Quotes from Carry the Ocean

Heidi Cullinan ·  268 pages

Rating: (3.7K votes)


“sometimes I feel like everyone else is carrying a bucket of water but I’m trying to carry an ocean. its very hard. sometimes I would rather not carry my ocean, even if it meant I couldn’t be alive.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“Depression is having a crowd of dementors live in your head twenty-four/seven.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“Frankly, I’m awesome, and anybody who doesn’t agree should get out of my way.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“I am normal. I belong. I have a friend who can kick ass from a wheelchair. I live independently and get good grades. I'm an excellent lover.

Like I said. I'm awesome. I'm Emmet David Washington. Train Man. The best autistic Blues Brother on the block.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“Sometimes I liked him for his smile. Sometimes I liked him because he didn’t smile. Sometimes I got an erection because of the way he brushed his hair away from his face. It didn’t matter to my brain that these were odd reasons to care for someone. My brain, my body, my everything wanted to be Jeremey’s boyfriend.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean



“No one is normal. Normal is a lie.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“That's my ocean. I have to pretend as best I can to be like people on the mean so people don't call me a robot. I'm not a robot. I'm real and I have feelings the same as everyone else. And I want a boyfriend. Except my ocean doesn't make me want to be dead. It makes me want to fight. I want you to fight too, Jeremey. I want us to carry our oceans together.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“I really am Super Emmet, and like the comic book Superman, I have a powerful secret weapon. My mom.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“my emotions feel loud and big. its hard for me to keep hold of them. they weigh me down. make me heavy and tired and overwhelmed. sometimes I feel like everyone else is carrying a bucket of water but I’m trying to carry an ocean. its very hard. sometimes I would rather not carry my ocean, even if it meant I couldn’t be alive.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“Remember having a panic attack isn’t a failure, and not having one isn’t a success. Success is not letting the attacks run your life”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean



“It’s like Elwood Blues says: everybody needs somebody to love. I’m an everybody. I get a somebody.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“I don’t think people understand about suicidal thoughts. They act as if everyone who makes an attempt is looking for attention.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“People are good medicine, but they can’t be your foundation of functionality. You must build that yourself.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“There is no normal, not really. Not a right and a wrong way to be. But there is belonging. That day in Bohemia with Jeremey and David and the girls, I belonged. I belonged as much as anybody on the mean. Maybe even a little bit more.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“There is no normal. There is not an invisible bar you must meet to be acceptable to society.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean



“I can't live in the dorms and I can't stop people from calling me a freak, but I can always solve for X.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“Mental illness is no different than a heart condition. In the same way a faulty valve can cause harm to the body and require medication and care, so does a malfunctioning brain. Insanity is a crude, culturally loaded term setting the sufferer apart in a way which will not aid the patient’s recovery. The way we regard those whose brains hinder them with fault or injury is a prejudice, not a diagnosis.” Dr. North”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“My anger and sadness was my ocean, and I couldn’t carry it. Not anymore. No one could really love me. Not when they could love somebody else instead.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“When you have an invisible disease, your sickness isn’t your biggest problem. What you end up battling more than anything else, every single day, is other people.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“Mrs. Samson is a bitch, Mom.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean



“Nothing in the world is the same as anything else, so how can anyone be normal?”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“it’s okay to go slow. That everybody else’s pace and definition of success isn’t mine. What is easy for other people isn’t necessarily so for me. Though some things are easy for me and hard for other people.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“There is no normal, not really. Not a right and a wrong way to be. But there is belonging.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“Mom, stop. I have a boyfriend. Jeremey. Why do you think I’ve been hanging out with him so much? But I can’t talk about that right now. He’s upset. I have to fix it.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean


“Everything will change, if you wait long enough.”
― Heidi Cullinan, quote from Carry the Ocean



About the author

Heidi Cullinan
Born place: in Maquoketa, Iowa, The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Remember—write this down, it’s critical—nothing fuels a story quite like hope.”
― Larry Brooks, quote from Story Engineering: Character Development, Story Concept, Scene Construction


“The classic private bitterness of the public zealot. A man who wanted to take out his own inadequacy on other people. And”
― Ben Elton, quote from Time and Time Again


“Your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a ‘real’ experience.”
― quote from Psycho-Cybernetics


“It’s too late,” I tell him, even as my heart is shattering inside my chest at the idea of not seeing him again. “It’s never too late, Eva, I promise. I’ll wait for you, baby, please, just let me explain.” I’m shaking my head at him as a truck passes in front of us and the last thing I hear is, “Evie, I love you, remember that please.” And then the truck has gone and so has Ben. Well, I have.”
― Natalie Ward, quote from Losing Me Finding You


“On Sundays Mom invariably ran out of money, which is when she cracked eggs into the skillet over cubes of fried black sourdough bread. It was, I think, the most delicious and eloquent expression of pauperism.”
― Anya von Bremzen, quote from Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing


Interesting books

Hey Nostradamus!
(16.9K)
Hey Nostradamus!
by Douglas Coupland
Thirteen Days to Midnight
(3.8K)
Thirteen Days to Mid...
by Patrick Carman
Crash into You
(23.6K)
Crash into You
by Katie McGarry
Second Helpings
(24.7K)
Second Helpings
by Megan McCafferty
Joan of Arc
(4.9K)
Joan of Arc
by Mark Twain
A Painted House
(67K)
A Painted House
by John Grisham

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.