Jodi Picoult Quotes & Sayings

Hole. "This is where we found the body." "Who was trampled," Jenna says pointedly. — Jodi Picoult

We believe what we want to, what we need to. The corollary is that we choose not to see what we'd rather pretend doesn't exist. — Jodi Picoult

you cannot separate good and evil cleanly, that they are conjoined twins sharing a single heart. — Jodi Picoult

Grief is a curious thing, when it happens unexpectedly. It is a Band-aid being ripped away, taking the top layer off a family. And the underbelly of a household is never pretty, ours no exception. — Jodi Picoult

He smiles at me, and I am suddenly seventeen again - the year I realize that love doesn't follow the rules, the year I understood that nothing is worth having so much as something unattainable — Jodi Picoult

The problem," he said, "with being one of the best is that you still have to get better. But you're competing with yourself. — Jodi Picoult

Envy, after all, comes from wanting something that isn't yours. But grief comes from losing something you've already had. — Jodi Picoult

Believe me, Being gay is not a choice. Noone would choose to make life harder than it has to be. — Jodi Picoult

Kate had the shape of a pixie, all noodle arms and legs; and when she bent to the ground and kicked up her feet, it looked as delicate as a spider walking a wall. Me, I sort of defied gravity with a thud. — Jodi Picoult

I sit for a few moments in the empty courtroom. If this were like old times, I would got home and tell Delia that I'd lost the hearing. I'd repeat verbatim what the judge had said, and I'd ask her to interpret it. We'd dissect my performance until she finally threw up her hands and said we were going nowhere with any of this.
She will not be back tonight, I suppose. And we're still going nowhere. — Jodi Picoult

I sometimes wonder if it's just me, or if there are other women who figure out where they're supposed to be by going nowhere. — Jodi Picoult

The bottom line in both cases is that people don't change; that no matter how charming you are and how fiercely you love, you cannot turn a person into something she's not. — Jodi Picoult

Isn't that a little Old Testament for a nun?" "Ex-nun. And let me tell you, that serenity crap from The Sound of Music? Bullshit. Inside the cloister, the sisters are just as petty as people on the outside. There are some you love and some you hate. I did my share of spitting in the Holy Water font before another nun used it. It was totally worth the twenty rosaries I said for penance. — Jodi Picoult

Love makes life a little brighter — Jodi Picoult

I have a sister, so I know-that relationship, it's all about fairness: you want your sibling to have exactly what you have-the same amount of toys, the same number of meatballs on your spaghetti, the same share of love. But being a mother is completely different. You want your child to have more than you ever did. You want to build a fire underneath her and watch her soar. It's bigger than words. — Jodi Picoult

The only monsters I have ever known were men. — Jodi Picoult

There are legions of us, I realized. The mothers who have broken babies, and spend the rest of our lives wondering if we should have spared them. And the mothers who have let their broken babies go, who look at our children and see instead the faces of the ones they never met. — Jodi Picoult

If you are a mother, you must have someone to take care of.
If that someone is taken from you, whether it is a newborn or an individual old enough to have offspring of its own, can you still call yourself a mother? — Jodi Picoult

She touched him and found that even something as innocent as the lacing of their fingers could raise all the hairs on the back of her neck and make her blood beat faster. — Jodi Picoult

It was an attraction born of close quarters, and false familiarity. It meant absolutely nothing. Yet she drove home one-handed, the fingertips of her free hand gently touching her mouth, whispering, "Beloved. — Jodi Picoult

If you say that you believe something to be true, you might mean one of two things- that you're still weighing the alternatives, or that you accept it as a fact. — Jodi Picoult

But what if your obsession has nothing to do with drugs or thrills or money? What if what you want most in the world is to recapture the way life was a week, a month, a year ago-and you are willing to do whatever it takes? — Jodi Picoult

Every holocaust starts with an ember. You just have to know what to look for. — Jodi Picoult

Shelby believed that love was like a solar eclipse - breathtakingly beautiful, absorbing, and capable of rendering you blind. She had not necessarily gone out of her way to avoid a relationship, but she hadn't wanted on either. It was called falling in love for a reason - because, inevitably, you crashed at the bottom. — Jodi Picoult

A guardian ad litem ... GAL is appointed by a court to be a child's advocate during legal proceedings that involve a minor. You don't have to be a lawyer to be trained as a GAL, but you have to have a moral compass and a heart. Which, actually probably renders most lawyers unqualified for the job. — Jodi Picoult

She had never been a pretty crier. She sobbed the way she did everything else - with passion and excess. — Jodi Picoult

So what have I learned that is helpful? Well, if you are white, like I am, you can't get rid of the privilege you have, but you can use it for good. Don't say I don't even notice race! like it's a positive thing. Instead, recognize that differences between people make it harder for some to cross a finish line, and create fair paths to success for everyone that accommodate those differences. Educate yourself. If you think someone's voice is being ignored, tell others to listen. If your friend makes a racist joke, call him out on it, instead of just going along with it. If the two former skinheads I met can have such a complete change of heart, I feel confident that ordinary people can, too. — Jodi Picoult

She had loved him. He knew this; he had never doubted it. But she had also asked him to kill her. If you love someone that much, you did not lay that sort of burden on him for the rest of his life. — Jodi Picoult

But he wondered how very different two worlds had to be before they kept people apart. — Jodi Picoult

This is just my way of pointing out that we people who leap without looking are not stupid. We know damn well we might be headed for a fall. But we also know that, sometimes, it's the only way out. — Jodi Picoult

So much of marriage was implicit and nonverbal. Had I gotten so complacent I'd forgotten to communicate? — Jodi Picoult

And then he remembered that in the outside world, no one had to unlock a door before he entered — Jodi Picoult

It's like a telescope. My dad, no matter what he's doing, zooms right in so he can't see anything except what's right there with him at that minute. My mom, she's always on wide angle. — Jodi Picoult

Think about it: Romeo and Juliet bucked the system, and look where it got them. Superman has the hots for Lois Lane, when the better match, of course, would be with Wonder Woman. — Jodi Picoult

And yet, you never knew wwhat you were capable of until you arrived at that given moment. Life was just a whole string of spots where you continued to surprise yourself. — Jodi Picoult

Do you know what it's like to love someone so much, that you can't see yourself without picturing her? Or what it's like to touch someone, and feel like you've come home? What we had wasn't about sex, or about being with someone just to show off what you've got, the way it was for other kids our age. We were, well, meant to be together. Some people spend their whole lives looking for that one person. I was lucky enough to have her all along. — Jodi Picoult

Can you miss a person you've never known?" There — Jodi Picoult

To be truly popular, it has to look like something you are, when in reality, it's what you make yourself. — Jodi Picoult

Every now and then, i worry about people in the third world countries. and then i figure if they all started having sex, their lives would be considerably brighter. — Jodi Picoult

Sometimes, mothers say and do things that seem like they don't want their kids ... but when you look more closely, you realize that they're doing those kids a favor. They're just trying to give them a better life. — Jodi Picoult

There are kinds of pain that you can't speak out loud. — Jodi Picoult

I have met convicted child molesters before. They don't waer badges or brands or tattoos announcing their vice. It's hidden under a soft, grandfatherly smile; it's tucked in the pocket of a buttoned down shirt. They look the rest of us, and that's what makes it so frightening - to know that these beasts move among us, and we are none the wisest.
They have girlfriends and wives who have loved them, unaware. — Jodi Picoult

What is right, in the end, is not always what it seems to be, and some rules are better broken. — Jodi Picoult

Instead of doing the best thing, we sometimes have to settle for the rightest thing. — Jodi Picoult

Was it the act of giving birth that made you a mother? Did you lose that label when you relinquished your child? If people were measured by their deeds, on the one hand, I had a woman who had chosen to give me up; on the other, I had a woman who'd sat up with me at night when I was sick as a child, who'd cried with me over boyfriends, who'd clapped fiercely at my law school graduation. Which acts made you more of a mother?
Both, I realized. Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life. — Jodi Picoult

So you tell me ... did this execution really make you feel safer? Did it bring us all closer together? Or did it drive us further apart? — Jodi Picoult

I suppose there's only so many times you can take being rebuffed before you need some validation. — Jodi Picoult

It's never fifty-fifty in a marriage. Someone falls in love first. Someone puts someone else up on a pedestal. Someone works hard to keep things rolling smoothly, someone else sails along for the ride. Someone who would do anything to keep it the way it was in the beginning. — Jodi Picoult

Surely she knows
like I do
that fairy tales are just stories. That happy endings aren't real. — Jodi Picoult

You can keep dividing and dividing and you'll never entirely get rid of the sourness in your stomach that you taste when you think back to the moment you could have said no — Jodi Picoult

I started writing when I had three kids under the age of 4. I used to write every ten minutes I got to sit in front of a computer. Now, when I have more time, I function the same way: if it's writing time, I write. — Jodi Picoult

But there's a part of me that wonders what it would be like to be the most important person to someone else, to always feel like you were missing a piece of yourself when he wasn't near you. — Jodi Picoult

You want to do something about it - take action, scream at them, tell them they're idiots - but you can't. Being on the fringe is the most disempowering feeling. You get so used to the world being a certain way, there seems to be no escape from it. — Jodi Picoult

Courage wasn't something you were bequeathed at birth, and it wasn't a lack of fright. It was overcoming your fear, because the ones you love mattered more. — Jodi Picoult

In my previous life I was a civil attorney. At one point I truly believed that was what I wanted to be- but that was before I'd been handed a fistful of crushed violets from a toddler. Before I understood that the smile of a child is a tattoo: indelible art. — Jodi Picoult

Love is not an equation, it is not a contract, and it is not a happy ending. Love is the slate under the chalk, the ground that buildings rise, and the oxygen in the air. It is the place you come back to, no matter where your headed — Jodi Picoult

What it's like being the balloon, when someone lets go of the string. Kennedy — Jodi Picoult

One person's disability is another person's culture." As — Jodi Picoult

Dylan Jerome," the lawyer admits, "wanted to sue God for not caring enough about him. — Jodi Picoult

I shouldn't have eavesdropped, but sometimes, that's the only way to find out the truth. — Jodi Picoult

The optimist in me wants to believe sexuality will eventually become like handwriting: there's no right way and wrong way to do it. We're all just wired differently. It's also worth noting that when you meet someone, you never bother to ask if he's right or left-handed. After all: does it really matter to anyone other than the person holding the pen? — Jodi Picoult

I'm a daughter from a strong man and beautiful mommy, and I'm so proud to be I am. — Jodi Picoult

It felt like looking into the face of the sun: once I turned away, I was blind to everything else. At — Jodi Picoult

You lie to convince people you are not a monster . . . not that you are one. — Jodi Picoult

It's not because I don't want to hurt Delia's feelings. It's because when she is bruised, I'm the one who aches. — Jodi Picoult

I wanted to touch her; just cup my hand over the curve of her cheek and tell her to make this moment last, because before she knew it she'd be like me, a witness to someone else's moment. — Jodi Picoult

Negative moments get remembered. Traumatic ones get forgotten. — Jodi Picoult

A human heart breaks harder when it's dropped from a greater height. — Jodi Picoult

There was a fine line between love and hate you heard that cliche all the time. But no one told you that the moment you crossed it would be the one you least expected. You'd fall in love and crack open a secret door to let your soul mate in. You just never expected such closeness one day to feel like an intrusion. — Jodi Picoult

When Javert finally realized that Valjean had something he himself didn't - mercy - did he shrug and find a new obsession, like knitting or Game of Thrones? No. Because without Valjean to hate, he didn't know who he was anymore. — Jodi Picoult

Just because you leave someone doesn't mean you ever let them go. Even when you couldn't see me, you knew deep down I was still there. — Jodi Picoult

Did you ever think that maybe what you see isn't really what's true? — Jodi Picoult

As it turns out, you can love someone too much. Then, when they leave, your heart goes missing. And no on can survive that great a loss. — Jodi Picoult

But not all Jews were victims- look at Chairman Rumkowski, who sat safe with his new wife in his cushy home making lists, with the blood of my family on his hands. And not all Germans were murderers. Look at Herr Fassbinder, who had saved so many children on the night that children were taken away. — Jodi Picoult

And if you don't find what you're looking for?"
At Roy's question Addie looked up.
"Then all I've lost is time. — Jodi Picoult

I should have known from watching Henry work at the office: programmers moved slowly and deliberately, and then waited to see the reaction. And if they did not succeed the first time, they would try over and over again, until they broke through that fifth dimension and got it right. — Jodi Picoult

The weapons an author has at her disposal are flawed. There are words that feel shapeless and overused. Love, for example. I could write the word love a thousand times and it would mean a thousand different things to different readers. — Jodi Picoult

Many of my books come from what if questions that I can't answer, things that I'm worried about as either a woman, a wife, a mom, an American. — Jodi Picoult

A duck walks into a bar and the bartender asks, what'll it be? The duck doesn't answer because it's a duck. — Jodi Picoult

Suddenly a ragged man wearing a hairnet and flip-flops walks toward us, holding a stack of pamphlets. Sophie, scared, hides behind her mother's chair. "My brother," the vagrant asks me, "have you found the Lord Jesus Christ?"
"I didn't know he was looking for me."
"Is He your personal savior?"
"You know," I say, "I'm still kind of hoping to rescue myself."
"The man shakes his head, dreadlocks like snakes. "None of us are strong enough for that," he replies, and moves on. — Jodi Picoult

He isn't Eric, so our lips don't move in a familiar rhythm. He isn't Eric, and so our teeth grit against each other. He holds the back of my head, as if he is afraid I will break away. My heart beats so hard I begin to feel it in forgotten places: behind my eyes, at the base of my throat, between my legs. — Jodi Picoult

When you love someone, you say their name different. Like it's safe inside your mouth. — Jodi Picoult

The jury is supposed to be twelve peers, but technically that would mean every single person on the jury should have Asperger's syndrome, because then they'd really understand me. — Jodi Picoult

DO you think it hurts to die? Not as much as it hurts to live, Trixie thought. — Jodi Picoult

Well, you have to find that rare someone for whom you're not putting on a show. Someone who shines a spotlight in your direction - not because you're who they need you to be, or who they want you to be ... just because you're you. — Jodi Picoult

It does not matter who forgives you, if you're the one who can't forget. — Jodi Picoult

Writing is successful schizophrenia because I'm paid to hear voices in my head. — Jodi Picoult

That isn't my choice to make. I didn't tell you so I could claim you. Nobody belongs to anyone else. — Jodi Picoult

Only the liar knows he's lying — Jodi Picoult

Then Henry speaks again. "Did he do it?" I turn to him slowly. "Does it matter? — Jodi Picoult

What if what you know isn't what people want to hear? — Jodi Picoult

The wine- it made her limbs loose and liquid, made her feel that a hummingbird had taken the place of her heart. — Jodi Picoult

All I'm saying is that the past is nothing but a springboard for the future. — Jodi Picoult

and my mother raised me by herself, supporting us by hosting home parties to sell sex toys instead of Tupperware. — Jodi Picoult

When a freedom is taken away from you, I suppose, you recognize it as a privilege, not a right. — Jodi Picoult

I could not remember my first kiss, but I could have told you Charlotte would be my last. — Jodi Picoult

I know what it's like to wake up thinking you will be able to cast the people who play the starring roles in your life, only to realize that you have to watch it from the audience. — Jodi Picoult

You may think there's nothing very interesting about seeing someone sleep, but that probably means you've never found the girl of your dreams. — Jodi Picoult

You can't exist in this world without leaving a piece of yourself behind. — Jodi Picoult

the body, trying to rouse her mother. She — Jodi Picoult