Gabrielle Zevin Quotes & Sayings

Lies can sound awfully pretty when a girl is in love with the person telling them. — Gabrielle Zevin

It's hard to believe. Where does the times go?' Betty sighs. 'I've always hated that phrase. It makes it would like time went on a holiday, and is expected back any day now. Time flies is another one I hate. Apparently, time does quite a bit of traveling, though. — Gabrielle Zevin

I love having sex with you," she says. "If you're a vegetable when this is done, can I still have sex with you? — Gabrielle Zevin

No substance," A.J. mutters. "They leave you hungry. — Gabrielle Zevin

I don't want to die," A.J. says after a bit. "I just find it difficult to be here all the time. — Gabrielle Zevin

Besides, I did not require heroism--I had been the hero of my own life for some time. — Gabrielle Zevin

Violence should not always beget more violence. — Gabrielle Zevin

No one actually needs another person or another person's love to survive. Love is when we have irrationally convinced ourselves that we do. — Gabrielle Zevin

Dance with me,' Win said. 'I know I'm probably making a fool of myself. You're probably thinking, how many times do I have to reject this guy? Can't he take a hint?' I shook my head. 'But somehow I don't even care. I see you in your red dress, standing by the punch table, and something in me wants to keep trying. I think, she is a person worth knowing. — Gabrielle Zevin

A.J. notices an Elmo doll sitting on the floor with a note attached to his matted red chest by a safety pin. He sets the baby down and picks up Elmo, a character A.J. has always despised because he seems too needy. — Gabrielle Zevin

loathe collectible books anyway. People getting all moony over particular paper carcasses. It's the ideas that matter, man. — Gabrielle Zevin

Her diaper is soiled. A.J. has never changed a diaper in his life, though he is a modestly skilled gift wrapper. Back when Nic was alive, Island used to offer free gift wrap at Christmas, and he figures that diaper changing and gift-wrapping must be related proficiencies. — Gabrielle Zevin

Is a twist less satisfying if you know it's coming? Is a twist that you can't predict symptomatic of bad construction? These are things to consider when writing. — Gabrielle Zevin

I had thought the way I felt about Will was just a room, but it had turned out to be a mansion. He had turned out to be a mansion — Gabrielle Zevin

Fuck you. I like you. I'm used to you. You are the one, you asshole. I can't meet someone new. — Gabrielle Zevin

I do not believe in God. I have no religion. But this to me is as close to a church as I have known in this life. It is a holy place. With bookstores like this, I feel confident in saying that there will be a book business for a very long time. — Gabrielle Zevin

Does it count for anything that I just told you I love you?" Gable asked.
I considered this briefly before deciding that it didn't. "Not really. Not when I know you don't mean it. — Gabrielle Zevin

Why is any one book different from any other book? They are different, A.J. decides, because they are. We have to look inside many. We have to believe. We agree to be disappointed sometimes so that we can be exhilarated every now and again. — Gabrielle Zevin

You have a thousand chances to make something right. That's a heck of a lot of chances, by the way. But they do run out eventually. — Gabrielle Zevin

And James Patterson (or whoever writes for James Patterson) - — Gabrielle Zevin

Rosie crosses her arm. "That's one of those things you say to sound smart, right?" she says. "But, really, you're trying to make someone else feel stupid. — Gabrielle Zevin

You get food from Costco. Those big muffins, maybe? My sister says they've got a thousand calories a piece. — Gabrielle Zevin

In life, Jane reflected, the most interesting things tend to happen when you're on your way to do something else. — Gabrielle Zevin

And how rare is it to find someone who shares your tastes? The one real fight they'd ever had was over David Foster Wallace. It was around the time of Wallace's suicide. A.J. had found the reverent tone of the eulogies to be insufferable. The man had written a decent (if indulgent and overlong) novel, a few modestly insightful essays, and not much else. "Infinite Jest is a masterpiece," Harvey had said. "Infinite Jest is an endurance contest. You manage to get through it and you have no choice but to say you like it. Otherwise, you have to deal with the fact that you just wasted weeks of your life," A.J. had countered. "Style, no substance, my friend." Harvey's face had reddened as he leaned over the desk. "You say that about any writer who was born in the same decade as you! — Gabrielle Zevin

There ain't nobody in the world like book people. It's a business of gentlemen and gentlewomen. — Gabrielle Zevin

Despite what I said before, it had not been a fear of infecting other people or poor health that had stopped me from going, but vanity.
It was a good lesson. — Gabrielle Zevin

I longed for Mum in the most primitive way — Gabrielle Zevin

You made quite an impression on the old man, by the way."
"You mean Uncle Yuri?"
"He said he'd marry you. If you weren't related. And if he were fifty years younger. Et cetera. Et cetera."
"That a lot of very important 'ifs', Jacks. — Gabrielle Zevin

Life is messy. Deal with it. If you're judging it, you're not really seeing it -Dr. Lau — Gabrielle Zevin

Maya, having recently made her way through The Lord of the Rings trilogy, names it Bag End. "Because it looks as if a hobbit might live here." A.J. kisses his daughter on the forehead. He is delighted to have produced such a fantastic nerd. — Gabrielle Zevin

Despite the fact that he loves books and owns a bookstore, A.J. does not particularly care for writers. He finds them to be unkempt, narcissistic, silly, and generally unpleasant people. He tries to avoid the ones who've written books he loves for fear that they will ruin their books for him. — Gabrielle Zevin

I wondered if the person who really loves you is the person who knows all your stories, the person who WANTS to know all your stories. — Gabrielle Zevin

That spring, Amelia takes Maya to the drugstore and lets her choose any polish color she likes. "How do you pick?" Maya says.
"Sometimes I ask myself how I'm feeling," Amelia says. "Sometimes I ask myself how I'd like to be feeling. — Gabrielle Zevin

Remember: you are as good as you are tomorrow. — Gabrielle Zevin

Maya has chosen to be ring bearer because the job has more responsibility than flower girl. "If you lose a flower, you get another flower," Maya reasons. "If you lose the ring, everyone is sad forever. The ring bearer has much more power."
"You sound like Gollum," A.J. says.
"Who's Gollum?" Maya wants to know.
"Someone very nerdy that your father likes," Amelia says. — Gabrielle Zevin

Life is messy," Dr. Lau was fond of saying. "Deal with it. If you're judging it, you're not really seeing it. — Gabrielle Zevin

What are you reading?" Owen asks.
"Charlotte's Web," Liz says. "It's really sad. One of the main characters just died."
"You ought to read the book from end to beginning," Owen jokes. "That way, no one dies, and it's always a happy ending. — Gabrielle Zevin

She hasn't cried once. SHe doesn't understand that Margaret is dead. At that age, they can't fully understand the concept of death. It's a good thing really.
Jane fully understood the concept of death and she felt truly injured that Aunt Bess considered her unmoved. Jane thought it should be perfectly clear to everyone that rearranging the furniture in her dollhouse was her expression of grief. She had been moving the Mother Doll (it was a nuclear family of dolls that consisted of a mother, a father, a boy, and a girl) and all the Mother Doll's possessions into the dollhouse's attic. Jane wondered why tears were considered a superior form of grief to the rearrangement of one's dollhouse.
Feeling terribly misunderstood, Jane began to cry.
Oh listen, said Aunt Bess, she begins to understand. — Gabrielle Zevin

I met a travler from an ancient land. — Gabrielle Zevin

The difficulty of living alone is that any mess he makes he is forced to clean up himself.
No, the real difficulty of living alone is that no one cares if you are upset. — Gabrielle Zevin

A life isn't measured in hours and minutes. It's the quality, not the length. — Gabrielle Zevin

Most people's problems would be solved if they would only give more things a chance. — Gabrielle Zevin

I'm meant to love you, no matter how you act, no matter what you do? I couldn't respect myself if I felt that way. — Gabrielle Zevin

THE AWARD CEREMONY is held at a high school in Hyannis. Though it's just a gymnasium (the scent of balls of both varieties is still palpable) and the ceremony hasn't started yet, everyone speaks in hushed tones, like it's church. Something important and literary is about to happen here. — Gabrielle Zevin

A good marriage is, at least, one part conspiracy. — Gabrielle Zevin

A.J. decides to call Lambiase. He suggests frozen shrimp from Costco, which A.J. now recognizes as Lambiase's default party-throwing suggestion. — Gabrielle Zevin

Someday, you may think of marrying. Pick someone who thinks you're the only person in the room. — Gabrielle Zevin

Everyone thinks they have good taste, but most people do not have good taste. In fact, I'd argue that most people have terrible taste. When left to their own devices - literally their own devices - they read crap and they don't know the difference. — Gabrielle Zevin

They had only ever discussed books but what, in this life, is more personal than books? — Gabrielle Zevin

The most annoying thing about it is that once a person gives a shit about one thing, he finds he has to start giving a shit about everything. — Gabrielle Zevin

Galina: You want to control the world and everyone in it, but you can't. Let whatever this is - and it's likely nothing - play out ...
Anya: So we do nothing?
Galina: Sometimes that's the only thing to do. — Gabrielle Zevin

The kind of people who spend their lives as permanent guests on a futon are not the kind of people you want to know. — Gabrielle Zevin

The heart is so peculiar. How light and how heavy it can feel at the same time.
How light. — Gabrielle Zevin

Lambiase is recently divorced. He had married his high school sweetheart, so it took him a long time to realize that she was not, in fact, a sweetheart or a very nice person at all. In arguments, she was fond of calling him stupid and fat. He is not stupid, by the way, though he is neither well read nor well traveled. He is not fat, though he is built like a bulldog - thick-muscled neck, short legs, broad, flat nose. A sturdy American bulldog, not an English one. Lambiase does not miss his wife, though he does miss having somewhere to go after work. — Gabrielle Zevin

Liz looks at the tissue box, which is decorated with drawings of snowmen engaged in various holiday activities. One of the snowmen is happily placing a smiling rack of gingerbread men in an oven. Baking gingerbread men, or any cooking for that matter, is probably close to suicide for a snowman, Liz thinks. Why would a snowman voluntarily engage in an activity that would in all likelihood melt him? Can snowmen even eat? Liz glares at the box. — Gabrielle Zevin

Well, for one, you have to remember not to scream. Once you have their attention, whispering is much more effective. Screaming ghosts scare people, you know — Gabrielle Zevin

I don't believe in writer's block. — Gabrielle Zevin

No Man Is An Island; Every Book Is A World. — Gabrielle Zevin

I don't like to feel so crazy about someone," he said. "I don't like to feel like my happiness is so tied up in another person. — Gabrielle Zevin

And I was crying for gravity. It had sent me down the stairs, and I'd thought that meant something, but maybe it was just the direction that all things tend to flow. — Gabrielle Zevin

Life used to move much more quickly when I was a girl. We needed to abbreviate just to keep up. — Gabrielle Zevin

Reaction speaks to the necessity of encountering stories at precisely the right time in our lives. — Gabrielle Zevin

Why do two people fall in love? It's a mystery. — Gabrielle Zevin

Incidentally, you're not a baby because you have nightmares, Natty. Something terrible happened to you when you were little, and that's why you have them. It isn't your fault."
"You never have them," she pointed out.
"No, I go around pouring spaghetti sauce over boys' heads," I said.
Natty laughed. "Good night, brave Anya. — Gabrielle Zevin

Do you like Moby Dick?" he asks.
"I hate it," she says. "And I don't say that about many things. Teachers assign it, and parents are happy because their kids are reading something of 'quality.' But it's forcing kids to read books like that that make them think they hate reading. — Gabrielle Zevin

Yes, Dad. Dad is what I am. Dad is what I became. The father of Maya. Maya's dad. Dad. What a word. What a little big word. What a word and what a world! — Gabrielle Zevin

Before I liked to write, I liked to type. I remember visiting my grandmother Adele in Ponce Inlet, Florida, when I was three years old, and she had an IBM electric typewriter. — Gabrielle Zevin

I hadn't ever felt any particular calling to be a novelist, and I clearly remember telling a friend of mine about six months before I started work on 'Elsewhere' that I would never write a novel. — Gabrielle Zevin

What were you like," I asked her. "we're you happy? Or were you smiling because they told you to? — Gabrielle Zevin

And I and him, and him and me. (I will always remember that he tasted like cigarettes and something passing sweet, which I could not quite identify.) Andiandhimandhimandme. (And so on.) — Gabrielle Zevin

People choose to read, and it takes effort. It's not one of those hobbies that asks nothing of the person who is doing it. It's more than a hobby. — Gabrielle Zevin

No, I've been doing this myself forever. I could have gone in here myself, but my daddy doesn't want me to get raped. That happens all the time in bathrooms. — Gabrielle Zevin

His eyes were blazing and I swear I could smell the testosterone coming off him. — Gabrielle Zevin

She doesn't recognize the number - none of her friends use their phones as phones anymore. — Gabrielle Zevin

Our moment had passed somehow. I was different. He was, too. Without our "madness" to unite us, there wasn't anything much there. Or maybe too much had happened in too short a time. It's like when you take a trip with someone you don't know very well. Sometimes you can get very close very quickly, but then after the trip is over, you realise all that was a false sort of closeness. An intimacy based on the trip more than the travellers, if that makes any sense. — Gabrielle Zevin

To begin, it is narrated by Death! — Gabrielle Zevin

It was funny how dad was more honest in a book that anyone in the world could pick up and read than he could be talking to me. Or maybe it was sad. One or the other. Sometimes it's hard to tell. — Gabrielle Zevin

I believe when it is convenient for me to believe. — Gabrielle Zevin

For the record, everything new is not worse than everything old. — Gabrielle Zevin

On, there are so many lives. How we wish we could live them concurrently instead of one by one by one. We could select the best pieces of each, stringing them together like a strand of pearls. But that's not how it works. A human life is a beautiful mess. — Gabrielle Zevin

No one, not even the rain has such soft hands. — Gabrielle Zevin

Babies move more than books and aren't as conveniently shaped. — Gabrielle Zevin

I don't think you can really run away from things. They tend to follow you -Anya — Gabrielle Zevin

On the board, Mr. Beery had written "Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it." I wasn't sure if this was meant to be inspirational, thematic, or a joke about making sure to study. — Gabrielle Zevin

And when she dreams, she dreams of a girl who was lost at sea but one day found the shore. — Gabrielle Zevin

he has bushy blond eyebrows and a voice that makes her think of damask. One afternoon a week or so after New Year's, Daniel and Maya are reading on the floor of the bookstore when she turns to him and says, "Uncle Daniel, I have a question. Don't you ever go to work?" "I'm working right now, Maya," Daniel says. She takes off her glasses and wipes them on her shirt. "You don't look like you're working. You look — Gabrielle Zevin

If your last words are somehow meant to encapsulate your entire existence, Liz finds um strangely appropriate. Um means nothing. Um is what you say while you're thinking of what you'll really say. Um suggests someone interrupted before they'd begun. Um is a fifteen-year-old girl who gets hit by a taxicab in front of a mall on the way to help pick out a prom dress for a prom she isn't even going to, for God's sake. — Gabrielle Zevin

In a way, publishing in 2005 was similar to publishing in 1950. Nobody kept blogs; that was still optional. I didn't even have a website then. — Gabrielle Zevin

Why are you here?" I asked him.
"That's an awfully big question, Anya."
"No, I meant here outside this office. What did you do wrong?"
"Multiple choice," he said. "(a) A few pointed comments I made in Theology. (b) Headmaster wants to have a chat with the new kid about wearing hats in school. (c) My schedule. I'm just too darn smart for my classes. (d) My eyewitness account of the girl who poured lasagna over her boyfriend's head. (e.) Headmaster's leaving her husband and wants to run away with me. (f) None of the above. (g) All of the above."
"Ex-boyfriend," I mumbled.
"Good to know," he said. — Gabrielle Zevin

She is no longer speaking. Clearly, some response is required — Gabrielle Zevin

You spend your whole life trying to get out of holes. The hole you're born into because of who your parents are. The hole you dig yourself trying to get out of that first hole. The hole your children are born into is the saddest hole of all. It occurs to her that she has spent most of her life digging herself out of or into one hole or another. And then, in the end, they just lower you into the ground anyway. She whispers a question, kind of like a prayer, if she were the praying sort, to no one in particular, How in the world do you ever get out? — Gabrielle Zevin

When dad says he's going to church, he actually means he's going to a library or a bookstore. - Gabrielle Zevin, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac. — Gabrielle Zevin

Still, Amelia had not allowed herself to be certain until dessert, when she'd asked him about the book that had had the greatest influence on his life, and he'd replied Principles of Accounting, Part II. — Gabrielle Zevin

For the record, I have long suspected that my favorite book is actually 'Charlotte's Web.' — Gabrielle Zevin

You know what they say. Cold hands. Warm heart," Yuji said. "Or is it the reverse? — Gabrielle Zevin

I myself am mixed race - my mother is Korean, and my father is an American Jew - so I've always felt other. — Gabrielle Zevin

It wasn't even 8:00 yet. Pretty early for such deep thoughts. — Gabrielle Zevin

He has read enough to know there are no collections where each story is perfect. Some hits. Some misses. If you're lucky, a standout. And in the end, people only really remember the standouts anyway, — Gabrielle Zevin

I think you can do a lot, like describing people with their physical characteristics, things like that, but to me, I've always found it to be a much more informative question to ask somebody what they read. — Gabrielle Zevin

Maya, we are what we love. We are that we love. — Gabrielle Zevin