“Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“If you stay, I'll do whatever you want. I'll quit the band, go with you to New York. But if you need me to go away, I'll do that, too. I was talking to Liz and she said maybe coming back to your old life would be too painful, that maybe it'd be easier for you to erase us. And that would suck, but I'd do it. I can lose you like that if I don't lose you today. I'll let you go. If you stay.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“And that's just it, isn't it? That's how we manage to survive the loss. Because love, it never dies, it never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“I'm not sure this is a world I belong in anymore. I'm not sure that I want to wake up.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“Please Mia," he implores. "Don't make me write a song.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“Losing me will hurt; it will be the kind of pain that won't feel real at first, and when it does, it will take her breath away.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“Don't be scared...Women can handle the worst kind of pain. You'll find out one day.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“It's okay,' he tells me. 'If you want to go. Everyone wants you to stay. I want you to stay more than I've ever wanted anything in my life.' His voice cracks with emotion. He stops, clears his throat, takes a breath, and continues. 'But that's what I want and I could see why it might not be what you want. So I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. It's okay if you have to leave us. It's okay if you want to stop fighting.'
For the first time since I realized that Teddy was gone, too, I feel something unclench. I feel myself breathe. I know that Gramps can't be that late-inning pinch hitter I'd hoped for. He won't unplug my breathing tube or overdoes me with morphine or anything like that. But this is the first time today that anyone has acknowledged what I have lost. I know that the social worker warned Gran and Gramps not to upset me, but Gramps's recognition, and the permission he just offered me--it feels like a gift.
Gramps doesn't leave me. He slumps back into the chair. It's quiet now. So quiet you can almost hear other people's dreams. So quiet that you can almost hear me tell Gramps, 'Thank you.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. It’s okay if you have to leave us. It’s okay if you want to stop fighting.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“Fake it 'till you make it.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“I'm not choosing, but I'm running out of fight.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“Girlfriend is such a stupid word. I couldn't stand calling her that. So, we had to get married, so I could call her 'wife.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“People believe what they want to believe.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“She didn't care that people called her a bitch. 'It's just another word for feminist,' she told me with pride.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“But I'd understand if you chose love, Adam love, over music love. Either way you win. And either way you lose. What can I tell you? Love's a bitch.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“This is the you I like. You definitely dressed sexier and are, you know, blond, and that's different. But the you who are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the same you I'll be in love with tomorrow. I love that you're fragile and tough, quiet and kick-ass. ”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“It's quiet now. So quiet that can almost hear other people's dreams.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“I have a feeling that once you live through something like this, you become a little bit invincible.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“All I can think about is how fucked up it would be for your life to end here, now. I mean I know that your life if fucked up no matter what now, forever. And I'm not dumb enough to think that I can undo that, that anyone can. But I can't wrap my mind around the notion of you not getting old, having kids, going to Juilliard, getting to play that cello in front of a huge audience, so that they can get the chills the way I do every time I see you pick up your bow, every time I see you smile at me.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“But the you who you are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the same you I’ll be in love with tomorrow.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“I don't really care. I shouldn't have to care. I shouldn't have to work this hard. I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“You can have your wishes, your plans, but at the end of the day, it's out of your control.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“You just work through it. You just hang in there.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“We are like Humpty Dumpty and all these king's horses and all these king's men cannot put us back together again”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“Bribes are the glue that's kept teenagers and parents connected for generations”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
“How am I supposed to decide this? How can I possibly stay without mom and dad? How can I leave without Teddy? Or Adam? This is too much. I don’t even understand how it all works, why I’m here in the state that I’m in or how to get out of it if I wanted to. If I were to say, I want to wake up, would I wake up right now? I’ve already tried snapping my heels to find Teddy and tried to beam myself to Hawaii, and that didn’t work. This seems a whole lot more complicated.
But in spite of that, I believe it’s true. I hear the nurse’s words again. I am running the show. Everyone’s waiting on me.
I decide. I know this now.
And this terrifies me more than anything else that has happened today.”
― Gayle Forman, quote from If I Stay
Gayle Forman
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“Let me enjoy my fan-wanking.
Your what?
Let me arrange the story to meet my own personal needs.”
― Amanda Stevens, quote from The Restorer
“I also worry that my reporting will become this deluge of tragedy for people, who like myself, unable or uncertain of what to do, let it wash over them. Some African journalists call it poverty porn—stories or images of intense suffering designed solely for emotional impact, but often have the effect of shutting people down rather than helping them step up.”
― Kevin Sites, quote from In the Hot Zone: One Man, One Year, Twenty Wars
“In an interesting attempt at avoiding any possible external prosecution for mercenary activities, the contract stipulated that Sandline personnel be deputized “special constables,” sworn in as PNG police officers, but given military rank. This provision meant that although they were not Papua New Guinea citizens, they would nevertheless have the legal authority to carry weapons, arrest local citizens, and act forcibly in “self defense” (to be interpreted by the firm itself).”
― P.W. Singer, quote from Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry
“Sometimes we call it ‘Extra Chunky,’ too.”
“Why’s that?” she finally asked. “Because,” DeForrest said, barely able to contain his mirth, “when you run over a hippy with this thing, extra chunky is about all that’s left.”
― David Wellington, quote from 13 Bullets
“• While Rommel was going to see Hitler to beg for more tanks and a tighter command structure, Eisenhower was visited by Churchill, who was coming to the supreme commander to beg a favor. He wanted to go along on the invasion, on HMS Belfast. (“Of course, no one likes to be shot at,” Eisenhower later remarked, “but I must say that more people wanted in than wanted out on this one.”) As Eisenhower related the story, “I told him he couldn’t do it. I was in command of this operation and I wasn’t going to risk losing him. He was worth too much to the Allied cause. “He thought a moment and said, ‘You have the operational command of all forces, but you are not responsible administratively for the makeup of the crews.’ “And I said, ‘Yes, that’s right.’ “He said, ‘Well, then I can sign on as a member of the crew of one of His Majesty’s ships, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ “I said, ‘That’s correct. But, Prime Minister, you will make my burden a lot heavier if you do it.’ ” Churchill said he was going to do it anyway. Eisenhower had his chief of staff, General Smith, call King George VI to explain the problem. The king told Smith, “You boys leave Winston to me.” He called Churchill to say, “Well, as long as you feel that it is desirable to go along, I think it is my duty to go along with you.” Churchill gave up.”
― Stephen E. Ambrose, quote from D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches
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