Home > Author > Janelle Brown
41 " EVERY CRIMINAL HAS AN M.O. and this is mine: I watch and I wait. (...) And then, when the opportunity arises, I take. "
― Janelle Brown , Pretty Things
42 " My world was my mother, her body the only home I’d ever known. It was the one place where I always belonged, in a world in which everything else was permanently in flux; where “friends” were girls you left behind, a name on a spindled pen pal postcard. "
43 " I was alone most of the time, but I didn’t mind: Friends were an afterthought for me, they always had been. "
44 " Think about what a miracle it is that we’re all working in concert with one another. Every day humans get a fresh chance to decide whether we’re going to destroy each other or build a better world, and you know what? For the most part, we do the latter. "
― Janelle Brown , Watch Me Disappear
45 " Why do adults think that every problem can be fixed by sending you to talk to a more qualified adult. ... It's like a game of Hot Potato: Whenever you have an idea or emotion that doesn't fit comfortably into the box that the world has built for you, everyone goes into a frenzy trying to find an expert who can convince you to climb back inside. "
46 " You spend all this time with "
47 " because I know too many of her secrets.” “Secrets?” He laughed at this, imagining internecine Claremont Mom drama from which he’d been thankfully excluded. “Anyway. I’m sure that’s not true. You’re her best friend.” “You know what Billie’s like,” she continued, a flush stealing up her cheeks. “You spend all this time with her, talking, and you feel like you’re getting in there; and then when you walk away, you realize she hasn’t told you anything real about herself at all. She’s mostly just reflected you back at yourself. What you most want to see. "
48 " a story in its entirety, but to tell an inevitably abbreviated version in the most interesting way one could. Giving shape and direction to something otherwise formless and elastic. Cause and effect. Action and reaction. Lede and kicker. "
49 " Life is more complicated than that, there are endless shades of gray that comprise a human being. "
50 " It is, for one thing, a clear sunny day, which is no small piece of luck when you’re on a Northern California beach in October. The sand is actually warm between their toes, instead of dank and gritty; but the air also has the crisp autumnal bite that makes you want to wrap yourself in something soft. No one acts crabby, or restless, or bored. Billie has packed some particularly delicious sandwiches—pesto chicken for the adults, hummus for Olive (who has recently gone vegetarian)—and they wash these down with tepid cocoa from a thermos "
51 " I believed that divorce was for cowards who used their partner’s failings as an excuse to avoid looking too closely in the mirror. "
52 " It’s as if her mom is always just offstage, about to enter, but keeps missing her cue. "
53 " You were not the typical kid,” Jonathan says. Billie laughs at this and tips her head backward over Jonathan’s knees to smile at him. There’s sand speckling her cheekbones, stuck in the delicate lines around her eyes, and he gently wipes it away. “Anyway, Olive is tougher than you’re giving her credit for. "
54 " You grow predictable, your quirks no longer interesting but expected. Like a board game that you've played too many times to truly enjoy, a favorite movie that you don't feel compelled to watch all the way though anymore. You're comforted by your spouse's presence; yes, you still love them; but you are no longer thrilled by them, not in the way you once were. You are no longer surprised. "
55 " Do you like things the way they are? Because if you do, by all means, carry on. But if you don’t, nothing’s going to change until you decide to make it change. "
56 " That grief isn’t something you can walk away from after a finite amount of time, but is something that washes you along, tumbling you in and out with the tides?) "
57 " After Billie died, I spent a long time idealizing her. That’s what you do when someone’s gone. You remember only the best parts of them. You reassemble your memories to forget all their flaws, all the fights you had, the things about them that you really kind of hated. It makes your grief feel more powerful to forget how human they were and how human you were with them. Maybe it even assuages your guilt to forget all the dysfunctional parts of your relationship and all the pointless, petty grievances you held against them. "
58 " In life the world is tough on soft things. She’s going to need to grow a thicker skin or she’s going to spend her whole life being too afraid to try anything "
59 " Only someone fearful of his own ordinariness would buy, so unquestioningly, someone else’s extraordinariness. "
60 " Find your own thing. Don’t just do what everyone expects you to do. Remember: You have the right to become whoever you want to be. Don’t worry about what other people might think…because you will be exceptional, Olive. But "