“This book is for everyone who has survived. You are not broken. You can love and be loved, despite what may feel like the eternally brutal nature of the world. Even when you're drowning and so far under, there is always time to reach for someone who will teach you how to breathe again.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“It’s smart to end relationships that are poisonous. It’s a good thing. Sometimes you have to cut people out of your life to make things better. So you can move forward.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“We don't have to know everything. If you believe in fate and some kind of meaning and sense in this fucked-up world, then believe with abandon, love. Enjoy it.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“You need songs that make you feel. Some make you string, some make you weak. Some build determination, some tear you apart. But you need all of those...Run through the pain.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“Your parents died. Your world fell apart."
I nod.
He puts his hand on my cheek. "You were left drowning"
I nod again.
"And you're struggling to breathe"
I am. It's a constant struggle to stay near the surface I have just enough air to stop me from going totally under, but not enough to thrive.
"So do it. Breathe. Just Breathe." He turns up the volume and strokes my hair.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“What are we doing? What are you doing?”
“Loving you,” he says simply. “If you’ll let me.”
“Always. God, always.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“He leans into me and kisses me again. Harder this time. He tastes like eternity, and healing, and completion.
No one else could ever kiss me like this, of that I am positive.
I could breathe in him forever.
I could fall in love forever.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“You have the here and now. You have a future. Deal with the past so you can stop looking back. It's just the pain.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“I see perfection in things that are likely considered imperfections by others.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“Being with you let me feel, feel everything, and I needed that. I remembered better with you, I healed better with you, and you made … you made everything real.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“At least one thing is certain: Chris and I are inextricably connected. Do I have factual reasons to know this? Proof? Assurances? No None.
Some people believe in God; I believe in Chris.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“Shut up" he says teasingly. "I know what you're thinking, and that's not why you're here with us"
We walk for a minute. "Why am I?"
Sabin shrugs. "Does there really have to be an answer to that? Sometimes it's just right. You fit. Jesus, kid, can't you feel it? Don't question everything."
I smile. I do feel it. Belonging.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“I want my mother right now. I want her so desperately that I physically ache to have her hold me, and it's absolutely bullshit that I have no one.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“So I have spent four years without touch and affection and without wanting any.
But now there is Christopher Shepherd, the boy who changed all the rules.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“It wasn’t me?” I snap. “That’s got to be the goddamn dumbest thing you’ve ever said to me. You’re way too smart to say something like that. Don’t be such an asshole.”
“Okay, yes. It was you.”
“Awesome. That’s great to hear.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“Reality is not necessarily my friend—then again, neither are dreams—but this moment, this reality, is beautiful.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“Chris may be imperfect, and he makes mistakes, but I can feel his heart, and I know that he is mine.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“Where in the goddamn hell are Blythe and Chris?”
…
“They’re fucking in the shower! Thank you, Lord!”
Then her heels continue down the walkway while a collective round of applause echoes into the now-dark sky.
“Congratulations! But hurry it up, kids! Dinner is almost ready.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“We run through the remnants of our pain, and more importantly, we run for our present and for our future.
Together we kick heartbreak's ass.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“There is no time frame that dictates when and how you’ll feel what you feel. You just get to deal with hell however, and whenever, it hits you.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“What’s happenin’, the cakest of all my baby cakes?”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“So I add frigid to the list. To that stupid mental inventory I try so hard not to keep. An increasingly large list of all my flaws. My inadequacies. My failures.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“I am hit with the enormity of the impact that this family is having in my life. They, and mostly Chris, are saving me. Or teaching me to save myself.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“I’ve read countless literary works that detail the longing and ache that characters have for someone they love, and over time, I have developed a strong belief that it’s just dramatic bullshit meant to entice readers.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“you're just....You're everything"
His words are perfect, but the tone in his voice is not right. Wistful. Apologetic.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“So stay."
It seems to take forever for him to answer, and his hands are still playing with my hair, his lips still darting against mine every few seconds. "I can't" He steps back and takes my hand to move me out of the way of the door. "I'd give anything to stay, but I can't. You're stunning, Blythe." He gives me an almost-sad smile. "But I just can't stay. It's too much.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“Everything about her shredded my heart because she reminded me too much of my mother, and she reminded me too much of my mother's death. I couldn't handle it. And so I pushed her away.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“I imagine that anyone who goes through trauma like I have wonders the same things I do: how God can exist and allow such awful things to happen. There are no reasons for my parents' death, and that's that.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“One thing has become crystal clear to me overnight: I have never felt as close to anyone as I do to Chris. It is not from the amount of time we've spent together, but from the strength of the unquestionable bond we share.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“Some people believe in God; I believe in Chris.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“Diferentemente de Newton e de Schopenhauer, seu antepassado não acretitava num tempo uniforme, absoluto. Acreditava em infinitas séries de tempos, numa rede crescente e vertiginosa de tempos que se aproximam, se bifurcam, se cortam ou que secularmente se ignoram, abrange todas as possibilidades. Não existimos na maioria desses tempos; nalguns existe o senhor e não eu. Noutros, eu, não o senhor; noutros, os dois. Neste, que um acaso favorável me surpreende, o senhor chegou a minha casa; noutro, o senhor, ao atravessar o jardim, encontrou-me morto; noutro, digo estas mesmas palavras, mas sou um erro, um fantasma.”
― Jorge Luis Borges, quote from The Garden of Forking Paths
“Hell, they’d say in the country club locker room, you know how Milt’s getting his. Everybody knew, bearing testimony to the fact that suburban vice, like a peeling nose, is almost impossible to conceal. It went all over town, this talk, like a swarm of bees, settling down lazily on polite afternoon sun porches to rise once more and settle down again with a busy murmur among cautious ladylike foursomes on the golf course, buzzing pleasurably there amid ladylike whacks of the golf ball and cautious pullings-down of panties which bound too tightly. Everybody knew about their affair and everybody talked about it, and because of some haunting inborn squeamishness it would not have relieved Loftis to know that nobody particularly cared.”
― William Styron, quote from Lie Down in Darkness
“A story can fly like a bee, so straight and swift you catch only the hum of its passing. Or move so slowly it seems motionless, curled in upon itself like a snake in the sun. It can vanish like smoke before the wind. Linger like perfume in the nose. Change with every telling, yet always remain the same.”
― Cameron Dokey, quote from The Storyteller's Daughter: A Retelling of the Arabian Nights
“Horst passed him a bottle he had picked up in his rapid trip from there to here. Remarkably, it's contents had survived the transit. "Drink this," he said, unmoved by Cabal's anger. "You need to save your voice for your next session."
Cabal took the bottle testily and swigged from it. there was a moments pause, just long enough for Cabal's expression to change from testy to horrified revulsion. He spat the liquid violently onto the grass like a man who has got absent-minded with the concentrated nitric acid and a mouth pipette. He glared at Horst as he took off his spectacles and wiped his suddenly weeping eyes "Disinfectant? You give me disinfectant to drink?"
Horst's surprise was replaced with mild amusement. "It's root beer, Johannes. Have you never had root beer?"
Cabal looked suspiciously at him, then at the bottle "People drink this?"
"Yes."
"For non-medical reasons?"
"That's right."
Cabal shook his head in open disbelief. "They must be insane.”
― Jonathan L. Howard, quote from Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
“Mace, you never read Smoky the Cowhorse,did you?
No.
Well,ol' Smoky, he had somebad things happen to him,had the heart knocked clean out of him.But he hung on and came out of it okay.I've been bashed up pretty good,Mason, but I'm going to make it.”
― S.E. Hinton, quote from Tex
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.