Maureen Johnson Quotes & Sayings

I followed your footsteps," he said, in answer to the unspoken question. "Snow makes it easy."
I had been tracked, like a bear.
"Sorry to make you go to all that trouble," I said.
"I didn't have to go that far, really. You're about three streets over. You just kept going in loops."
A really inept bear. — Maureen Johnson

Rory: "People are being serious."
Jazza: "There's a serial killer out there. Of course people are being serious."
Rory: "Yeah, but what are the chances?"
Jazza: "I bet all of the victims thought that."
Rory: "But still, what are the chances?"
Jazza: "Well, I imagine they are several million to one."
Jerome: "Not that high. You're only dealing with a small part of London. And while there might be a million or more people in that area, the Ripper is probably focusing on women, because all of the original victims were women. So halve that
"
Jazza: "You really need another hobby. — Maureen Johnson

You've never told me about your love life, Scarlett. You're a very pretty girl. You must have a boy shacked up somewhere for your personal delights. I'd bet it's a booky one, overtones of Harry Potter and a lot of black T-shirts. — Maureen Johnson

I'll go to Venice and drown my sorrows. — Maureen Johnson

People were freaked out, but they showed it in weird ways. Back home, people would have been weeping and doing a lot of very public group hugs. At Wexford people just aggressively pretended nothing had happened. — Maureen Johnson

Early the next morning, they were on a tram out to the far edge of Amsterdam. Ginny liked the tram. It was like an overgrown toy train that had gotten loose on the streets. She looked out and saw the Netherlands wobbling by - its ancient houses and constant canals and people in practical shoes. — Maureen Johnson

Mouth guard. And I think we'll start you in goal.
Goal sounded like a special job. I didn't want a special job, unless that special job involved sitting on the side under a pile of blankets. — Maureen Johnson

Just then, my phone started ringing. The ring must have been damaged by the water as well, so now it had a high, keening note - kind of the sound I imagine a mermaid might make if you punched her in the face. — Maureen Johnson

Who runs a combination cat shelter and hostel?" Keith asked. "With the cat shelter being the primary function? Only people who want to kill you with an axe and then put you in the garden and build a shed on you, that's who. — Maureen Johnson

Dr. Everest, got up and gave us a little pep talk. Mostly it boiled down to the fact that it was autumn, and everyone was back, and while that was a great thing, people better not get cocky or misbehave or he'd personally kill us all.
He didn't actually say those words, but that was the subtext. — Maureen Johnson

Hot tea," he said, holding the cups. "It's just wrong. — Maureen Johnson

The cast of Hamlet had not moved much. They had that haunted yet hopeful look in their eyes, like the ones you see in photographs of people crammed into steerage compartments, traveling to some new, unknown land. — Maureen Johnson

Irony is the word I forget the meaning of immediately after I look it up, but I kind of feel like I live in a constant state of it. — Maureen Johnson

Gators are just something you have to accept where I come from. Most don't go anywhere near the houses, even though there are lots of delicious children and dogs there. Every once in a while, though, an alligator has a lightbulb moment and decides to take a stroll and see the world a bit. — Maureen Johnson

But knowing something is beautiful and caring about it are two very different things. — Maureen Johnson

She had always thought applying to college would be exciting. Living away from home, meeting so many new people, Learning new things, making a few poor life desicisons ... — Maureen Johnson

I may have been a complete lunatic, but I was a complete lunatic with manners. — Maureen Johnson

I want to follow him. I want to go where his show is and just lie on the sidewalk outside so he can trip over me. Okay? That's how pathetic I am now. You should be thrilled. I — Maureen Johnson

Is this all right?" he asked. He was using that very low, somewhat husky universal kissing voice.
"Huh?" I said, because I am sexy. — Maureen Johnson

It was okay to give up. I'd been brave. Everyone would say so. And yet ... even as I opened a dresser drawer and figured out which things I would take with me in this hypothetical scenario, I remembered the problem. There would still be ghosts. I would still have a future. — Maureen Johnson

No one in history had ever done less and yet been so wrong. — Maureen Johnson

England and Britain and the United Kingdom are not the same thing. England is the country. Britain is the island containing England, Scotland, and Wales. The United Kingdom is the formal designation of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as a political entity. If you mess this up, you will be corrected. Repeatedly. The — Maureen Johnson

It was almost funny. Life seemed downright accidental in its brevity, and death a punch line to a lousy joke. — Maureen Johnson

And what else is she?" Jerome asked. Jazza didn't offer any reply so I chimed in with, "A bitchweasel?"
"A bitchweasel!" Jazza's face lit up. "She's a bitchweasel! I love my new roommate. — Maureen Johnson

We Deveauxs preferred to talk you to death, rather than face you in physical combat. — Maureen Johnson

Sometimes it is worth any amount of suffering just to prevent giving your parents the opportunity to be right. — Maureen Johnson

(It was also helpful that the hotel's owner tended to turn a blind eye to room sharing. A room filled with too many guests was better than one with no guests at all.) — Maureen Johnson

The truth was that she had managed to betray everyone by doing nothing. No one in history had ever done less and yet been so wrong. Not cheating on a non-boyfriend with the non-boyfriend of a friend. The pressure of thinking that one through made her swollen body ache. — Maureen Johnson

It makes you very cool," he said, taking big, jumping steps to get in front of me. "CNN would interview you, for sure. Daughter of Flobie! But don't worry. I'll keep them back! — Maureen Johnson

Tell me what you want, what you really, really want," he said.
"Braiiinnnnssss," we said in unison. — Maureen Johnson

He's been in love with Miss Gina since high school, but he doesn't really know how to talk to girls, so he's just been ... staying around her since then. He just tends to go where she goes."
"Isn't that stalking?" Jazza said.
"Legally, no," I replied. "I asked my parents this when I was little. What he does is creepy and socially awkward, but it's not actually stalking. — Maureen Johnson

Good stuff!" [Knud] said. "All organic, of course! All fresh! We take care of the earth here! You like smoked herring? You will. Of course you will! I work in iron, though I have also done some of these wood carvings. All of my work is based on traditional Danish art. I am a Viking! Eat! — Maureen Johnson

And I think something is beautiful if it reveals something important about what it means to be alive. — Maureen Johnson

I'm the last of the mad ones. — Maureen Johnson

Although it was very cold, he wore no coat. I think some English people think coats are for the weak. — Maureen Johnson

Something in the room had changed. My hand was on the floor, next to Stephen, but he wasn't as close to my hand as he had been. He had moved several inches over, toward the table. Just as I realized this, his arm shot out for the knife. In the next moment, he had rolled up on his knees and had Sadie caught in the crook of his arm. His face was pale, and he looked a bit shaken by the sudden movement. He was alive. — Maureen Johnson

Also, when on a campaign to convince a stranger that you aren't a few fries short of a Happy Meal, throwing around phrases like "tangentially Swedish" is not the best way to go. — Maureen Johnson

I read two mysteries a day when I was a kid. All of Agatha Christie, all of 'Sherlock Holmes.' I've seen every single British detective show ever made. — Maureen Johnson

I looked at the stained-glass image of the lamb in the window above me, but that only reminded me that lambs are famous for being led to slaughter, or sometimes hanging out with lions in ill-advised relationships. — Maureen Johnson

What are you?" I asked. "I'm the Ghost of the Night Before Exams." "And how long did it take you to come up with that?" Jazza asked. "I'm a busy man," he replied. — Maureen Johnson

There is nothing about a bad situation that fourteen hyper cheerleaders can't worsen. — Maureen Johnson

Rule #1: You may bring only what fits in your backpack. Don't try to fake it with a purse or a carry-on.
Rule #2: You may not bring guidebooks, phrase books, or any kind of foreign language aid. And no journals.
Rule #3: You cannot bring extra money or credit/debit cards, travelers' checks, etc. I'll take care of all that.
Rule #4: No electronic crutches. This means no laptop, no cell phone, no music, and no camera. You can't call home or communicate with people in the U.S. by Internet or telephone. Postcards and letters are acceptable and encouraged.
That's all you need to know for now. — Maureen Johnson

She called, "Aurora!" in a penetrating voice that could cause a small bird to fall dead out of the sky. — Maureen Johnson

All right. Normal rules apply."
"Right."
The man walked off, leaving us.
"What are the normal rules?" I asked.
"He walks away and has a tea break and doesn't ask any questions. — Maureen Johnson

I had one class in the morning, the mysteriously named "Further Maths". It was two hours long and so deeply frightening that I think I went into a trance. — Maureen Johnson

Sometimes I feel like I've been waiting for someone to tell me when I can be normal again,' she said. 'I keep thinking I'll get a letter. Or a call. When does it happen?'
Pete looked like he wanted to walk toward her, but then he fell back against the car. The staring contest between them for almost a minute, and finally Pete exhaled loudly.
It's okay,' he said. — Maureen Johnson

Before she could answer, the waiter sprang at his chance to brush some crumbs from David's chair. He had been hanging around their table like a vulture, waiting for them to eat the last papadum crumb so he could take away the basket. He eyed the last piece sadly, as if it were the barrier between him and eternal happiness. Ginny grabbed it and shoved it in her mouth. The man looked relieved and took the basket but immediately returned to stare mournfully at their water glasses. — Maureen Johnson

Avery had sixth and seventh and eighth senses and could tell more from the way someone stood or said "see you later" than Mel could if she stole the person's diary and read it cover to cover. — Maureen Johnson

Can I tell you something you really don't want to hear? He's going to break up with you. - Stuart — Maureen Johnson

I knew it was beautiful, but knowing something is beautiful and caring about it are two very different things, and I didn't care. — Maureen Johnson

Nowhere was good. Except with Eric. He had both perfumed and poisoned her entire world. — Maureen Johnson

From this close, she could see the color of his eyes perfectly. They were a misty, shifting blue marbled with gray, like smoke rising through an early morning sky. — Maureen Johnson

I don't know if there is actually more rain here in England, or if it was just that the rain seemed to be so deliberately annoying. Every drop hit the window with a peevish Am I bothering you? Does this make you cold and wet? Oh, sorry. — Maureen Johnson

People don't change . . . You just sort of have to take them like they are. — Maureen Johnson

Top Trumps appeared to be a game in which you got cards, and the cards had a picture (in this case, of a horse), and told you all kinds of stats for that horse, how fast it was, how big it was, etc. Whoever had the better horse won both the cards. You repeated this until someone had all the cards. So, basically it was exactly like high school, except it only took three minutes. Which was really a bit more humane, if you thought about it. — Maureen Johnson

Were you playing with Stuart? she asked.
The question was loaded. I was a filthy, filthy woman, and even the five-year-old knew it. — Maureen Johnson

Something about her suggested that her leisure activities included wrestling large woodland animals and banging bricks together. — Maureen Johnson

He knows,"I said. "I tell him everything"
"Does that go both ways?" he asked.
"Does what go both ways?"
"You said you tell him everything," he replied. "You didn't say we tell each other everything — Maureen Johnson

The whole "weak in the knees" thing,which she always thought was just some idiotic expression back from the golden age of idiotic expressions,was real.
-Suite Scarlett — Maureen Johnson

Ah," he said. "I had an ... artistic disagreement with the director of the panto. As it happens, I take issue with the objectification of women in Cinderella, and the reliance on shoes as a means of identification. Surely you understand. — Maureen Johnson

People always say they can't do things, that they're impossible. They just haven't been creative enough. — Maureen Johnson

It took about three minutes for the unassuming Waffle House to become the new offices of the law firm of Amber, Amber, Amber, and Madison. They set up camp in a clump of booths in the corner opposite from us. A few of them gave me an "oh, good, you are still alive" nod, but for the most part, they had no interest in anyone else. — Maureen Johnson

Go talk to her," Boo said.
"About what?"
"Anything."
"You want me to walk up to her and say, 'Are you a ghost?'"
"I do that," she replied.
"I love it when you get it wrong," Callum said.
"Once. It happened once."
"It happened twice," Stephen said, looking over. — Maureen Johnson

Rise and shine, porcupines! — Maureen Johnson

and things that looked just like palaces even thought they probably weren't. — Maureen Johnson

Tired, but not the kind of tired that sleep fixes. — Maureen Johnson

It was a bit on the frantic side, maybe because neither one of us had done the metal preparation, so we were both thinking, Oh, right! Kissing! Quickly! Quickly! More movement! Deploy tongue! — Maureen Johnson

After that, I felt like I had two lives. There was the me I had been before the attack, the one people knew and wanted to relate to. The one people wanted to comfort and fix. And there was another me, a hidden me that no one ever saw. There was a me who had tasted death. That me knew things others people didn't know. — Maureen Johnson

I never shut up'
Yes, you do'
Not much'
I could make you shut up'
Oh, yeah? ... How? — Maureen Johnson

Of course, he showed me this one afternoon when he was skipping class. When trolls cut classes, you think they are losers. When the beautiful and/or reasonably erudite do the same thing to sit on the library steps and read poetry, you think they are on to something deep. You see only deep brown wavy hair and strong legs, well honed by years of Ultimate Frisbee. You see that book of T. S. Eliot poems held by the hand with the long, graceful fingers, and you never stop to think that it shouldn't take half a semester to read one book of poems ... that maybe he is not so much reading as getting really high every morning and sleeping it off on the library steps, forcing the people who actually go to class to step or trip over him. — Maureen Johnson

Nothing was quite like it was supposed to be. — Maureen Johnson

She couldn't take her eyes off the boxers. Mostly, she had a view of the back, but he turned halfway when he looked over. She commanded herself not to look at the front flap, which, of course, was exactly what she honed in on.
He spit and put his mouth under the tap to get some water. All while just wearing underwear. All while she just stared at the crucial spot of the Action Pants. — Maureen Johnson

Don-Keun was a new man. The moment they arrived, he vanished for a second. We heard muffled ecstatic screaming coming from somewhere in the back of the Waffle House kitchen, then he reappeared, his face shining with the kind of radiance usually associated with religious epiphany. — Maureen Johnson

They weren't pressed together as closely as normal, but his shoulder bumped hers, then remained there. It was very subtle, and possibly even accidental, but it was enough. — Maureen Johnson

Sometimes people graduate but they don't leave. They hang around for years, for no reason. I would think of ghosts like that, I decided. — Maureen Johnson

I like to talk. Talking is kind of my thing. If talking had been a sport option at Wexford, I would have been captain. But sports always have to involve running, jumping, or swinging your arms around. You don't get PE points for the smooth and rapid movement of the jaw. — Maureen Johnson

Sometimes, life leaves you without directions, without guideposts or signs. When this happens, you just have to pick a direction and run like hell. — Maureen Johnson

I had always assumed the weekend was a holy tradition, respected by good people everywhere. Not so at Wexford. — Maureen Johnson

Probably some period thing. I go completely mental too. Period fever. It's the worst."
This effectively killed all conversation for a while.
... "Fixed that," she said.
"You told him I had period fever," I replied. "There's no such thing as period fever."
"No such thing as ghosts either."
"No, there is really no such thing as period fever. There's a difference between being a guy and being an idiot. — Maureen Johnson

A strange thing happened to me as I walked away from Jane's house
I was finally thinking clearly. I could see what Charlotte meant. Jane knew how to fix people. Now that I'd talked through some of my issues, I'd blown out the dust and garbage out of my brain and I could think for once. I could smell the rain, heavy with iron. The cold woke me, but it didn't sting. My breath puffed out in front of me in a great white plume, and I laughed. It was like I was breathing ghosts. I wasn't in the land of long highways and big box stores and humid, endless summers. I was in London, a city of stone and rain and magic. I understood, for instance, why they liked red so much. The red buses, telephone booths, and postboxes were a violent shock against the grays of the sky and stone. Red was blood and beating hearts.
And I was strong. — Maureen Johnson

The questions that creep around at four thirty in the morning are not the kind that can be easily dismissed. You can beat them with a shovel, and they'll just keep getting back up. — Maureen Johnson

I live alone," Knud said, "and I work alone, but I am never truly alone. I do my ancestor's work. I live the entire history of my country and people. — Maureen Johnson

Braiiinnnnssss," we said in unison.
"It's both sad and incredibly impressive that you were all ready with that one. — Maureen Johnson

The expression is: a boy's best friend is his mother. It's not: a boy's best pimp is his mother. It is that way for a reason. — Maureen Johnson

You could wear the same outfit every single day and no guy - who isn't gay - will notice. — Maureen Johnson

What she didn't display, I noticed, was a boxful of swimming medals.
"Holy crap," I said, when she set them on the desk. "You're like a fish."
"Oh. Um. Well, I swim, you see."
I saw. — Maureen Johnson

Stuart must have sensed my despair from the way I began lightly banging my forehead on the table. — Maureen Johnson

Even though she had been warned, she tripped over the bike. She probably tripped because she'd been warned and was telling herself not to trip over the bike. She did that sometimes. It was often easier not to know what obstacles were in the way. — Maureen Johnson

Guilt isn't always a rational thing, Clio realized. Guilt is a weight that will crush you whether you deserve it or not. — Maureen Johnson

I am a mass of contradictions. — Maureen Johnson

It was fine," I said stiffly. "We played Mouse Trap." "Is that what they're calling it these days?" she asked, throwing me a terrible grin. "I have to go give Rachel a quick bath. Feel free to make yourself some cocoa or whatever you like!" She stopped short of adding " ... future child-bride of my only son. — Maureen Johnson

Something about this boat screamed, I am a very popular model in the world's oil-bearing regions. I cost more than your soul! — Maureen Johnson

Eton produced Society's Monsters - everyone knew that. Politicians, mostly, and occasionally people who ran banks and all the other institutions that stole the world's spoils for themselves. — Maureen Johnson

Sometimes I even felt like he dated me as part of his plan, like they were going to have a checklist on the application, and one of the things to tick off was going to be, Do you have a reasonably intelligent girlfriend who shares your aspirations, and who is fully prepared to accept your limited availability? — Maureen Johnson

Fear can't hurt you," she said. "When it washes over you, give it no power. It's a snake with no venom. Remember that. That knowledge can save you. — Maureen Johnson

He had let Aunt Peg live in his house and married her, so clearly he had a thing for flaky American types who liked to sneak off in the dead of night. That was, as Ginny remembered it, how America won the Revolution in the first place. The English walked around in bright red coats in straight lines and took breaks for tea, and the Americans snuck around dressed in rags and hid in trees and stole their horses. Or something. Whatever. She had to do this-it was her birthright. It was what George Washington would have wanted. — Maureen Johnson

It was probably a good idea to have you possible future stepmother think you were a little nuts. It would keep her on her toes and dissuade her from trying to sit down and have touchy-feely talks. Not that she expected that from Julia. Julia looked like she might head-butt people in meetings. — Maureen Johnson

I could pretend, at least, and if I pretended long enough, maybe I could make it into a reality. — Maureen Johnson

Before I take you into the beating heart of the story, let's get one thing out of the way. I know from experience that when it comes up later, it will distract you so much that you won't be able to concentrate on anything else I will tell you. My name is Jubilee Dougal. Take a moment and let it sink in. — Maureen Johnson

Sometimes you have to see the bathroom to know the hard reality of things. — Maureen Johnson