“Fate is trying to kill me. I miss my dog. What's a doctor going to say? You're not ill, you're mad as a muffin? They'll either lock me up or tell me to get a grip and no one will believe the truth anyway.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“I'm sorry I started all this by trying to fly and I'd take it back if I could but I can't, so please think of it from my point of view: if you die I will have a dead brother and it will be me instead of you who suffers.
Justin thought of his brother on that warm summer day, standing up on the windowsill holding both their futures, light and changeable as air, in his outstretched arms.
Of course, Justin thought, I'm part of his fate just as he's part of mine. I hadn't considered it from his point of view. Or from the point of view of the universe, either. It's just a playing field crammed full of cause and effect, billions of dominoes, each knocking over billions more, setting off trillions of actions every second. A butterfly flaps its wings in Africa and my brother in Luton thinks he can fly.
The child nodded. A piano might fall on your head, he said, but it also might not. And in the meantime you never know. Something nice might happen.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“Ask any comedian, tennis player, chef. Timing is everything.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“I love you. I'm madly in love with you. Well, madly obviously, given I'm mad as a mudlark. But you saved my life. I'd be dead without you. And you're so good to me. And you love me too. How lucky is that? Amazing! Amazingly lucky. I can't live without you. You're my lucky charm."
She felt a sudden desire to kill Justin's well-meaning friend.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“When a creature begins to emerge from it's chrysails there is a point at which it is neither one thing nor the other, not quite grown into a new identity nor rid of the old one.
It's wings are folded and sticky, it's colours hidden. Whether it will emerge in shades of emerald and lapis lazuli or the colour of mud is yet to be revealed.
It is that long, still, moment of waiting that fascinates me utterly. The suspence of waiting for beauty to unfurl.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“Where's your dog?" Peter's voice came from within the gushing stream of water. Justin thought he must have misheard.
"Pardon?"
"Your dog."
"Yes?"
"Isn't he with you today?" Justin looked at Peter.
"Ha bloody ha." Peter stuck his head out of the stream of water, features dripping. He smiled shyly.
"I love greyhounds." Justin stared.
"My dog is imaginary."
"Oh." Peter looked interested. "That's unusual." Justin put his head under the water. When he emerged, Peter was still looking at him.
"Less work," Peter offered, cheerily. "If the dog's imaginary, I mean. Not so much grooming, feeding, et cetera.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“He was a peculiar sight. Tears rolling down his face, shouting to drown the sound of the singing rabbit; he said he needed help, pointed to a chicken, handed over some money, grabbed his parcel and bolted out the door in panic.
Boys, thought the butcher.
Drugs, thought the woman.
Justin Case, thought Dorothea.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“It's just a playing field crammed full of cause and effect, billions of dominoes, each knocking over billions more, setting off trillions of actions every second.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“The startled child gathered his thoughts.
I'm not entirely sure what the circumstances are, he said, but as a general rule I try to keep things simple. If I'm clear about what I want, other people have an easier time making me happy. It sounds basic, but most of the time it works.
"Duck." He spoke clearly, pointing to a wooden duck.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“There he lay spooked, a spinning wheel in a celestial bowling alley.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“How many events added up to a coincidence?
How many coincidences added up to a conspiracy?”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“Pouring breakfast cereal into a bowl, he saw his life crashing down in smoking ruins.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“I skim through time and space at the speed of thought. The unknown is my prey, I bring it to earth in a single exquisite bound.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“How doe we define the energy of thought versus the energy of action.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“And then without any signal or obvious sign of tansformation, the beach was suddenly alight with fiery stones.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“A piano might fall on your head, he said, but it also might not. And in the meantime you never know. Something nice might happen.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“In the meantime, Charlie learnt to fly. Dorothea fell in love. Peter discovered a new star. And a great number of things happened to Justin. Hundreds of millions of ordinary, unexpected, and occasionally quite astonishing things.
And that was his fate.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“It says: "Baltic Amber, fifty million years old and full of fire; warm, and enduring like love". Wonderfully romantic, don't you think? Only I don't know how to differntiate thestuff from plain old yellow stones.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“Dear, dear," Ivan said, eyebrow raised. "So this is what Kansas looks like.”
― Meg Rosoff, quote from Just in Case
“We're living in a funny world kid, a peculiar civilization. The police are playing crooks in it, and the crooks are doing police duty. The politicians are preachers, and the preachers are politicians. The tax collectors collect for themselves. The Bad People want us to have more dough, and the good people are fighting to keep it from us. It's not good for us, know what I mean? If we had all we wanted to eat, we'd eat too much. We'd have inflation in the toilet paper industry. That's the way I understand it. That's about the size of some of the arguments I've heard.”
― Jim Thompson, quote from The Killer Inside Me
“Every man of character will have that character questioned. Every man of honor and courage will be faced with unjust criticism, but never forget that unjust criticism has no impact whatsoever upon the truth. And the only sure way to avoid criticism is to do nothing and be nothing.”
― Andy Andrews, quote from The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success
“We don't set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people's hearts.”
― Pema Chödrön, quote from When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
“You told us once not to be in such a hurry to grow up, but I don't see any way we could have avoided it. There was always someone out there ready to carve away another chunk of our innocence. Maybe because theirs was already gone and they couldn't stand the sight of our ignorant happiness. Because that's what innocence is, you know. A blissful oblivion of what's coming, of what you'll lose and what you'll gain, and what kind of person you'll grow up to be.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers
“This infatuation must be dispelled; it is necessary for me not to admire you. I do not wish to fall in love.”
― Ariana Franklin, quote from Mistress of the Art of Death
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.
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