Home > Author > Jennifer Donnelly
1 " Well, it seems to me that there are books that tell stories, and then there are books that tell truths... The first kind, they show you life like you want it to be. With villains getting what they deserve and the hero seeing what a fool he's been and marrying the heroine and happy endings and all that... But the second kind, they show you life more like it is... The first kind makes you cheerful and contented, but the second kind shakes you up. "
― Jennifer Donnelly , A Northern Light
2 " DNA tells you all the secrets of life,’ he used to say. Except for one—how to live it. "
― Jennifer Donnelly
3 " Only the hopeless love God. "
― Jennifer Donnelly , Revolution
4 " God loves us, but the devil takes an interest. "
5 " I think your vision gets better as you get older. "
6 " There were times when I lifted my face to the sky, stretched my arms wide to the winter night, and laughed out loud, so happy was I.The memory of it makes me laugh now, but not from happiness.Be careful what you show the world.You never know when the wolf is watching. "
7 " The greenest of pastures are right here on earth. "
8 " And then I remember this morning and I wonder if it really happened or if I dreamed it. It was nice. And weird. And tender. I'm not used to tender. It's a fossil, that word. Conditions changed and it died out. Like the woolly mammoth. It just couldn't live in the same world as dick box. Ho dog. Or wiener cousins. "
9 " I don't like hope very much. In fact, I hate it. It's the crystal meth of emotions. It hooks you fast and kills you hard. It's bad news. The worst. It's sharp sticks and cherry bombs. When hope shows up, it's only a matter of time until someone gets hurt. "
10 " Hope is the crystal meth of emotions. It hooks you fast and kills you hard. "
11 " We all make mistakes, the danger lies in letting those mistakes make us. Make us believe we can't put things right. Make us think there's no hope. Make us give up. "
― Jennifer Donnelly , Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book
12 " I'm wishing he could see that music lives. Forever. That it's stronger than death. Stronger than time. And that its strength holds you together when nothing else can. "
13 " You can't argue with the dead, no matter what you say, they always have the last word. "
14 " And I knew in my bones that Emily Dickinson wouldn't have written even one poem if she'd had two howling babies, a husband bent on jamming another one into her, a house to run, a garden to tend, three cows to milk, twenty chickens to feed, and four hired hands to cook for. I knew then why they didn't marry. Emily and Jane and Louisa. I knew and it scared me. I also knew what being lonely was and I didn't want to be lonely my whole life. I didn't want to give up on my words. I didn't want to choose one over the other. Mark Twain didn't have to. Charles Dickens didn't. "
15 " A new word. Bright with possibilities. A flawless pearl to turn over and over in my hand, then put away for safekeeping. "
16 " ...Listen to your own thoughts and feelings very carefully, be aware of your observations, and learn to value them. When you're a teenager—and even when you're older—lots of people will try to tell you what to think and feel. Try to stand still inside all of that and hear your own voice. It's yours and only yours, it's unique and worth of your attention, and if you cultivate it properly, it might just make you a writer. "
17 " When you can write music that endures, bravo. Until then, keep quiet and study the work of those who can. "
18 " You, on the other hand, wish to know things. And no one can forgive a girl for that. "
― Jennifer Donnelly , These Shallow Graves
19 " He who cannot endure the bad will not live to see the good. "
― Jennifer Donnelly , The Winter Rose (The Tea Rose, #2)
20 " An escape can become escapism before we even know it. Books are wonderful things, but you can't live in someone else's story. You have to live your own story. "
