Sarah Jio Quotes & Sayings

The stars have their own language, you know. If you're careful, you can learn it. — Sarah Jio

Everyone tells you to write what you know. It's the tried-and-true advice every writer hears at some point in her career. But to take my writing to a deeper level, I've found that a better practice is to simply write what frightens you, haunts you, even. I now keep a sign on the bulletin board in my office that reads: 'Write What Scares You.' I've learned that tapping into the hard stuff - whether it's the fear of loss or a boogeyman lurking in childhood memories - is what ultimately gives a story the power to leap off the page and grab you by the collar. — Sarah Jio

She plucked the blossoms from the bag and arranged them, one by one, in the water glass on her dressing table.
"They'll never keep," I said. "They're [hibiscus] a terrible cutting flower. They'll wilt by morning."
"I know," she said." But don't they look so pretty right now, just as they are?"
I nodded. I wished I could see the beauty in the moment the way Kitty did. It was a gift. — Sarah Jio

You saved my life," I mutter. "I ... I don't know what to say?" I swallow hard. "How can I thank you?"

"No thank-you necessary," he says.

I search his moist eyes, and wipe away tears from mine. "I will always be indebted to you."

"Better plan," he says. "How about you just save my life someday, then we'll be even?"

"I will," I say, smiling through tears. "I will. — Sarah Jio

detours in the road. Because without them, this life — Sarah Jio

The city loves you when you're flying high and kicks you when you're down. — Sarah Jio

Marriage, my dear, is not suicide. — Sarah Jio

She feels as if her heart may burst. — Sarah Jio

People are much like those stars up there. Some burn faintly for millions of years, barely visible to us on earth. They're there, but you'd hardly know it. They blend in, like a speck on a canvas. But others blaze with such intensity, they light up the sky. You can't help but notice them, marvel at them. Those are the ones that never last long. They can't. They use up all their energy quickly — Sarah Jio

There is something oddly therapeutic about trudging through marshy sand, the feeling of squishiness below the feet signaling to the brain that it's OK to just let go for a while. — Sarah Jio

We're each given one life, and it's our job to make it useful, beautiful, and fulfilling. There is no value in suffering through it, doing something we hate. There's no prize at the end for that kind of endurance. Just a spent life. — Sarah Jio

I buttoned my sweater against the wind on my skin - winds of change. — Sarah Jio

It's just old black-and-whites,' she had said, flicking her wrist in the way one might dismiss a pile of junk mail. 'Relatives nobody remembers.' 'No,' I said, running to the box. 'Don't throw them out. I'll keep them.' I may not have known the names of the majority of the ancestors pictured inside, but it felt like a betrayal to send their memories to the landfill. I couldn't bear the thought. — Sarah Jio

Everyone has a happy place, the scene that comes into view when you close your eyes and let your mind transport you to the dot on the globe where life is cozy, safe, warm. — Sarah Jio

Life is too short to worry about the consequences when you love someone as I love you. — Sarah Jio

The definition of a true friend is not someone who swoops in when you're going through a rough patch. True friendship is when someone can appreciate your happiness - celebrate your happiness, even when she's not necessarily happy herself. — Sarah Jio

Every life, every story, has peaks and valleys. You are walking through a low spot now. Perhaps it's foggy in the valley. And maybe you can't see the path anymore. But it's there. Keep walking on it. You'll find your way. And when you come through the thicket, with little rabbits hopping about, there will be a clearing, and the sun will be shining down on you with rays that will warm you and inspire you again. — Sarah Jio

Love does not die. It lives. — Sarah Jio

You can never play a part in life, especially not in love. — Sarah Jio

Nerver underestimate the power of flowers to reach someone's soul. — Sarah Jio

When someone does a bad thing, a hurtful thing, it doesn't mean you stop loving them. You just change your course. You make adjustments. But love lives on. — Sarah Jio

It's like I'm trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle, and everyone is hiding the pieces from me. — Sarah Jio

All I hear is my own grating thoughts. Is there anything more horrid than being trapped inside yourself with nothing but your own insecurities. — Sarah Jio

The truth of the matter is that we always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it. — Sarah Jio

The Puget Sound is like a time machine, hiding things and then spewing them back onto its shores at the time and place of its choosing. — Sarah Jio

Love, she thinks, is not meant for her. — Sarah Jio

Whenever you're down on your luck, and when things aren't going the way you like, remember that you are the author of your own story. You can write it any way you like, with anyone you choose. And it can be a beautiful story or a sad and tragic one. You get to pick. — Sarah Jio

I've come to realize that you can fight a lot of things in life, but you can't help who you love. You can't change who your heart chooses. I'm afraid that very fact will be the greatest tragedy of my life. — Sarah Jio

Tulips are the only flowers that continue to grow, up to an inch or more, after they're cut. — Sarah Jio

But it wasn't their separation that was consuming my mind just then; it was Evelyn's garden. Bee had taken us there when we were children, and it was all rushing back: a magical world of hydrangeas, roses, and dahlias, and lemon shortbread cookies on Evelyn's patio. It seemed like only yesterday that my sister and I sat on the little bench under the trellis while Bee hovered over her easel, capturing on her canvas whatever flower was in bloom in the lush beds. "Your garden," I said, "I remember your garden."
"Yes," Evelyn said, smiling.
I nodded, a little astonished that this memory, buried so deep in my mind, had risen to the surface just then like a lost file from my subconscious. It was as if the island had unlocked it somehow. — Sarah Jio

I never intended on kissing Elliot. Married women don't behave like that, at least not married women like me. It wasn't proper. But the tide was high, and there was a cold breeze blowing, and Elliot's arms were draped around my body like a warm shawl, caressing me in places where he shouldn't have been, and I could scarcely think of much else. It was like how we used to be. — Sarah Jio

turning my gaze away from the kitchen to the reflection in the window. An old lady. I saw her every day, this woman, but her reflection never ceased to surprise me. When did I become her? — Sarah Jio

They're wood violets," she said. "I haven't seen them on the island since...."
"They're very rare," Henry said, filling the void that Bee had left when her voice trailed off. "You can't plant them, for they won't grow. They have to choose you."
Bee's eyes met Henry's, and she smiled, a gentle, forgiving smile. It warmed me to see it. "Evelyn has a theory about these flowers," she said, pausing as if to pull a dusty memory off a shelf in her mind, handling it with great care. "Yes," she said, the memory in plain view. "She used to say they grow where they are needed, that they signal healing, and hope. — Sarah Jio

Bainbridge Island could never hide its glory, even under the cover of darkness. I watched from the window as the ferry loomed into Eagle Harbor, passing the island's pebble-covered shores and shake-shingled homes that clung courageously to the hillside. Glowing orange interiors beckoned, as if the people inside were making one extra place as they gathered around fireplaces to sip wine or hot cocoa. — Sarah Jio

So much for perfect love. Because you can blink your eyes and it can vanish, without explanation, leaving you with only your memories and your tears. — Sarah Jio

Some of life's most beautiful things grow out of the darkest moments. — Sarah Jio

Brownie, have you ever met someone you just feel at home with? — Sarah Jio

I wonder if there is a dark side to every great love story. With great love comes great hurt. I wonder if it is inevitable. — Sarah Jio

The beauty of the island [Bora Bora} wasn't limited to its turquoise waters or green hills. That was mere surface beauty. The real awe of the place was evident in its stories. There was one waiting beyond every curve of the shore. — Sarah Jio

I could smell garlic, butter, and wine - the world's most delicious flavor combination. It made me feel warm, like the first few sips of wine always do. — Sarah Jio

If summer had a flavor, it was pink bubble gum. — Sarah Jio

Set my pride aside in the name of preserving our sisterhood, because I cannot imagine a world where one can regard her sister as a stranger. — Sarah Jio

You know, things fall apart. You grieve. And then you sit around and wait for things to somehow get perfect again. But they don't. They never can. There is no perfect. There's just different. But different can be wonderful. — Sarah Jio

I walked to the bookcase and examined the storybooks inside. As a girl, I had dreamed of having stacks of books at my disposal
stories to get lost in, other worlds to live in when mine was so bleak. — Sarah Jio

My mom used to say that for every year you loved someone, it takes a month to recover. — Sarah Jio

Great love endures time, heartache, and distance. And even when all seems lost, true love lives on. — Sarah Jio

I am lonely here sometimes. I'm like the gate, swinging in the breeze when I long for someone to just secure the latch and stop me from flailing about — Sarah Jio

... I'm no longer willing to let myself down. — Sarah Jio

The only way to save bookstores is to keep children coming to them. — Sarah Jio

Invasive plants were like all evil things; the only way to ensure that they wouldn't return was to face them head-on, battle it out, and win. Anything else was only a temporary fix. I sighed, thinking of my own life. I was letting the weeds grow all over me. They were threatening my happiness and, in some ways, my life. So why couldn't I face them? — Sarah Jio

I sighed, looking down at the book in my hands. The Years. I rested my elbow against the arm of the couch and cracked the spine. It had the feel of a book that hadn't been touched in decades, creaking, as if to say ahhh. — Sarah Jio

What is childhood without stories? And how will children fall in love with stories without bookstores? You can't get that from a computer. — Sarah Jio

It is funny how our past comes back around to find us again. — Sarah Jio

Most of the time, people don't mean to be rude; it's just their sadness showing through. — Sarah Jio

I know what this is," he whispers, his voice faint above the music. I've known it from that first night I saw you at the show, but now there's no doubt in my mind."

My gaze is entwined with his. Our eyes are locked and the key is gone. My heart feels full in my chest, heavy but in a good way.

"It's love," he says, letting the words slip freely from his mouth. And when they do, they fill the air and multiply like musical notes in a cartoon.

"Love," I say as the record crackles and skips.

"Love," he whispers back, weaving his fingers in mine.

And when I set my head on his pillow, and our bodies become one, for the first time in my life I feel as if everything in this crazy, complicated world makes complete and utter sense. — Sarah Jio

It's hard to put into words. It's as much a feeling as it is the way your stomach flutters when you think of him. It's the feeling of being reached and reaching someone. It's the feeling of being sen by someone for who you really are and being adored for it. That, for me, is connection. — Sarah Jio

People act out of character when they're in pain. — Sarah Jio

I was making scrambled eggs smothered in Tabasco, his favorite, when he told me about Stephanie. The way she made him laugh. The way she understood him. The way they connected. I pictured the image of two Lego pieces fusing together, and I shuddered. It's funny; when I think back to that morning, I can actually smell burned eggs and Tabasco. Had I known that this is what the end of my marriage would smell like, I would have made pancakes. — Sarah Jio

Just before six, Bee pulled three wineglasses out of the cabinet and uncorked the bottle of white that Greg had selected for us.
"Light the candles, dear, will you please?"
I reached for the matches and thought about the dinners at Bee's house during my childhood. Bee never served a meal without candles. "A proper supper requires candlelight," she'd told my sister and me years ago. I though it was elegant and exciting, and when I asked my mom if we could start the same tradition at home, she said no. "Candles are for birthday parties," she said, "and those only come once a year. — Sarah Jio