“Being temporary doesn't make something matter any less, because the point isn't for how long, the point is that it happened.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“We mourn the future because it's easier than admitting that we're miserable in the present.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“In AP Bio, I learned that the cells in our body are replaced every seven years, which means that one day, I'll have a body full of cells that were never sick. But it also means that parts of me that knew and loved Sadie will disappear. I'll still remember loving her, but it'll be a different me who loved her. And maybe this is how we move on. We grow new cells to replace the grieving ones, diluting our pain until it loses potency.
The percentage of my skin that touched hers will lessen until one day my lips won't be the same lips that kissed hers, and all I'll have are the memories. Memories of cottages in the woods, arranged in a half-moon. Of the tall metal tray return in the dining hall. Of the study tables in the library. The rock where we kissed. The sunken boat in Latham's lake, Sadie, snapping a photograph, laughing the lunch line, lying next to me at the movie night in her green dress, her voice on the phone, her apple-flavored lips on mine. And it's so unfair.
All of it.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“Art is pain. And so is life.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“Because the thing about miracles is that they’re not answers, no matter how much we want them to be.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“..pain can't be taken away. It has to leave on its own. And I wasn't sure mine was the type of pain that wanted to go away.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“I have a theory that life is gathering the raw materials, and when we die, we get to make patterns out of our lives and relive them in whatever order we want. That way I can spend forever repeating the days when I was really happy, and never have to experience any of the sad days. So that's how you live a really great life. You make sure you have enough good days that you want to go back to.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“It's strange how can lose things that are still right there. How a barrier can go up at any moment, trapping you on the other side, keeping you from what you want. How the things that hurt the most are things we once had.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“But at the last minute, I turned left, because I never had before, and because I had time to go down a different road.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“At Latham House, we were asked to believe in unlikely miracles. In second chances. We woke up each morning hoping that the odds had somehow swung in our favor.
But that’s the thing about odds. Roll a die twice, and you expect two different results. Except it doesn’t work that way. You could roll the same side over and over again, the laws of the universe intact and unchanging with each turn. It’s only when you consider the past that the odds change. That things become less and less likely.
Here’s something I know because I’m a nerd: up until the middle of the twentieth century, dice were made out of cellulose nitrate. It’s a material that remains stable for decades but, in a flash, can decompose. The chemical compound breaks down, releasing nitric acid. So every time you roll a die, there’s a small chance that it won’t give you a result at all, that instead it will cleave, crumble, and explode.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“Now can you rate your pain for me on a scale of one to ten?"
But I couldn't. It seemed so wrong to me then that there were only ten options, only ten types of pain. Because I'm pretty sure there are hundreds of types of pain in this world, maybe even thousands. And none of these are numbers on the same scale. They all hurt differently, and amounts have nothing to do with it. They all hurt too much, and not enough.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“I read once that we’re all just dead stars looking back up to the sky, because everything we’re made of, even the hemoglobin in our blood, comes from the moment before a star dies.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“I didn’t want to kiss you good-bye—that was the trouble— I wanted to kiss you good night— and there’s a lot of difference. —ERNEST HEMINGWAY Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice and I’ll tell you a story. —F. SCOTT FITZGERALD”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“It had hurt to accept what was wrong with me, but it hurt even more to have hope.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“They say your skin is the largest organ in your body, but I'd never really appreciated that before, the way his fingertips slowly tracing the curve of my jaw could travel down the entire length of my body, covering me in goose bumps. The way he could make me feel flushed with something that wasn't fever.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“Because that's all you can do in this world, no matter how strong the current beats you, or how heavy your burden, or how tragic your love story. You keep going.
It took a lot of things to make me realize that. To make me see the path, as the destination.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“The dead never listen when you want to tell them anything.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“I'm so sorry. I always felt like there was something off about me, and now I know. I'm broken."
It wrecked me all over again to hear her say that.
"You're not broken."
"Then how come I can't be fixed?" she asked, shaking as she held back tears. "If I'm not broken, how come no one can fix me?”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“Start as you mean to go on.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“One thing I've realized about new places is that they're like jeans. Sure, they might fit in, but they're not comfortable. They need time to be broken in”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“I had a massive bed at home, and I loved her dearly. She was my queen, and I was her loyal subject.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“I just hadn't wanted to admit it, because admitting it meant acknowledging the possibility that the odds might be in my favor. And that possibility was terrifying.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“I didn't realise you'd ridden here on your high horse”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“Well, fresh air's supposedly good for us,' I said.
'Breathing: The miracle cure everyone's been looking for.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“Usually spending any amount of time with someone was a forcible reminder of how much I'd rather be alone.”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
“Sometimes a day last an hour, and sometimes it lasts a year”
― Robyn Schneider, quote from Extraordinary Means
Robyn Schneider
Born place: in The United States
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“I use the term happiness to refer to the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile.”
― Sonja Lyubomirsky, quote from The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want
“People who felt scared or desperate enough could do almost anything, even things that are extremely out of their character to do; things that are not natural to them. When it came to the human condition, it only took one small spark to light an inferno.”
― J.M. Northup, quote from Fears of Darkness
“Forget looking angry; Dean Winchester was positively predatory.”
― quote from Twist and Shout
“She was a hunchback with a sweet smile. She smiled sweetly at anything; she couldn't help it; the trees, me, the grass, anything. The basket pulled her down, dragging her toward the ground. She was such a tiny woman, with a hurt face, as if slapped forever. She wore a funny old hat, an absurd hat, a maddening hat, a hat to make me cry, a hat with faded red berries on the brim. And there she was, smiling at everything, struggling across the carpet with a heavy basket containing Lord knew what, wearing a plumed hat with red berries.
I got up. It was so mysterious. There I was, like magic, standing up, my two feet on the ground, my eyes drenched.
I said, "Let me help."
She smiled again and gave me the basket. We began to walk. She led the way. Beyond the trees it was stifling. And she smiled. It was so sweet it nearly tore my head off. She talked, she told me things I never remembered. It didn't matter. In a« dream she held me, in a dream I followed under the blinding sun. For blocks we went forward. I hoped it would never end. Always she talked in a low voice made of human music. What words! What she said! I remembered nothing. I was only happy. But in my heart I was dying. It should have been so. We stepped from so many curbs, I wondered why she did not sit upon one and hold my head while I drifted away. It was the chance that never came again.
That old woman with the bent back! Old woman, I feel so joyfully your pain. Ask me a favor, you old woman you! Anything. To die is easy. Make it that. To cry is easy, lift your skirt and let me cry and let my tears wash your feet to let you know I know what life has been for you, because my back is bent too, but my heart is whole, my tears are delicious, my love is yours, to give you joy where God has failed. To die is so easy and you may have my life if you wish it, you old woman, you hurt me so, you did, I will do anything for you, to die for you, the blood of my eighteen years flowing in the gutters of Wilmington and down to the sea for you, for you that you might find such joy as is now mine and stand erect without the horror of that twist.
I left the old woman at her door.
The trees shimmered. The clouds laughed. The blue sky took me up. Where am I? Is this Wilmington, California? Haven't I been here before? A melody moved my feet. The air soared with Arturo in it, puffing him in and out and making him something and nothing. My heart laughed and laughed. Goodbye to Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and all of you, you fools, I am much greater than all of you! Through my veins ran music of blood. Would it last? It could not last. I must hurry. But where? And I ran toward home. Now I am home. I left the book in the park. To hell with it. No more books for me. I kissed my mother. I clung to her passionately. On my knees I fell at her feet to kiss her feet and cling to her ankles until it must have hurt her and amazed her that it was I.”
― John Fante, quote from The Road to Los Angeles
“For a long time, I was convinced that love potion resided in his mouth. On his tongue. But I was wrong. The source of his power is the Titan. It’s practically a godly entity of its own when it's awakened. Every time I think my sexual credit card is maxed out, he touches me and I'm ready to go shopping again. And we all know how much I love to shop.”
― Jillian Dodd, quote from Get Me
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