Quotessence
Home / Authors / Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsKnowsThinkingPeopleWantWayPersonsWorldFeelsChildrenBelieveLooksMy Sister's KeeperStillsSometimesLoveHeartFirstsDifferentMother

Famous Jodi Picoult Quotes

“He began to trace a pattern on the table with the nail of his thumb. "She kept saying she wanted to keep things exactly the way they were, and that she wished she could stop everything from changing. She got really nervous, like, talking about the future. She once told me that she could see herself now, and she could also see the kind of life she wanted to have - kids, husband, suburbs, you know - but she couldn't figure out how to get from point A to point B.”

KnowsWayKindKidsWantedTalkingFiguresHusbandTablesPatternsNervousNailsThumbsSuburbs
Author:Jodi Picoult
Create image

“How could he convey to someone who'd never even met her the way she always smelled like rain, or how his stomach knotted up every time he saw her shake loose her hair from its braid? How could he describe how it felt when she finished his sentences, turnec the mug they were sharing so that her mouth landed where his had been? How did he explain the way they could be in a locker room, or underwater, or in the piney woods of Maine, bus as long as Em was with him, he was at home?”

WayLongHomeFeltRoomsSawsHairMetsMouthsRainWoodsSentencesFinishedShakesEmsStomachBusLockersMaineUnderwaterLocker RoomMugBraids
Author:Jodi Picoult
Create image

“Nobody wants to admit to this, but bad things will keep on happening. Maybe that's beause it's all a chain, and a long time ago someone did the first bad thing, and that led someone else to do another bad thing, and so on. You know, like that game where you whisper a sentence into someone's ear, and that person whispers it to someone else, and it all comes out wrong in the end. But then again, maybe bad things happen because it's the only way we can keep remembering what good is supposed to look like.”

KnowsWayWantFirstsLooksPersonsLongEndsHappensRememberGamesLong TimeHappeningsEarsSentencesThings HappenChainsBad ThingsLong Time AgoBad Things Happen
Author:Jodi Picoult
Create image

“Suddenly I realize that this is what I've been waiting for - a man who depends entirely on me... I dreamed for years of a man who couldn't live without me, a man who pictured my face when he closed his eyes, who loved me when I was a mess in the morning and when dinner was late and even when I overloaded the washing machine and burned out the motor. [My son] stares up at me as if I can do no wrong. I have always wanted someone who treats me the way he does; I just didn't know that I'd have to give birth to him.”

IfsKnowsMenWayGivingYearsDoeI CanEyeWantedFacesWaitingCan DoRealizingMorningSonDependsBirthLateMachinesTreatsDinnerMessStaringHis EyesMy SonBurnedMotorWashingBurned OutWashing MachinesOverloadedWanted Someone
Author:Jodi Picoult
Create image

“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
Create image

“I suddenly remember being very little and being embraced by my father. I would try to put my arms around my father's waist, hug him back. I could never reach the whole way around the equator of his body; he was that much larger than life. Then one day, I could do it. I held him, instead of him holding me, and all I wanted at that moment was to have it back the other way.”

WayTryingLittlesWholeMomentsBodyWantedRememberFatherArmsDadOne DayThat MomentHugLarger Than LifeEquator
Author:Jodi Picoult
Create image

“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.”

WayFeelsUseMightPainSecretSecurityLetting GoHeartbreakStonesEmptyRageBlanketSleevesKnotsAcesSwelling
Author:Jodi Picoult
Create image

“On a really dark night, you can see between 1,000 and 1,500 stars, and there are millions more that haven't been discovered. It is so easy to think that the world revolves around you, but all you have to do is stare up at the sky to realize it isn't that way at all. -Brian Fitzgerald”

ThinkingWorldWayNightStarsEasyRealizingDarkMillionsSkyHavensStaringBrianDark Night
Book:My Sister's Keeper - Movie Tie-In: A Novel
Create image

“You know what I noticed when I was with Jacob? In your world, people can reach each other in an instant. There's the telephone, and the fax - and on the computer you can talk to someone all the way around the world. You've got people telling their secrets on TV talk shows, and magazines that publish pictures of movie stars trying to hide their homes. All those connections, but everyone there seems so lonely.”

PeopleKnowsWorldWayTryingShowsHomeSeemsStarsSecretTvsComputerLonelyConnectionsMagazinesAround The WorldInstantTelephonesMovie StarPublishJacobTalk ShowsSo LonelyFax
Book:Plain Truth
Create image

“Maybe you expected marriage to be perfect - I guess that's where you and I are different. See, I thought it would be all about making mistakes, but doing it with someone who's there to remind you what you learned along the way.”

WayDifferentWould BePerfectMistakeExpectedMaking Mistakes
Book:The Jodi Picoult Collection #4: Change of Heart, Handle with Care, and House Rules
Create image

“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
Book:Handle with Care: A Novel
Create image

“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
Create image

“I learned a lot that night. For example, that part of being the magician's assistant means coming face-to-face with illusion. That invisibility is really just knotting your body in a certain way and letting the black curtain fall over you. That people don't vanish into thin air; that when you can't find someone, it's because you've been misdirected to look elsewhere.”

PeopleWayLooksMeanBodyFacesNightCertainFallBlackAirExampleIllusionYour BodyOver YouElsewhereCurtainsMagicianFace To FaceAssistantsInvisibilityThin Air
Book:Vanishing Acts
Create image

“I think a persons life is supposed to be like a DVD. You can see the version everyone else sees, or you can choose the directors cut-the way he wanted you to see it, before everything else got in the way. There are menus, probably, so that you can start at the good spots and not have to relive the bad ones. You can measure your life by the number of scenes you’ve survived, or the minutes you’ve been stuck there. Probably, though, life is more like one of those dumb video surveillance tapes. Grainy, no matter how hard you stare at it. And looped: the same thing, over and over.”

ThinkingWayPersonsMatterHardWantedLife IsNumbersCuttingMinutesSceneDirectorsStuckVideoVersionsSpotsSupposed To BeDumbStaringTapeSurvivedSurveillanceDvdsMenus
Author:Jodi Picoult
Create image

“Once, I asked my mom why stars shine. She said they were night-lights, so the angels could find their way around in Heaven. But when I asked my dad, he started talking about gas, and somehow I put it all together and figured that the food God served caused multiple trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night.”

WaySaidLightTogetherNightHeavenStarsTalkingMiddleMomDadAngelShiningMy DadMy MomGasMultipleBathroomMiddle Of The NightNight Light
Book:My Sister's Keeper - Movie Tie-In: A Novel
Create image

“Shelby believed that love was like a solar eclipse - breathtakingly beautiful, absorbing, and capable of rendering you blind. She had not necessarily gone out of her way to avoid a relationship, but she hadn't wanted on either. It was called falling in love for a reason - because, inevitably, you crashed at the bottom.”

WayReasonWantedBeautifulFallGoneCapableBlindFalling In LoveBottomAbsorbingEclipseRenderingSolar Eclipse
Book:Second Glance
Create image