“I wish I had a boyfriend. I wish he lived in the wardrobe on a coat hanger. Whenever I wanted, I could get him out and he'd look at me the way boys do in films, as if I'm beautiful.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“I love you. I love you. I send this message through my fingers and into his, up his arm and into his heart. Hear me. I love you. And I'm sorry to leave you.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“I love you. It hurts more than anything ever has, but I do. So don't you dare tell me I don't. Don't you ever say it again!”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“Bye, Tess. haunt me if you like. I don't mind.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“Adam strokes my head, my face, he kisses my tears.
We are blessed.
Let them all go.
The sound of a bird flying low across the garden. Then nothing. Nothing. A cloud passes. Nothing again. Light falls through the window, falls onto me, into me.
Moments.
All gathering towards this one.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“Keep breathing. Just keep doing it. It's easy. In and out.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“Every few years we disappear, Zoey. All our cells are replaced by others. Not a single bit of me is the same as when I was last in this room.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“We said we'd be friends.'
He looks confused. 'Yeah.'
I don't want to be.'
There's space between us, and in that space there's darkness. I take another step, so close that we share a breath. The same one. In and out.
Tess,' he says. I know it's a warning, but I don't care.
What's the worst thing that can happen?'
It'll hurt,' he says.
It already hurts.'
He nods very slowly. And it's like there's a hole in time, as if everything stops and in this one minute, where we look at each other so close, is spread out between us. As he leans towards me, I feel a strange warmth filtering through me. I forget that my brain is full of every sad face at every window I've ever passed.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“Moments.
All gathering towards this one.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“I made a fatal error thinking he could save me.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“Hold my hand. Don't let go.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“Then she says, ‘I love you.’ Like three drops of blood falling onto snow.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“We make patterns, we share moments. Sometimes, I think I'm the only one to see it.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“I've always wanted to be a cat. Warm and domesticated when you want to be, wild when you don't.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“I want to die in my own way. It's my illness, my death, my choice. This is what saying yes means.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“Instructions for Adam
Look after no one except yourself. Go to university and make lots of friends and get drunk. Forget your door keyes. Laugh. Eat pot-noodles for breakfast. Miss lectures. Be irresponsible.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“when I was four I almost fell down the shaft of a tin mine and when I was five the car rolled over on the motorway and when I was seven we went on holiday and the gas ring blew out in the caravan and nobody noticed
I've been dying all my life”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“Cal says that humans are made from the nuclear ash of dead stars. He says that when I die, I'll return to dust, glitter,rain. If thats true, I want to be buried right here under this tree. Its roots will reach into the soft mess of my body and suck me dry. I'll be re-formed as apple blossom. I'll drift down in the spring like confetti and cling to my family's shoes. They'll carry me in their pockets to help them sleep. What dreams will they have then?”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“Every seven years our bodies change, every cell. Every seven years, we disappear.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“I'm me and you're you, and all of them out there are them. And we're all so different and equally unimportant.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“We make patterns, we share moments.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“I want the people I love to get up and speak about me, and even if you cry it'll be OK. I want you to say honest things.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“All I know is that I have two choices – stay wrapped in blankets and get on with dying, or get the list back together and get on with living.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“She'll understand what I already know - that death surrounds us all. And it tastes like metal between your teeth.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“Afterwards, go to a pub for lunch. I've got $260 in my savings account and I really want you to use it for that. Really, I mean it--lunch is on me. Make sure you have pudding--sticky toffee, chocolate fudge cake, ice-cream sundae, something really bad for you. Get drunk too if you like (but don't scare Cal). Spend all the money.
And after that, when days have gone by, keep an eye out for me. I might write on the steam in the mirror when you're having a bath, or play with the leaves on the apple tree when you're out in the garden. I might slip into a dream.
Visit my grave when you can, but don't kick yourself if you can't, or if you move house and it's suddenly too far away. It looks pretty there in the summer (check out the website). You could bring a picnic and sit with me. I'd like that.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“It's utterly beautiful not to know my own edges.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“I said I wouldn't leave her.”
― Jenny Downham, quote from Now is Good
“What a strange mind, to cover the real thing with an imitation of something real.”
― Frances Mayes, quote from Under the Tuscan Sun
“Commala-come-come
There’s a young man with a gun.
Young man lost his honey
When she took it on the run.
Commala-come-one!
She took it on the run!
Left her baby lonely
But he baby ain’t done.
Commala-come-coo
The wind’ll blow ya through.
Ya gotta go where ka’s wind blows ya
Cause there’s nothin else to do.
Commala-come-two!
Nothin else to do!
Gotta go where ka’s wind blows ya
Cause there’s nothin else to do.
Commala-come-key
Can you tell me what ya see?
Is it ghosts or just the mirror
That makes ya wanna flee?
Commala-come-three!
I beg ya, tell me!
Is it ghosts or just your darker self
That makes ya wanna flee?
Commala-come-ko
Whatcha doin at my do’?
If ya doan tell me now, my friend
I’ll lay ya on de flo’.
Commala-come-fo’!
I can lay ya low!
The things I’ve do to such as you
You never wanna know.
Commala-gin-jive
Ain’t it grand to be alive?
To look out on Discordia
When the Demon Moon arrives.
Commala-come-five!
Even when the shadows rise!
To see the world and walk the world
Makes ya glad to be alive.
Commala-mox-nix!
You’re in a nasty fix!
To take a hand in traitor’s glove
Is to grasp a sheaf of sticks!
Commala-come-six!
Nothing there but thorns and sticks!
When your find your hand in traitor’s glove
You’re in a nasty fix.
Commala-loaf-leaven!
They go to hell or up to heaven!
The the guns are shot and the fires hot,
You got to poke em in the oven.
Commala-come-seven!
Salt and yow’ for leaven!
Heat em up and knock em down
And poke em in the oven.
Commala-ka-kate
You’re in the hands of fate.
No matter if it’s real or not,
The hour groweth late.
Commala-come-eight!
The hour groweth late!
No matter what shade ya cast
You’re in the hands of fate.
Commala-me-mine
You have to walk the line.
When you finally get the thing you need
It makes you feel so fine.
Commala-come-nine!
It makes ya feel fine!
But if you’d have the thing you need
You have to walk the line.
Commala-come-ken
It’s the other one again.
You may know her name and face
But that don’t make her your friend.
Commala-come-ten!
She is not your friend!
If you let her get too close
She’ll cut you up again!
Commala-come-call
We hail the one who made us all,
Who made the men and made the maids,
Who made the great and small.
Commala-come-call!
He made us great and small!
And yet how great the hand of fate
That rules us one and all.
Commala-come-ki,
There’s a time to live and one to die.
With your back against the final wall
Ya gotta let the bullets fly.
Commala-come-ki!
Let the bullets fly!
Don’t ‘ee mourn for me, my lads
When it comes my day to die.
Commala-come-kass!
The child has come at last!
Sing your song, O sing it well,
The child has come to pass.
Commala-come-kass,
The worst has come to pass.
The Tower trembles on its ground;
The child has come at last.
Commala-come-come,
The battle’s now begun!
And all the foes of men and rose
Rise with the setting sun.”
― Stephen King, quote from Song of Susannah
“They reminded me, however, of soldiers in the Crusades, the Wars of the Roses or the Norman Conquest. Thick, but willing to fight anyone if told to”
― Karl Wiggins, quote from Calico Jack in your Garden
“How we see the world changes all the time. It all depends on our mood.”
― Sarah Addison Allen, quote from The Girl Who Chased the Moon
“One man armed with the right word may do what an army of swordsmen cannot.”
― Robin Hobb, quote from Golden Fool
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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