Quotes from I'll Give You the Sun

Jandy Nelson ·  384 pages

Rating: (183.3K votes)


“Maybe some people are just meant to be in the same story.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“Meeting your soul mate is like walking into a house you've been in before - you will recognize the furniture, the pictures on the wall, the books on the shelves, the contents of drawers: You could find your way around in the dark if you had to.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“I gave up practically the whole world for you,” I tell him, walking through the front door of my own love story. “The sun, stars, ocean, trees, everything, I gave it all up for you.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“I love you,” I say to him, only it comes out, “Hey.”
“So damn much,” he says back, only it comes out, “Dude.”
He still won’t meet my eyes.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“I didn’t know you could get buried in your own silence.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun



“Or maybe a person is just made up of a lot of people,” I say. “Maybe we’re accumulating these new selves all the time.” Hauling them in as we make choices, good and bad, as we screw up, step up, lose our minds, find our minds, fall apart, fall in love, as we grieve, grow, retreat from the world, dive into the world, as we make things, as we break things.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“Quick, make a wish.
Take a (second or third or fourth) chance.
Remake the world.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“When people fall in love, they burst into flames.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“His soul might be a sun. I’ve never met anyone who had the sun for a soul.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“You have to see the miracles for there to be miracles.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun



“Sometimes you think you know things, know things very deeply, only to realize you don’t know a damn thing.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“In one split second I saw everything I could be, everything I want to be. And all that I’m not.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“Reality is crushing. The world is a wrong-sized shoe. How can anyone stand it?”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“what is bad for the heart is good for art. The terrible irony of our lives as artists.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“We wish with our hands, that’s what we do as artists.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun



“If bad luck knows who you are, become someone else.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“This is what I want: I want to grab my brother’s hand and run back through time, losing years like coats falling from our shoulders.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“There should be a horn or gong or something to wake God. Because I’d like to have a word with him. Three words actually: WHAT THE FUCK?!”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“It's never occurred to me that the stars are still up there shining even in the daytime when we can't see them.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“We were all heading for each other on a collision course, no matter what. Maybe some people are just meant to be in the same story.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun



“It’s time for second chances. It’s time to remake the world.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“A broken heart is an open heart.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“He's the one. And some thoughts once thought are very hard to unthink.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“And even as I'm kissing him and kissing him and kissing him, I wish I were kissing him, wanting more, more, more, more, like I can't get enough, never will be able to get enough.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“No hot guy should be allowed to have an English accent and drive a motorcycle.
Not to mention wear the leather jacket or sport the cool shades. Hot guys should be forced into footie pajamas.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun



“What if I'm in charge of my own damn light switch?”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“He floated into the air high above the sleeping forest, his green hat spinning a few feet above his head. In his hand was the open suitcase and out of it spilled a whole sky of stars.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“Maybe a person is just made up of a lot of people," I say. "Maybe we're accumulating these new selves all the time.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


“They do make love stories for girls with black hearts after all. They go like this.”
― Jandy Nelson, quote from I'll Give You the Sun


About the author

Jandy Nelson
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Popular quotes

“I'm staying right here," grumbled the rat. "I haven't the slightest interest in fairs."
"That's because you've never been to one," remarked the old sheep . "A fair is a rat's paradise. Everybody spills food at a fair. A rat can creep out late at night and have a feast. In the horse barn you will find oats that the trotters and pacers have spilled. In the trampled grass of the infield you will find old discarded lunch boxes containing the foul remains of peanut butter sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, cracker crumbs, bits of doughnuts, and particles of cheese. In the hard-packed dirt of the midway, after the glaring lights are out and the people have gone home to bed, you will find a veritable treasure of popcorn fragments, frozen custard dribblings, candied apples abandoned by tired children, sugar fluff crystals, salted almonds, popsicles,partially gnawed ice cream cones,and the wooden sticks of lollypops. Everywhere is loot for a rat--in tents, in booths, in hay lofts--why, a fair has enough disgusting leftover food to satisfy a whole army of rats."
Templeton's eyes were blazing.
" Is this true?" he asked. "Is this appetizing yarn of yours true? I like high living, and what you say tempts me."
"It is true," said the old sheep. "Go to the Fair Templeton. You will find that the conditions at a fair will surpass your wildest dreams. Buckets with sour mash sticking to them, tin cans containing particles of tuna fish, greasy bags stuffed with rotten..."
"That's enough!" cried Templeton. "Don't tell me anymore I'm going!”
― E.B. White, quote from Charlotte's Web


“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, quote from The Great Gatsby


“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”
― L.M. Montgomery, quote from Anne of Green Gables


“I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog.”
― John Steinbeck, quote from Of Mice and Men


“For life be, after all, only a waitin' for somethin' else than what we're doin'; and death be all that we can rightly depend on.”
― Bram Stoker, quote from Dracula


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