Quotessence
Home / Authors / John Green
John Green

John Green Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleRealJohn GreenKnowsSaidIfsThinkingWayHipsterWorldHazel GraceWantTownsFeelsLifeAlaskaPersonsBookLooking For Alaska BookAugustus

Famous John Green Quotes

“You matter as much as the things that matter to you. And I got so backwards trying to matter to him. All this time, there were real things to care about: real, good people who care about me, and this place. It's so easy to get stuck. You just get caught in being something, being special or cool or whatever, to the point where you don't even know why you need it; you just think you do.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsLifeNeedsTryingRealMatterCareEasySpecialCaughtStuckAbundanceGood PeopleBackwardsWho CaresReal ThingsThings That MatterEasy To GetBeing Special
Author:John Green
Create image

“I'm sitting her thinking, -God, I swear I will take a vow of silence and move to a monastery and worship you for all my days if you just this once provide me with an invisibility cloak, come on, come on, please please invisibility cloak now now now-. It's very possible that Jane is thinking the same thing, I have no idea, because she's not talking either, and I can't look at her on account of how I'm blinded by embarrassment.”

IfsThinkingLooksI CanIdeasMovingSilenceTalkingPleaseWorshipSittingAccountsNo IdeaSwearJaneVowEmbarrassmentNot TalkingBlindedCloaksInvisibilityMonasteriesThinking GodWorship YouThinking The SameInvisibility CloakVow Of Silence
Author:John Green
Create image

“There was quite a lot of competitiveness about it, with everybody wanting to beat not only cancer itself, but also the other people in the room. Like, I realize that this is irrational, but when they tell you that you have, say, a 20 percent chance of living five years, the math kicks in and you figure that’s one in five . . . so you look around and think, as any healthy person would: I gotta outlast four of these bastards.”

PeopleThinkingYearsLooksPersonsRealRealizingChanceRoomsFiveFourFiguresHealthyBeatsPercentCancerMathKicksFive YearsIrrationalCompetitivenessHealthy Person
Book:Looking for Alaska
Create image

“I couldn’t help but think about school and everything else ending. I liked standing just outside the couches and watching them—it was a kind of sad I didn’t mind, and so I just listened, letting all the happiness and the sadness of this ending swirl around in me, each sharpening the other. For the longest time, it felt kind of like my chest was cracking open, but not precisely in an unpleasant way.”

ThinkingWayMindKindRealHelpingSchoolFeltSadnessStandingChestsCouchesSwirlsSharpening
Book:Paper Towns
Create image

“Without pain, how could we know joy?' This is an old argument in the field of thinking about suffering and its stupidity and lack of sophistication could be plumbed for centuries but suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not, in any way, affect the taste of chocolate.”

ThinkingKnowsWayDoePainJoySufferingInspiringExistenceCenturyFieldsTasteArgumentStupidityChocolateSophisticationWithout PainBroccoli
Book:The Fault in Our Stars
Create image

“I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is inprobably biased toward the consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed. And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it-or my observation of it-is temporary?”

ThinkingWantBelieveUniverseI BelieveEnjoyConsciousnessMiddleRewardsObservationTemporaryEleganceBiasedFault In Our Stars
Book:The Fault in Our Stars
Create image

“No, I don’t think you’re gonna be single forever, and also I don’t understand your obsession with romantic love. There are other ways to have fulfilling relationships that can sustain you and make your life great and fun other than having a sexualized relationship. It’s not the only kind of fulfilling human interaction. So, even if you are single forever, that doesn’t mean that you’ve had some kind of failed life.”

IfsThinkingWayHumansKindMeanFunForeverObsessionInteractionRomantic LoveFulfilling
Author:John Green
Create image

“Augustus Waters," I said, looking up at him, thinking that you cannot kiss anyone in the Anne Frank House, and then thinking that Anne Frank, after all, kissed someone in the Anne Frank House, and that she would probably like nothing more than for her home to have become a place where the young and irreparably broken sink into love.”

ThinkingSaidRealHomeYoungHouseWaterBrokenKissingFrankAugustusAugustus Waters
Book:The Fault in Our Stars
Create image

“Like, in general I think people have very complicated reasons for wanting things, and we often have no idea whether we’re actually motivated by altruism or a desire to hook up or a search for answers or what. I always get annoyed when in books or movies characters want clear things for clear reasons, because my experience of humanness is that I always want messy things for messy reasons.”

PeopleThinkingWantBookIdeasReasonCharacterDesireAnswersClearComplicatedNo IdeaMotivatedAltruismHookMessyAnnoyedHumannessHook UpHumanness Is
Author:John Green
Create image

“To find Margo Roth Spiegelman, you must become Margo Roth Spiegelman. And I had done many of the things she might have done: I had engineered a most unlikely prom coupling. I had quieted the hounds of caste warfare. I had come to feel comfortable inside the rat-infested haunted house where she did her best thinking. I had seen. I had listened. But I could not yet become the wounded person.”

ThinkingFeelsPersonsDoneMightHouseComfortableWarfareWoundedRatsUnlikelyCastesPromHoundsHaunted HousesMargo Roth SpiegelmanCoupling
Book:Paper Towns
Create image

“Augustus: “You probably need some rest.” Me: “I’m okay.” Augustus: “Okay.” (Pause.) “What are you thinking about?” Me: “You.” Augustus: “What about me?” Me: “‘I do not know which to prefer, / The beauty of inflections / Or the beauty of innuendos, / The blackbird whistling / Or just after.’” Augustus: “God, you are sexy.” Me: “We could go to your room.” Augustus: “I’ve heard worse ideas.”

ThinkingKnowsNeedsIdeasRoomsHeardOkaySexyPausesYour RoomWhistlingInnuendoAugustusBlackbirds
Book:The Fault in Our Stars
Create image

“She did not need to fold into herself and self-destruct. Those awful things are survivable, because we are as indestructible as we believe ourselves to be. When adults say, "Teenagers think the hate invincible," with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken.”

ThinkingKnowsNeedsBelieveSelfFacesHateKnow HowStupidBrokenAdultsAwfulTeenagerHopelessFoldsInvincibleIndestructibleSlySelf DestructLooking For Alaska BookLabyrinth Looking For AlaskaPudge
Author:John Green
Create image

“I like the strings. I always have. Because that's how it feels. But the strings make pain seem more fatal than it is, I think. We're not as frail as the strings would make us believe. And I like the grass, too. The grass got me to you, helped me to imagine you as an actual person. But we're not different sprouts from the same plant. I can't be you. You can't be me. You can imagine another well – but never quite perfectly, you know?”

ThinkingKnowsFeelsBelieveWellsPersonsI CanDifferentSeemsPainImaginePlantGrassStringsBe YouFrailSprouts
Book:Paper Towns
Create image

“Getting a life’ is something only a complete idiot could believe. Like you can just drive to a store and get a life. See it in its shiny box and look inside the plastic window and catch a glimpse of yourself in a new life and say, ‘Wow, I look much happier — I think this is the life I need to get!’, take it to the counter, ring it up, put it on your credit card. If getting a life was that easy, we’d be one blissed-out race.”

IfsThinkingNeedsBelieveLooksLife IsEasyRaceLike YouWindowBoxesCreditStoresRingsCardsIdiotWowPlasticNew LifeGlimpseCredit Card
Book:Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Create image

“There is always the risk: something is good and good and good and good, and then all at once it gets awkward. All at once, she sees you looking at her, and then she doesn't want to joke around with you anymore, because she doesn't want to seem flirty, because she doesn't want you to think she likes you. It's such a disaster, whenever, in the course of human relationships, someone begins to chisel away at the wall of separation between friendship and kissing.”

ThinkingWantHumansSeemsCoursesRiskWallKissingJokesSeparationDisasterLikesAwkwardHuman RelationshipsFlirtyChisels
Book:Let It Snow: Three Holiday Stories
Create image

“I was so tired of her getting upset for no reason. The way she would get sulky and make references to the freaking oppressive nature of tragedy or whatever but then never said what was wrong, never have any goddamned reason to be sad. And I just think you ought to have a reason. My girlfriend dumped me, so I'm sad. I got caught smoking, so I'm pissed off. My head hurts, so I'm cranky. She never had a reason, Pudge. I was just so tired of putting up with her drama. And I just let her go. Christ.”

ThinkingWaySaidReasonChristHurtOughtDramaTragedyTiredCaughtUpsetGirlfriendSmokingNo ReasonMy GirlfriendPissed OffDumpedCrankyI'm SadLet Her GoPudgeSulky
Author:John Green
Create image