Gayle Forman

“I might have been eleven years old and a little socially immature, but I recognized a gauntlet being thrown down when I saw it, and I had no choice but to take it up.”

“And that's just it, isn't it? That's how we manage to survive the loss. Because love, it never dies, it never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it.”

“All I can think about is how fucked up it would be for your life to end here, now. I mean I know that your life if fucked up no matter what now, forever. And I'm not dumb enough to think that I can undo that, that anyone can. But I can't wrap my mind around the notion of you not getting old, having kids, going to Juilliard, getting to play that cello in front of a huge audience, so that they can get the chills the way I do every time I see you pick up your bow, every time I see you smile at me.”

“But I'd understand if you chose love, Adam love, over music love. Either way you win. And either way you lose. What can I tell you? Love's a bitch.”

“I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.”

“There are like twenty people in that waiting room right now. Some of them are related to you. Some of them are not. But we're all your family.'"She stops now. Leans over me so that the wisps of her hair tickle my face. She kisses me on the forehead. 'You still have a family,' she whispers.”

“She didn't care that people called her a bitch. 'It's just another word for feminist,' she told me with pride.”

“It's like the piano and the cello are being poured into my body, the same way the IV and blood transfusions are. And the memories of my life as it was, and the flashes of it as it might be, are coming so fast and furious. I feel like I can no longer keep up with them but they keep coming and everything is colliding, until I cannot take anymore. Until I cannot be like this a second longer.”

“Please Mia," he implores. "Don't make me write a song.”

“How am I supposed to decide this? How can I possibly stay without mom and dad? How can I leave without Teddy? Or Adam? This is too much. I don’t even understand how it all works, why I’m here in the state that I’m in or how to get out of it if I wanted to. If I were to say, I want to wake up, would I wake up right now? I’ve already tried snapping my heels to find Teddy and tried to beam myself to Hawaii, and that didn’t work. This seems a whole lot more complicated. But in spite of that, I believe it’s true. I hear the nurse’s words again. I am running the show. Everyone’s waiting on me. I decide. I know this now. And this terrifies me more than anything else that has happened today.”

“We are like Humpty Dumpty and all these king's horses and all these king's men cannot put us back together again”

“This is the you I like. You definitely dressed sexier and are, you know, blond, and that's different. But the you who are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the same you I'll be in love with tomorrow. I love that you're fragile and tough, quiet and kick-ass. ”

“Then I smell the sweat on him, a clean musky scent that I'd bottle and wear as perfume if I could. ”

“But I also know that sometimes Adam needs to do things the dramatic way. He is fond of the Grand Gesture”

“If you stay, I'll do whatever you want. I'll quit the band, go with you to New York. But if you need me to go away, I'll do that, too. I was talking to Liz and she said maybe coming back to your old life would be too painful, that maybe it'd be easier for you to erase us. And that would suck, but I'd do it. I can lose you like that if I don't lose you today. I'll let you go. If you stay.”

“Todo esto te lo digo por algo. Hay veinte personas en la sala de espera ahora mismo. Algunas están emparentadas contigo. Otras no. Pero ten por seguro que todas somos tu familia. Aún tienes una familia.”

“Y apuesto a que se convertirá en una persona más fuerte gracias a la pérdida de hoy. Tengo la sensación de que después de pasar por algo así, uno se vuelve más o menos invencible.”

“Todas las relaciones son difíciles. Igual que en la música, a veces tienes armonía y a veces cacofonía.”

“A veces hay que elegir en la vida, y a veces la vida te elige a ti.”

“Tranquila. Si quieres irte, no pasa nada. Todo el mundo quiere que te quedes. Y yo, más de lo que he deseado ninguna otra cosa en mi vida. Pero ése es mi deseo, y comprendo que quizá tú tengas tus motivos para querer otra cosa. Entenderé que decidas irte. No pasa nada si tienes que dejarnos y decides dejar de luchar. No te preocupes por nosotros.”

“Morir es fácil. Lo duro es vivir.”

“No estoy segura de que este mundo siga siendo mi sitio. no estoy segura de querer despertarme.”

“No te asustes. Las mujeres pueden soportar los mayores dolores. Ya lo descubrirás tú también. ¡Joder, joder!”

“Ojalá pudiera abrazarla y darle las gracias por adelantarse siempre a lo que necesito.”

“Hasta que lo sientas, fíngelo.”

“No duden de que les oye. Es consciente de todo lo que está pasando. Les parecerá que son los médicos o las enfermeras o todos esos cacharros los que llevan la batuta. Pues no. Es ella quien lleva la batuta. Quizá sólo se está tomando su tiempo. Así que hablen con ella. Díganle que se tome todo el tiempo que necesite, pero que vuelva. Que la están esperando.”

“La gente sólo cree lo que quiere creer.”

“Mi gente sabe cómo luchar contra los mejores, pero con palabras, con montones de palabras.”

“Ponte algo con lo que te sientas a gusto. Así seguro que no fallas.”

“Me gustaba tan poco pisar en falso como iniciar a tientas un nuevo movimiento. Por eso practicaba tanto, para encontrarme en terreno seguro y perfeccionar luego los detalles.”

“Pero en serio, ¿cómo se hace para dominar los nervios? No se hace nada. Simplemente te aguantas y al final se pasan.”

“D'après mon amie Kim, ai-je dit, c'est signe de profondeur d'âme. Pour elle, le monde est divisé entre les personnes qui envisagent leurs obsèques et les autres. Les artistes et les gens brillants appartiennent à la première catégorie.”

“Bribes are the glue that's kept teenagers and parents connected for generations”

“Fake it 'till you make it.”

“It's quiet now. So quiet that can almost hear other people's dreams.”

“Sleep would be so welcome. A warm blanket of black to erase everything else. Sleep without dreams. I've heard people talk about the sleep of the dead. Is that what death would feel like? The nicest, warmest, heaviest never-ending nap? If that's what it's like, I wouldn't mind. If that's what dying is like, I wouldn't mind that at all.”

“I don't really care. I shouldn't have to care. I shouldn't have to work this hard. I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.”

“Don't be scared...Women can handle the worst kind of pain. You'll find out one day.”

“Sarcasm creates a chasm between yourself and others.”