsFeelsShouldHeartHas BeensSchoolCertainTimeTurnsNamesGriefGoneCuttingHeardCryFineMonthsOkayWake UpCleanLimitationGrievingRacingDesksPortraitsArtworkRefrigeratorsStatutesHeart Racing
Author:Jodi Picoult
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“This was something she would keep hidden within herself, maybe in place of the knot of pain and anger she had been carrying under her breastbone...a security blanket, an ace up her sleeve. She might never use it, but she would always feel its presence like a swelling secret stone, and that way when she let go of the rage, she would not feel nearly as empty.”

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Author:Jodi Picoult
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“There are all sorts of experiences we can't really put a name to...The birth of a child, for one. Or the death of a parent. Falling in love. Words are like nets--we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that much joy, grief, or wonder. Finding God is like that, too. If it's happened to you, you know what it feels like. But try to describe it to someone else--and language only takes you so far.”

IfsKnowsFeelsTryingMeanChildrenJoyFallNamesLanguageParentGriefWonderHappenedBirthFindingsFalling In LoveFinding GodBirth Of A Child
Author:Jodi Picoult
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“Most people who offer their help do it to make themselves feel better, not us. To be honest, I don't blame them. It's superstition: If you give assistance to the family in need... if you throw salt over your shoulder... if you don't step on the cracks, then maybe you'll be immune. Maybe you'll be able to convince yourself that this could never happen to you.”

PeopleIfsNeedsGivingFeelsHelpingHappensAbleStepsHonestOffersBlameShouldersBeing HonestConvinceCracksSaltSuperstitionsFeel BetterAssistanceImmune
Book:Handle with Care: A Novel
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“Here's a news flash for the ladies: for every one of you who thinks we all want a girl like Angelina Jolie, all skinny elbows and angles, the truth is, we'd rather curl up with someone like Charlotte - a woman who's soft when a guy wraps his arms around her; a woman who might have a smear of flour on her shirt the whole day and not notice or care, not even when she goes out to meet with the PTA; a woman who doesn't feel like an exotic vacation but is the home we can't wait to come back to.”

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Book:Handle with Care: A Novel
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“Annie turned away, her eyes glittering. 'Here's what no one tells you,' she said. 'When you deliver a fetus, you get a death certificate, but not a birth certificate. And afterward, your milk comes in, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.' She looked up at me. 'You can't win. Either you have the baby and wear your pain on the outside, or you don't have the baby, and you keep that ache in you forever. I know I didn't do the wrong thing. But I don't feel like I did the right thing, either.”

KnowsFeelsSaidEyePainWinningCan DoForeverBabyBirthRight ThingMilkHer EyesAcheWrong ThingsCan't WinCertificatesAnnieFetusBirth Certificate
Author:Jodi Picoult
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“When you showed someone how you felt, it was fresh and honest. When you told someone how you felt, there might be nothing behind the words but habit or expectation. Those three words were what everyone used; simple syllables couldn't contain something as rare as what I felt for Sean. I wanted him to feel what I felt when I was with him: that incredible combination of comfort, decadence, and wonder; the knowledge that, with just a single taste of him, I was addicted.”

FeelsMightWantedUsedThreeFeltSimpleBehindsWonderHonestHabitComfortTasteExpectationsIncrediblesCombinationDecadenceSyllablesSeanThree Words
Book:Handle with Care: A Novel
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“The best parenting advice I ever got was from a labor nurse who told me the following: 1. After your baby gets here, the dog will just be a dog. 2. The terrible twos last through age three. 3. Never ask your child an open-ended question, such as "Do you want to go to bed now?" You won't want to hear the answer, believe me. "Do you want me to carry you upstairs, or do you want to walk upstairs to go to bed?" That way, you get the outcome you want and they feel empowered.”

WayWantFeelsBelieveChildrenAgeLastsThreeAsksParentAnswersWalksAdviceDogBabyTerribleBedLaborFollowingYour ChildrenOutcomesNurseWant MeBelieve In MeEmpoweredYou Want MeUpstairsDo You Want Me
Author:Jodi Picoult
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“let me tell you what happens when you cook down the syrup of loss over the open fire of sorrow: it solidfies into something wlaw. not grief, like you'd expect, or even regret. no, it gets thick as paste, black as ash; yet it isn't until you dip a finger in and feel that sharp taste dissolving on your tounge that you realize this is angel in its purest form, unrefined; a substance to be weighed and measyred and spread.”

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Author:Jodi Picoult
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“Someone real," I hear myself saying. "Someone who never has to pretend, and who I never have to pretend around. Someone who's smart, but knows how to laugh at himself. Someone who would listen to a symphony and start to cry, because he understands music can be too big for words. Someone who knows me better than I know myself. Someone I want to talk to first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Someone I feel like I've known my whole life, even if I haven't.”

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Author:Jodi Picoult
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“I am not a religious man. I have not attended a service for many years. But I do believe in God. My own practice of religion, you could say, it a nonpractice. I personally feel that it's just as worthy on a weekend to rake the lawns of an elderly neighbor or to climb a mountain and marvel at the beauty of this land we live in as it is to sing hosannas or go to Mass. In other words, I think every many finds his own church- and not all of them have four walls - Judge Haig (Page 399)”

ThinkingMenFeelsYearsBelieveChurchReligiousMy OwnPracticeFourLandJudgingWallMountainMassPagesWorthyNeighborClimbsBelieve In GodWeekendElderlyLawnsRakesFour WallsHaig
Book:The Jodi Picoult Collection #4: Change of Heart, Handle with Care, and House Rules
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“Imagine if you were the positive pole of a magnet, and you were told that under no circumstances were you allowed to touch that negative pole that was sucking you in like a black hole. Or if you crawled out of the desert and found a woman standing with a pitcher of ice water, but she held it out of your reach. Imagine jumping off a building, and then being told not to fall. That's what it feels like to want a drink.”

IfsWantFeelsFallFoundBlackWaterImagineBuildingCircumstancesDrinkNegativeStandingHolesIceDesertJumpingPitcherMagnetBlack HoleJumping OffIce Water
Book:Sing You Home: A Novel
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“Summertime, I think, is a collective unconscious. We all remember the notes that made up the song of the ice cream man; we all know what it feels like to brand our thighs on a playground slide that's heated up like a knife in a fire; we all have lain on our backs with our eyes closed and our hearts beating across the surface of our lids, hoping that this day will stretch just a little longer than the last one, when in fact it's all going in the other direction.”

ThinkingKnowsMenFeelsHeartLittlesMadeFactsEyeLastsRememberSongFireNotesSurfaceIceBrandsUnconsciousCollectivesThis DayKnivesCreamIce CreamSlidesThighsPlaygroundsSummertimeHeart BeatingCollective Unconscious
Author:Jodi Picoult
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“There was a fine line between love and hate you heard that cliche all the time. But no one told you that the moment you crossed it would be the one you least expected. You'd fall in love and crack open a secret door to let your soul mate in. You just never expected such closeness one day to feel like an intrusion.”

FeelsSoulMomentsWould BeHateFallLinesSecretDoorsHeardFineOne DayFalling In LoveExpectedYour SoulCracksMatesHate YouClicheSoul MateClosenessLove And HateFine LinesIntrusionSecret Doors
Book:The Jodi Picoult Collection #3: Vanishing Acts, The Tenth Circle, and Nineteen Minutes
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“What does it feel like?” he asked. “What does what feel like?” Peter thought for a moment. “Being at the top.” Josie reached across him for another packet of material and fed it into the stapler. She did three of these, and Peter was certain that she was going to ignore him, but then she spoke. “Like if you take one wrong step,” she said, “you’re going to fall.”

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Book:Nineteen Minutes: A novel
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