Stephanie Oakes Quotes & Sayings

Anger is a kind of murder you commit in your heart." If this is true, I'm a daily murderer. My heart is more full of blood than I ever imagined. — Stephanie Oakes

When I lost my son, I became a citizen of a country I never knew existed. — Stephanie Oakes

Belief shouldn't be compatible with lies, but is. — Stephanie Oakes

The Prophet saw him waver, too. He clamped his hand heavily against my father's shoulder. "DO IT!" he bellowed. "DO IT NOW!" My father raised the hatchet above his head. It wobbled there, breath passing his chapped lips in ragged waves. He jammed his eyes shut as he brought the hatchet down and punched it into my wrists. — Stephanie Oakes

Moments like this occurred more and more frequently, and I think that was the biggest difference between us. That we could look at the same stars in the same sky, but not have the same questions. Not want the same answers. — Stephanie Oakes

For years, we had stood on opposite sides of a divide, calling across because we could never jump the distance. This was the moment we discovered that, if we both shifted our weight forward, if we abandoned our fear of the drop below, not looking down, we could touch the tips of our fingers together. And though it wasn't much, in that moment, it was enough. — Stephanie Oakes

Jude taught me what love was: to be willing to hold on to another person's pain. That's it. — Stephanie Oakes

Did he say anything interesting?" I ask. "A revelation that the Lord is reborn in a chicken nugget, maybe? — Stephanie Oakes

That's how you avoid becoming a moth," he says. "Stop asking others what to believe. Figure it out for yourself. — Stephanie Oakes

Everything in the universe comes from stars. Before anything else existed, there were just stars. Stars are like ovens," she says. "Inside, they're cooking planets and asteroids, and when they explode, out spews all this, like, space vomit that's been cooking all these years. And solar systems formed, and Earth formed, and algae and eventually oxygen. And small organisms evolved into big animals and after about a billion years we came out, so that's your answer. We come from the stars. — Stephanie Oakes

I replay the scene again and again, the broken mashed-up face looming over me, the knowledge between the two of us that I'd done it. That act of kindness is still more unfathomable to me than any cruelty. — Stephanie Oakes

We're stars who run off of stars. — Stephanie Oakes

Crime is never preventable because the mind will always grow bored. — Stephanie Oakes

A human God. How preferable to an invisible God, I thought, one you're not even sure exists. I was never taught basic math, but by the time I figured out how to finger count, I deduced that Charlie was around my age. — Stephanie Oakes

Interesting stuff. The Kevinians I've talked to seem pretty impressed by it, even now. How Ryman rebelled by marrying a Gentile woman and ignored his father's order to kill her. And how as punishment, the spirit of God fled Ryman's body while he writhed on the ground, turning his skin black." "And so it shall be that the descendants of Ryman bear till eternity the mark on their earthly skins and the evil in their celestial hearts," I finish. "So you were aware that your family wouldn't approve of Jude." "I wasn't with Jude to rebel, if that's what you're saying. I was with Jude because of who he was." "Still, I think this is important. Did you notice the color of his skin?" "Of course I noticed it. That's a stupid thing to ask. — Stephanie Oakes

You know, when I was little, my dad told me that if I misbehaved, he'd send me to live with a witch who ate children.'

'Really?'

She nods. 'I was so afraid of the witch. Feelings are magnified when you're young, I think, and the fear can stay with you for a long time. I eventually grew out of the fear but even now when I read something with a witch, my mind always traces back to that story. Isn't that weird?'

'How'd you grow out of it?' I ask. 'The fear?'

She takes a long moment to answer. 'I read lots and lots of books about witches. — Stephanie Oakes

It is amazing that, though I am small and ungifted and barely educated, even I can appreciate the scale of the universe. And from this perch in space, for this moment at least, it seems unimportant whether someone made it, or if it made itself. — Stephanie Oakes

I am a blood-soaked girl. — Stephanie Oakes

I guess people can't be content without answers, even if they're wrong. We'd rather have a lie than a question that we can never know the answer to. — Stephanie Oakes

Even after months of healing, it doesn't take much to make me bleed — Stephanie Oakes

Growing up, I believed in miracles. I guess I don't anymore. — Stephanie Oakes

I could tell he was afraid, but not for the immediate future. Not for that night. He was afraid for the rest of his life. That it would always be like this, living in that cabin with his father going slowly decrepit from homemade alcohol, getting meaner. I knew because it was the same fear I felt every day. Fear of being stuck in a place forever. — Stephanie Oakes

Jude used to try to make me laugh, and when I'd crack a smile he'd keep the joke going , like breath on an ember, making it grow into a fit of giggles that'd echo around the whole forest and make all the birds in the trees quiet. — Stephanie Oakes

I think you should be angry if you're angry. But it's also true that hate has a way of hurting you more than the person you're hating. — Stephanie Oakes