Jodi Lynn Anderson Quotes & Sayings

You think you know that someone sees you one way, and barely at all, and then you realize that they see you in another. That was the night I realized (She) had seen- really seen- me all along. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I don't know when Tiger Lily stopped growing older; I can't pinpoint that moment. But I do know I never saw her visibly age beyond the days when she was with Peter. I like to think her growing stopped the day they were on the plateau, watching the horses. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I'm nothing to you, am I' Peter said once in a particularly intense arguement about where to find wild turnips. To these kinds of accusations, Tiger Lily would reply that he was trying to make her into his little chicken, and that she would never be anyone's 'little obedient chicken — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I think that's what you say when you can't have something you want, isn't it? You say you don't want it in the first place. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Tiger Lily, you know Moon Eye isn't for me."
"She is," Tiger Lily said.
"She's like me. They're two different things. You're ... " He swallowed. "You're everything to me. You know that. Don't pretend that you don't. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I think the rest of the world is not as cold and lonely a place as you think. At least I have to hope. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

It made her think about how she couldn't believe how big the universe was, but how small it was for her. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

As they grew sloppier and less alert, the twins argued too loudly about whether Tiger Lily was ugly or beautiful, and finally agreed that she was "ugly beautiful".
Tiger Lily pretended she hadn't heard, but her heart slowed to absorb the blow. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

It's the injustice that I hate, more than anything," he'd said to Smee one night, his eyes red and glassy, slurring his words, his head lolling as he tried to focus. He'd vomited, and then promptly passed out on a bush. "I hate the world that does not work out fair. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

When they made up, it was as if nothing had happened at all. In fact, it was like they were stuck even closer together, like they had gotten even more tangled in each other. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

But men don't want women who are brave. They want women who make them feel like men. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Because I think people must be the same everywhere. Only these people are in my bones. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Forget him. Forget him. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Friends, she had realized, could make you do that. Forget the things that worried you most. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I began to see that Wendy had something Tiger Lily hadn't even known she was supposed to have. Of all the things Tiger Lily had thought she might have to be for Peter-strong, brave; to be big and to keep up-she had never thought that the one thing he wanted most from her was simply to show that she believed in him, always and without fail. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

It turned out that my curiosity did not outweigh my courage after all. Sometimes love means not being able to bear seeing the one you love the way they are, when they're not what you hoped for. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

If you have reasons for not coming back, I don't want to know them. I just want you to come back anyway. Ignorance, see? — Jodi Lynn Anderson

You're the main character of your life," Jacie said. "You're too important to die. That's how everybody feels. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

We don't know where Millie went, and we don't know if we'll see her again, but there's no reason not to hope. We don't know the answers, and maybe that's a nice thing. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Wendy's heart beat for Peter immediately-there was no slow growing, no dark distrustfulness like Tiger Lily had had, no hesitation. Wendy didn't believe in situations she couldn't bend to fit her, so there was no need to be distrustful. She had the blissful confidence of someone who had never been put in a pot of turkey broth to die. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Manatees are real, mermaids aren't. Rhinoceroses exist and sea monsters don't. There are no more sea serpents guarding deadly whirlpools. There are pirates, yes, but there is nothing romantic about them. The rest is all stories, and stories have been put in their place. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Don't forget about the stardust. Don't forget about the quartz rocks in the woods. You are small. But you are also so much more. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

She said she thought there were different ways of loving someone, and there were some she used to think were the most important, and now she had changed her mind. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

With her mother, Leeda acted a lot. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn't seem broken at all. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Things hurt, and don't hurt, and hurt again. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

If there was a true moment that Tiger Lily fell so in love with Peter she could never turn back, it was that night, when he shivered and walked and told her he was warm, and told her he loved her so much. She was fierce, to be sure, but she had a girl's heart, after all. As she walked home that night, she was shaking from the largeness of it. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

When Peter made mistakes, Wendy cheered for him anyway. One afternoon he beat her and everyone else in a race organized by Slightly. She only laughed and squeezed his wrist with easy affection and told him how fast he was. She was so undeterred by losing that it made the boys wonder if winning was exactly what they'd thought it was or if in England it was different. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

This is no place for anyone with a heart. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Loyalty was a funny thing. So was love. They both bit you when you least expected it. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Look," Peter said.
To the north was a series of vast grassy plains, and there, just looking like specks at first, was a herd of horses, a species that in Neverland had never been tamed. They were beautiful, flashes of brown and black and tan, their coats gleaming. There was no reason for them to be running that Tiger Lily could see. It was likely that they just loved to run.
"That's what I want my life to be," Peter said, staring down at the horses.
Tiger Lily sank against him and watched the herd, and thought that was what she wanted too. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Because watching him love Tiger Lily was better than not watching him at all. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

There was a long moment between them that might have gone differently. Of all the times I saw the two of them together, this is the picture that is most stamped into my soul. It's the two of them, jumbled up and broken apart into confused pieces, and not really understanding, themselves, what they were doing. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

An unspoken rivalry threaded their relationship, in which Tiger Lily thought that if she could keep up with him, she could hold tighter to him. It didn't occur to her there was anything in which Peter would want her to fail. But sometimes, I could see that, even for him, she was too fast, too sure-footed, and didn't seem to need him quite enough. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Why does this faerie follow you everywhere?" he asked. "Do you think she's plotting to murder you in your sleep?" he teased. My wings and the tips of my feet tingled with anger. But then he reached a finger toward me gently, and the anger melted. "Let's name her Tinker Bell," he said, like I was their child. He swooped his hand underneath me. "Hi, little Tink." Hearing him say it thrilled me-a name Peter had invented, just for me. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

One by one they dissapeared Pumpkin last of all.
The last May saw of himwas his sad face under his waving tuft of hair and then his long fingers,reaching out toward her for a hug that would never happen now as they turned around the bend. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

It never occurred to me before, but there could have easily been a world with no buses, no horns honking, no red lights, no shopping carts, no gum stick to the bottom of benches downtown. For that matter I guess there also could have been no sun, no trees, and no ocean. None of those things had to exist, I guess. It makes me feel lucky that they do. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

What you did was very brave," Aunt Sticky Feet said, her words clipped but not unkind, "but men don't want women who are brave. They want women who make them feel like men."
"I don't care about that," Tiger Lily said quietly. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I think we carry home on our backs. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Maybe she feared there were different ways of being trapped than the ones she already knew. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Human hearts are elastic. They have room for all sorts of passions, and they can break and heal and love again and again. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

It's all part of a plan." He said, and smiled. "Our reward isn't here on earth. Earth barely matters. It's just a practice, this life is only a passing place, a stopping point on our journey. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Still, the longer I was around her, the more I could see the colors of her mind and the recesses of her heart. There was a beast in there. But there was also a girl who was afraid of being a beast, and who wondered if other people had beasts in their hearts too. There was strength, and there was also just the determination to look strong. She guarded herself like a secret. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Tiger Lily drifted down underneath herself. This was her one gift more than any other. Silently, she nodded. "Yes. Everything is more than okay. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I heard now the fear in their brightness. It trickled along underneath them like a secret spring. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I'm not myself," she offered, guiltily. She softened around Tik Tok, and when she did she was, for those rare moments, girlish.
He smiled. "You can never say that. You're just a piece of yourself right now that you don't like. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Of all the things Tiger Lily had thought she might have to be for Peter - strong, brave; to be big and to keep up - she had never thought that the one thing he wanted most from her was simply to show that she believed in him, always and without fail. For Peter, who feared losing so much, this was a great comfort indeed. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

For the next couple of weeks she held Peter like a secret in her heart, lying right under her necklace. I could see him written on her face, and Tik Tok, too, seemed to catch shadows of him, because he'd stop to stare at her, puzzled, as if he'd just seen the boy flit across her eyes-seen the ghost of the kiss lingering for a second on the skin of her neck before disappearing. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Sometimes Peter treated her like she was the only thing in the forest. Sometimes he was so distracted by the things around him that she had to keep up or be left behind. But a lot of times, she knew he did it on purpose, and she didn't have to know why. He seemed to have reasons for doing things even he didn't understand. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I just wanted to see if ... we were okay," she said, feeling relief. "Just to make sure we can be friends. I don't want it to be weird, you know?" Friends? Different parts of Birdie died as she said it. It was like stars exploding and burning one by one. She wondered if this was part of getting older. Parts of your heart exploded and died. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

You have to be careful who you meet. You can't unmeet them. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Others wonder, if the Bogey isn't wearing his pants, who is? — Jodi Lynn Anderson

And though, truly, she sometimes felt like something inside her had disappeared, it seemed that must be a natural part of growing up. Standing out too much made one feel too alone to do it forever. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

You're a girl. Someday you'll want to be a prisoner to someone other than yourself. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I like to think that nothing's final, and that everyone gets to be together even when it looks like they don't, that it all works out even when all the evidence seems to say something else, that you and I are always young in the woods, and that I'll see you sometime again, even if it's not with any kind of eyes I know of or understand. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the way things go after all - that all things end happy. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

The living always think that monsters roar and gnash their teeth. But I've seen that real monsters can be friendly; they can smile, and they can say please and thank you like everyone else. Real monsters can appear to be kind. Sometimes they can be inside us. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

You love me," she said. "That's enough. We love each other."
"Yes. Yes, that's true." He smiled. "We are a love story. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Love can't be taken back once it's given — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I Love Jodi anderson and all of her books! — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Over the ten years since she'd been born, the trees of Briary Swamp, West Virginia, had peered through May's window night after night. They had watched over her thoughtful brown eyes, the imaginative crook of her head, the strong character of her knobby knees. The trees had laughed at the jokes May told her cat. Their leaves had whispered over her wild inventions, her colorful stories, her drawings. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I like to think that one day after I die, at least one small particle of me will float away to Neverland, and be apart of a flower or something like that. I like to think that nothing's final, and that everyone gets to be together even when it looks like they don't, that it all works out even when all the evidence seems to say something else ... — Jodi Lynn Anderson

She stands on the cliffs, near the old crumbling stone house. There's nothing left in the house but an upturned table, a ladle, and a clay bowl. She stands for more than an hour, goose-bumped and shivering. At these times, she won't confide in me. She runs her hands over her body, as if checking that it's still there, her heart pulsing and beating. The limbs are smooth and strong, thin and sinewy, her hair long and black and messy and gleaming despite her age. You wouldn't know it to look at her, that she's lived long enough to look for what's across the water. Eighty years later, and she is still fifteen. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

But Tik Tok believes everything's circular, including men and women. He says nature seems to go around and around, and that we all have bits of everything. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Tiger Lily made an attempt at a smile. After having felt the need to glower at other children for most of her life, smiles never came easily to her face. But this one was half all right.
"I miss you already," he said.
Tiger Lily wanted to say it back. But she held on to the words greedily, too caught in the habit of keeping herself a secret.
And Peter-half sadly, half-expectantly-let her go. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

It seemed, when all was said and done, that all souls were a little wild, in some way or another. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

One morning at home, Tik Tok had Tiger Lily try on her wedding dress. He seemed disappointed that it fit so well. Despite their expectations, it became her. Its simplicity and sleekness were subtle enough to highlight her strong, high cheeks, the shine in her hair. It was a dress made by someone who knew her. It was her freedom and her silence sewn into a dress.
She hated what it meant. But she loved the dress because it was from Tik Tok's hands and because it made her feel like herself. She took it off. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

We are just stardust after all. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Things hurt and then don't hurt and hurt again. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

For years after my father left us for Belladonna, I had looked for him ... the last time someone had seen them, they were living on a duck's back. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Somehow as children he and Tiger Lily had been shuttled together - both misfits or, as I liked to think of them, strange exotic birds, one too fierce to be hemmed in as a girl, and the other too hesitant to be respected as a boy. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Tiger Lily, you're a fool. he said, and kissed her forehead. And despite his size, and the fact that a boy like him was not built to shoulder much of anything, he shouldered her weight, and carried her home. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

life's better with girls. boys need girls. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

She guarded herself like a secret. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I could never leave,' Pine Sap said.
'Why?' she asked.
Pine Sap shrugged, and gestured in the direction of the village. 'Because I think people must be the same everywhere. Only these people are my bones. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I recognized Tiger Lily instantly; I had seen her before. She stood out like a combination of a roving panther and a girl. She stalked instead of walked. Her body still held the invincibility of a child, when at her age it should have been giving way to fragile, flexible curves. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Nothing here is sacred. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Everyone will think I'm ugly."
Tik Tok smiled. "That's true. But we are a small village. We have narrow tastes. There's no telling who else in the world would think you're beautiful. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Lily?", she whispered. Lily didn't move. "Can I tell you something?" Lilly breathed deeply, clearly asleep. "I think all my life my heart's been broken," Adri whispered, "and I didn't even notice. And I don't even know by what. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

To not do what you can to protect someone, that's cowardly. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

P.S. Please give my love to Tink, she always was such a funny little bug — Jodi Lynn Anderson

It didn't fit her ideas of who was bad, and who was good, and what was a happy ending, and what wasn't. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I'll teach you," Tiger Lily offered with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Did your mother teach you?" he asked.
"I don't have a mother," she said. "Like you."
For some reason, Peter was glad to hear it. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

So many stars are popping out above us it seems you could almost dip your fingers up there and come out with a handful of stars. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

He tousled Baby's hair, then looked up at Tiger Lily. "The woods have rules." He put Baby down gingerly in his trough with his bottle. "But the rules are ugly."
"It's nature," she said, thoughtfully.
"I have a lot of disagreements with nature," he said, looking confused, and his downy brow wrinkled over his eyes. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Gerdi didn't really understand.Cammy liked being quiet.She liked bingo.She wouldn't mind living in a cozy little hole,like a rabbit. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

maybe i just loved some of you. maybe not enough — Jodi Lynn Anderson

She did not believe he could have really gone, because for her, to leave the person you loved was impossible. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

So many lights you'd think we were living in a constellation — Jodi Lynn Anderson

It was like this sometimes, and I felt I should look away, but I couldn't. I wanted to be there, having my face touched, defeating a heart like Peter's, but the next best thing was seeing it for Tiger Lily. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

You looked strange climbing in the tree like that."
Tiger Lily pulled her braids between her fingers, her sudden self-consciousness feeling foreign and strange to her.
"I didn't do it to look nice," she said.
"But you do care."
Tiger Lily studied the tree and decided if she did care, she would now choose not to. "I don't," she said.
"All girls do," he added, pushing the point.
"You must not know many girls."
"I know a million," Peter said, dark and serious. There was a long awkward silence, but if Peter regretted his words, I couldn't tell. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Let me tell you something straight off. This is a love story, but not like any you've ever heard. The boy and the girl are far from innocent. Dear lives are lost. And good doesn't win. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Leeda knew friends never turned out to be what you expected. They came and went in waves, pulling away and coming back, leaving you feeling safe one minute and lost the next. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

But the outsider in May, the one from Briery Swamp who had never fit quite right, kept her tucked safely in her nook. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Maggie shook her head. I'm not calm, I'm just ... hesitant. It's like, I always think pretty soon my life will be this great story, as soon as it starts. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

She hated his need to always win and he hated her coldness during their arguments. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

There was no twinkle in his eyes.
"Maybe I just love some of you. Maybe not enough."
Tiger Lily blinked at him, and she didn't understand how anyone could only love a part. Her greedy heart didn't work that way. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

But you'll be back. I know you will. You won't be able to let us go now. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

may
yes
can you carry me asked pumpkin
No — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Sometimes I think that maybe we are just stories. Like we may as well just be words on a page, because we're only what we've done and what we are going to do. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

Sometimes I can't see myself when I'm with you. I can only just see you. — Jodi Lynn Anderson