Quotes from Leftovers

Laura Wiess ·  232 pages

Rating: (3.1K votes)


“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


“Time is not your friend. It doesn't care if you live fast or die slow, if you are or if you aren't. It was here before you arrived and it will go on after you leave. Time doesn't care who wins or who loses, if your life span is full or empty, honorable or shameful. Time is indifferent. It simply doesn't give a shit.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers


“See, guys freak out. They hit critical mass and blast nuclear, white-hot anger out over the world like walking flamethrowers. But girls freak in. They absorb the pain and bitterness and keep right on sponging it up until they drown.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers


“Ignorance of the outcome doesn't exempt you from the consequences.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers


“It's just that instead of erupting and annihilating our tormentors, we destroy ourselves instead.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers



“We mutinied quietly, using every lesson we’d been taught by every person who’d ever used us for their own benefit.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers


“Yeah, I know I've changed. Nothing gets to me anymore.
Well, okay, except for stuff in the past. Back then I was all innocent and trusting and didn't know anything. Now I know plenty and you can't fucking touch me.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers


“We're not afraid of the dark. Our nightmares were born on sultry, summer afternoons.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers


“Maybe it's true that shared trauma brings people closer together-a common hardship, a battle to survive-because when times are quiet people relax and go their own separate ways. They're lulled into believing they've got everything under control and don't need what they did before.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers


“No step is a safe one, so it's safer to take none at all.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers



“I tore the crusts off my grilled cheese sandwich and set them aside to throw out for the birds. Their motives were pure -- hunger, thirst, shelter -- and they didn't mind leftovers.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers


“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


“Being user friendly doesn't mean you're going to be loved.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers


“... real life isn't like the movies. The victim doesn't usually win. She just endures.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers


“So sometimes what takes you down can be used to raise you up again.”
― Laura Wiess, quote from Leftovers



About the author

Laura Wiess
Born place: The United States
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Popular quotes

“Não faz sentido desejarmos ter tido um passado que não podemos alterar. Por que é que não havemos de desejar coisas que ainda podemos ter?”
― Richard Bach, quote from One


“The evil you know is better than the evil you don't.”
― Amy A. Bartol, quote from Indebted


“I feel him beside me, hear the even sound of his breathing, smell the delicious saltiness of his skin.
I have missed him.
I move to face him, and that’s when the pain reminds me that I’ve recently been stabbed. I bury my face in the pillow, but it doesn’t quite muffle my yelp.
“Emma?” Galen says groggily. I feel his hand in my hair, stroking the length of it. “Don’t move, angelfish. Stay on your stomach. I’ll go tell Rachel you’re ready for more pain medicine.”
Immediately I disobey and turn my face up to him. He shakes his head. “I’ve recently learned where your stubbornness comes from.”
I grimace/smile. “My mom?”
“Worse. King Antonis. The resemblance is uncanny.” He leans down and presses his lips to mine and all too quickly springs back up. “Now, be a good little deviant and stay put while I go get more pain meds.”
“Galen,” I say.
“Hmmm?”
“How bad am I hurt?”
He caresses the outline of my cheek. His touch could disintegrate me. “Hurt at all is bad enough for me.”
“Yeah, but you’ve always been a baby about this stuff.” I grin at his faux offense.
“Your mother says it’s only a flesh wound. She’s been treating it.”
“Mom is here?”
“She’s downstairs. Uh…You should know that Grom is here, too.”
Grom left the tribunal and headed for land? Did that mean it all ended badly? Well, even worse than my getting impaled? An urgent need to know everything about everything shimmies through me. “Whoa. Sit. Talk. Now.”
He laughs. “I will, I promise. But I want to make you comfortable first.”
“Well, then, you need to come over here and switch places with the bed.” A blush fills my cheeks, but I don’t care. I need him. All of him. It feels like forever since we’ve talked like this, just me and him. But talking usually doesn’t last long. Lips were made for other things, too. And Galen is especially good at the other things.
He walks back and squats by the bed. “You have no idea how tempting that is.” It seems like the violet of his eyes gets darker. It’s the color they get when he has to pull away from me, when we’re about to violate a bunch of Syrena laws if we don’t stop. “But you’re not well enough to…” He runs a hand through his hair. “I’ll go get Rachel. Then we can talk.”
I’m a little surprised that his argument didn’t begin with “But the law…” That is what has stopped us in the past. Now the only thing that appears to be stopping us is my stabby condition.
What’s changed?
And why am I not excited about it? I used to get so frustrated when he would pull away. But a small part of me loved that about him, his respect for the law and for the tradition of his people. His respect for me. Respect is a hard thing to come by when picking from among human boys. Is that respect gone?
And is it my fault?
― Anna Banks, quote from Of Triton


“Didn't Chains tell you about the Golden Theological Principle?"

"The what?"

"The single congruent aspect of every known religion. The one shared, universal assumption about the human condition."

"What is it?"

"He said that life boils down to standing in line to get shit dropped on your head. Everyone's got a place in the queue, you can't get out of it, and just when you start to congratulate yourself on surviving your dose of shit, you discover that line is actually circular.”
― Scott Lynch, quote from The Republic of Thieves


“Jesus smiled, “So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Good! But better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.”
― D.C. Talk, quote from Jesus Freaks: Stories of Those Who Stood for Jesus, the Ultimate Jesus Freaks


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