Jennifer Niven Quotes & Sayings

I know there's more in there, probably years of shit you've been smiling away and keeping down. — Jennifer Niven

We all have a shelf life. — Jennifer Niven

Brenda is staring at Roamer and the rest of the crying herd, her eyes dry and angry. I know what she's feeling. Here are these people who called him 'freak' and never paid attention to him, except to make fun of him or spread rumors about him, and now they are carrying on like professional mourners, the ones you can hire in Taiwan or the Middle East to sing, cry, and crawl on the ground. His family is just as bad. — Jennifer Niven

She and I have gotten to be kind of friendly, and that's making me very, very happy. Like stupidly happy. Like so-happy-my-friends-can't-stand-to-be-around-me happy. — Jennifer Niven

The Slow Club is playing,a band I like,all plucky and bitter-sweet and kind of offbeat.Like Finch,I think.Like us. — Jennifer Niven

I guess you can be yourself, whatever that means-the best and worst of you. And they love you anyway. You can fight, but even when you're mad at them, you know they're not going to stop being your friend. — Jennifer Niven

We're all weird and damaged in our own way. You're not the only one. — Jennifer Niven

I learned that there is good in this world, if you look hard enough for it. I learned that not everyone is disappointing, including me, and that a 1,257-foot bump in the ground can feel higher than a bell tower if you're standing next to the right person. — Jennifer Niven

But I bring it up to let you know that this is the way I feel right now. Like Pluto and Jupiter are aligned with the earth and I'm floating. — Jennifer Niven

One year later, I grew out of my clothes because, it turns out, growing fourteen inches in a summer is easy. It's growing out of a label that's hard. Which — Jennifer Niven

A lake. A prayer. It's so lovely to be lovely in Private -Finch — Jennifer Niven

You might expect me to say "life," having just woken up and all, but it's only when I'm awake that I think about dying. — Jennifer Niven

You are all the colors in one, at full brightness. — Jennifer Niven

I looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror. Some lipstick would go with this truck, I thought. — Jennifer Niven

Let me ask you something. Do you think there's such a thing as a perfect day?"
"What?"
"A perfect day. Start to finish. When nothing terrible or sad or ordinary happens. Do you think it's possible?"
"I don't know."
"Have you ever had one?"
"No."
"I've never had one either, but I'm looking for it. — Jennifer Niven

You make me love you,
And that could be the greatest thing my heart was ever fit to do ... — Jennifer Niven

Since I stopped writing, I read more than ever. Other people's words, not my own
my words are gone. — Jennifer Niven

It is 3:38 a.m., and the time of night when my mind starts running around all wild and out of control, like my cat, George, when he was a kitten. — Jennifer Niven

My body is like a single nerve ending from head to toe. Everything feels alive and more. My heart is opening, like the heart of Rappaccini's daughter, Beatrice, when she meets young Giovanni after he wanders into her garden. As I stand there, I can almost feel it unfold, petal by petal, beat by beat. — Jennifer Niven

There was nothing to make him last a long time. — Jennifer Niven

I can already feel myself falling hard, something I've been known to do. All because she smiled at me. — Jennifer Niven

In that moment, I'm thankful I'm not a parent and I wonder if I ever will be. What a terrible feeling to love someone and not be able to help them. — Jennifer Niven

We never know how long we have. We're never guaranteed tomorrow. I could die right now, right here. — Jennifer Niven

The great thing about this life of ours is that you can be someone different to everybody. — Jennifer Niven

People like Theodore Finch don't die.He's just wandering. — Jennifer Niven

I try not feel jealous of the fact that he's been checking in with them but not me. After all, they're his family. I'm only me, the most important person in his life, for a while at least. — Jennifer Niven

Like everything else that doesn't last, today is gone now, but it was a pretty good day. — Jennifer Niven

Hope you're keeping the dust out of your eyes and your feet off the ground. — Jennifer Niven

Water is peaceful. I am at rest. In the water, I am safe and pulled in where I can't get out. Everything slows down-the noise and the racing of my thoughts. — Jennifer Niven

My mama's purpose had been to love and to be loved. — Jennifer Niven

We tread water, looking at each other, and suddenly there's not enough water in the world to clean away my dirty thoughts. She — Jennifer Niven

As tough as she is, she wants to believe in something. — Jennifer Niven

The happy times went away for a while, but they're coming back — Jennifer Niven

I close the doors and yank off my sweater, and she pulls off her shirt, and I say, "You are driving me crazy. You have been driving me crazy for weeks." My — Jennifer Niven

I should be happy, but instead I feel nothing. I feel a lot of nothing these days. I've cried a few times, but mostly I'm empty, as if whatever makes me feel and hurt and laugh and love has been surgically removed, leaving me hollowed out like a shell. — Jennifer Niven

He smiles out at the ugly trees and the ugly farmland and the ugly kids as if he can see Oz. As if he can really, truly, see the beauty that's there. — Jennifer Niven

The Parents, as my mother and father refer to Mr. Finch and Mrs. Finch, are insisting it was an accident, which, I guess, means we're free to mourn him out in the open in a normal, healthy, unstigmatised way. No need to be ashamed or embarrassed since suicide isn't involved. — Jennifer Niven

Up close like this, I can see that her skin is smooth and clear except for two freckles on her right cheek,and her eyes are gray-green that makes me think of fall.It's the eyes that get me.They are large an arresting,as if she sees everything.As warm as they are,they are busy,no-bullshit eyes,the kind that can look right into you.. — Jennifer Niven

I'm five minutes late to Russian literature, where Mrs. Mahone and her wig assign us a ten-page paper on The Brothers Karamazov. — Jennifer Niven

You are a survivor, and as that unwelcome designation implies, your survival - your emotional survival - will depend on how well you learn to cope with your tragedy. The bad new: Surviving this will be the second worst experience of your life. The good news: The worst is already over. — Jennifer Niven

Across the seat our eyes are holding hands. — Jennifer Niven

He says, " 'Lovely' is a lovely word that should be used more often. — Jennifer Niven

You make me happy...
You make me special...
You make me lovely... — Jennifer Niven

elegance and euphoria — Jennifer Niven

He is angry at the world outside this house, and that makes me love him even more. — Jennifer Niven

The future is uncertain, but that can be a good thing. — Jennifer Niven

Maybe. Maybe not. Whether it's filler or not, I'm pretty glad to be here." If there's anything I've learned, it's that you need to make the most of it. "It mattered enough for you not to jump. — Jennifer Niven

I love the world that is my room. It's nicer in here than out there, because in here I'm whatever I want to be ... I am fearless. I am free. I am safe. — Jennifer Niven

He writes Before I die I want to and draws a line. He writes it again. Then he writes it a dozen more times. After we fill these up, we can keep going on the front of the building and down the other side. It's a good way to figure out just why we're here. — Jennifer Niven

Or we can make out. — Jennifer Niven

Don't you want to know where I'd go if I could?" Not really, I think. "Where would you go if you could go anywhere?" It comes out bitchier than I mean for it to. He leans forward over the handlebars, eyes on me. "I'd go to Hoosier Hill with a beautiful girl." A — Jennifer Niven

Over my desk, I've got this enormous bulletin board, and on it I've tacked black-and-white photographs of writers at work. — Jennifer Niven

I'm broken, and no one can fix it. I've tried. I'm still trying. I can't love anyone because it's not fair to anyone who loves me back. I'll never hurt you ... But I can't promise I won't pick you apart, piece by piece, until you're in a thousand pieces just like me. — Jennifer Niven

The problem with people is they forget that most of the time it's the small things that count. — Jennifer Niven

There was nothing to make him last. — Jennifer Niven

But come to think of it, after a lifetime of feeling too much, maybe there's actually something to be said for fast and sudden. — Jennifer Niven

Apparently, I'm tragic and dangerous. — Jennifer Niven

Sometimes, Ultraviolet, things feel true to us even if they're not. — Jennifer Niven

You deserve better. I can't promise you I'll stay around, not because I don't want to. It's hard to explain. I'm a fuckup. I'm broken, and no one can fix it. I've tried. I'm still trying. I can't love anyone because it's not fair to anyone who loves me back. I'll never hurt you, not like I want to hurt Roamer. But I can't promise I won't pick you apart, piece by piece, until you're in a thousand pieces, just like me. You should know what you're getting into before getting involved. — Jennifer Niven

This is the single loveliest thing anyone's ever done for me. It's movie lovely. It feels somehow epic and fragile, and I wand the night to last forever, and knowing it can't already has me sad. — Jennifer Niven

Like most people in the Midwest, Embryo doesn't believe in humor, especially when it pertains to sensitive subjects. — Jennifer Niven

It's about the important things, like the way their face lights up when they laugh, or the way they move as they're walking towards you, or the way their freckles create a map of the stars. — Jennifer Niven

If you're not careful, you're going to run into someone angrier than you. — Jennifer Niven

Before I die I want to . — Jennifer Niven

When it's my turn, I introduce myself as Josh Raymond, seventeen, no previous experience beyond my recent halfhearted experiment with sleeping pills. "The Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect is life," I add, even though no one knows what this means — Jennifer Niven

I thought: Just one step. One step at a time. You don't have to do them all at once. — Jennifer Niven

But it was a damn good smile. A genuine one, which is hard to come by these days." -Finch — Jennifer Niven

So what makes you angry?'
'Stupid people. Fake people. Mean people. Death. I worry about dying all the time. Like, all the time. — Jennifer Niven

I prayed maybe he hadn't seen me after all, that maybe he'd taken off after a sinner or a squirrel, instead. — Jennifer Niven

Better to keep the unhappy, mad, bad, unpleasant words separate, where you can watch them and make sure they don't surprise you when you're not expecting them — Jennifer Niven

Dear friend, You are not a freak. You are wanted. You are necessary. You are the only you there is. Don't be afraid to leave the castle. It's a great big world out there. Love, a fellow reader — Jennifer Niven

People either see me or they don't. — Jennifer Niven

You know what I like about you, Finch? You're interesting. You're different. And I can talk to you. Don't let that go to your head."
... "You know what I like about you, Ultraviolet Remarkey-able? Everything. — Jennifer Niven

The only way around it is to stay with one guy forever. But does forever have a built-in ending ... ? — Jennifer Niven

I can feel the apology in his fingers, and this takes the wind out of me, so I lean into him - just a little - and read over his shoulder. His hand is warm and I don't want to stop holding it. We — Jennifer Niven

I thought I could wait, but I can't. Sorry. — Jennifer Niven

Written on the wall behind them was: 'Blues for the body, food for the soul. — Jennifer Niven

'suicide victim' is an interesting term. The victim part of it implies they had no choice. And maybe Finch didn't feel like he had a choice ... — Jennifer Niven

I love the world that is my room. — Jennifer Niven

My father not only broke her heart, he pretty much shat all over her pride and self-worth. — Jennifer Niven

Besides, I kind of like my face intact like this, two eyes, one nose, one mouth, a full set of teeth, which, if I'm being honest, is one of my better features. — Jennifer Niven

I have songs to write and songs to sing and planes to fly and I want to see my old yellow truck again. — Jennifer Niven

If there was one thing I'd learned, it was that you were responsible for your own ship. You had to look after the engine and make sure the plane was in order and ready to be flown. You were in charge of plotting your course. When you were in the pilot's seat, it was your hand on the throttle, no one else's. If your oil ran out or you lost your engine or the engine caught fire and you had to crash, you were the one saving yourself. No one else could do it for you. — Jennifer Niven

I think what an amazing world this would be if we all danced everywhere we went. — Jennifer Niven

And then, because I'm now the one thinking too much, and because she is different from all other girls and because I really, really don't want to screw this up, I concentrate on kissing her on the banks of the Blue Hole, in the sunshine, and I let that be enough. — Jennifer Niven

He leans forward over the handlebars, eyes on me. I'd go to Hoosier Hill with a beautiful girl. — Jennifer Niven

If that blue could stay for ever; if that hole could remain for ever. There was nothing to make him last. — Jennifer Niven

I hate you.
If only I'd known.
If only I'd been enough .
I let you down.
I wish I could have done something.
I should have done something.
Was it my fault?
Why wasn't I enough?
Come back.
I love you.
I'm sorry. — Jennifer Niven

Because you smiled at me." "What?" "You asked why I wanted to do this with you. It's not because you were up on the ledge too, even though, okay, that's part of it. It's not because I feel this weird responsibility to keep an eye on you, which is also part of it. It's because you smiled at me that day in class. A real smile, not the bullshit one I see you give everyone all the time where your eyes are doing one thing and your mouth is doing another." "It was just a smile." "Maybe to you. — Jennifer Niven

And then I go up to my room, climb onto a chair, and contemplate the mechanics of hanging. — Jennifer Niven

You make me lovely, and it's so lovely to be lovely to the one I love. ... — Jennifer Niven

For a minute, I can feel it: the sense of peace as my mind goes quiet, like I'm already dead. I am weightless and free. Nothing and no one to fear, not even myself. — Jennifer Niven

You are not alone." Before I can tell him, Actually I am, which is part of the problem; we are all alone, trapped in these bodies and our own minds, and whatever company we have in this life is only fleeting and superficial, he tightens his grip until I worry my arm will snap off. "And we are not done discussing this. — Jennifer Niven

And in that moment there's nothing I fear except losing hold of her hand. — Jennifer Niven

Just be careful with that heart of yours. — Jennifer Niven

As she rattles on, about Violet, about Gemma Sterling, about the Bartlett Dirt, I don't say anything else. I suddenly don't want Bren or Charlie to talk about Violet, because I want to keep her to myself, like the Christmas I was eight - back when Christmases were still good - and got my first guitar, which I named No Trespassing, as in no one could touch it but me. — Jennifer Niven

Every forty seconds, someone is left behind to cope with the loss. — Jennifer Niven

Guys like Ryan Cross have a way of reminding you who you are, even when you don't want to remember. — Jennifer Niven

I am broken. I am fraud. I am impossible to love. — Jennifer Niven

But he's kind of ... extreme. Like he came to school one day painted head-to-toe red, and it wasn't even Spirit Week. He told some people that he was protesting racism and others he was protesting the consumption of meat. Junior year he wore a cape every day for an entire month, cracked a chalkboard in half with a desk, and stole all the dissecting frogs from the science wing and gave them a funeral before burying them in the baseball field. — Jennifer Niven