Gabrielle Zevin Quotes

Is a twist less satisfying if you know it's coming? Is a twist that you can't predict symptomatic of bad construction? These are things to consider when writing.

There is a time for any fledgling artist where one's tastes exceed one's abilities. The only way to get through this period is to make things anyway.

...the things we don't have are sadder than the things we have. Because the things we don't have exist in our imaginations, where they are perfect.

It wasn't even 8:00 yet. Pretty early for such deep thoughts.

For the record, everything new is not worse than everything old.

You can either be a bystander who lives his life in reaction to the decisions that others make, or you can be the leader who is making those decisions.

Anticipating the worst doesn't provide insurance from the worst happening," Mimmy says.

A truly magnificent thing about the way the brain was coded, Sam thought, was that it could say "Excuse me" while meaning "Screw you.

They didn't put a scarlet letter on her chest, but they didn't need to. That's what the Internet is for.

It has meaning to me. And the longer I do this (bookselling, yes, of course, but also living if that isn't too awfully sentimental), the more I believe that this is what the point of it all is. To connect, my dear little nerd. Only connect.

Zweisamkeit' is the feeling of being alone even when you're with other people." Simon turned to

Throughout his life, Sam had hated being told to 'fight,' as if sickness were a character failing. Illness could not be defeated, no matter how hard you fought, and pain, once it had you in its grasp, was transformational.

Teachers assign it, and parents are happy because their kids are reading something of 'quality.' But it's forcing kids to read books like that that make them think they hate reading.

What makes a person want to shiver in a train station for nothing more than the promise of a secret image? But then, what makes a person drive down an unmarked road in the middle of the night? Maybe it was the willingness to play that hinted at a tender, eternally newborn part in all humans. Maybe it was the willingness to play that kept one from despair.

And the thing about games is, if you get good at one game, you can be good at any game. That's what I think. They're all hand-eye coordination and observing patterns.