“That your eyes are like bits of sky seen through the leaves. And that, like the rain washes the mud from the leaves, you... how did he say it? Oh yes. That you wash the darkness from the world.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“No one should live forever," I whisper. "Isn't that how it goes? There must be a balance. No birth without death. No life without tears. What is taken from the world must be given back. No one should live forever, but should give his blood to the river when the time comes so that tomorrow another may live. And so it goes.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“I want someone who will look into my eyes and understand everything behind them.
-Pia”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“Maybe reason is neater and more orderly, but nonsense is freeing.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“Love makes you weak. It distracts you from the important things. It can make you lose sight of the objective.
-Uncle Paolo”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“He said that seeing and understanding are two different things. Our eyes show us one side of an object, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t five other sides we can’t see. So why thrust your eyes? Why live your whole life thinking that just because you can’t see every side to something, those other sides don’t exist?”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“He lifts my hand from the root and presses it to his bare chest, over his heart. My breath stops. I wonder if he can feel the pulse racing in my wrist, because it’s beating just as quickly as his heartbeat.
“Do you know the Ai’oan word for heart?” he asks.
I shake my head.
“It’s py’a.” We’re so close, his whisper is right in my ear, and his breath warms the side of my neck. “You are my heart, Pia”
I lick my lips. When did they get so dry?
His other hand cradles the back of my head, tipping my face upward. “A body can't live without a heart. And I can’t live without you.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“You won't tell?"
"I'll add it to the box under my bed labeled 'The Secret Confession of the Immortal Pia'. Good Lord, girl, don't look so mortified. There's not actually a box.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“Because you are young and free and one with the jungle. You are mortal, but instead of clinging to the hope of immortality, you embrace each day, one at a time, and never worry about tomorrow.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“Then he's here, emerging from the water like some kind of myth, some fabled Ai'oan god, his hand smoothing his wet hair back from his face, his chest and shoulders gleaming with water and moonlight. Behind him, a pale shimmering trail of blue light marks his passage through the water. His wet shorts hang a bit lower on his hips than they usually do, tempting my imagination. He extends the flower, which I take with trembling fingers. (...)
He smiles a small, crooked smile, and I think he knows exactly how tightly he's bound my tongue in knots. I suspect fetching me the passionflower was only half his purpose in swimming through the glowing pool.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“Now, when he touches me, I feel nothing but Eio, pure and whole and constant. Now, when I look into his eyes, I don't see death- but eternity. For the first time in my life, I am looking into someone's gaze and realizing that not only do I understand what's in his eyes... he understands whats in mine.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“You think that nothing matters as long as you're together, that nothing can harm you two or come between you because you're somehow protected by your feelings for one another.
-Uncle Antonio”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“We...do things a lot differently, yes, but in many ways we are just the same as you...We eat, we sleep, we breathe. We smile when we're happy, and we cry when we're sad. When we swim, we must come up for air. When we work all day, our backs get sore. When we get cut, we bleed.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“A name is a powerful thing. It sets one apart and gives significance.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“Keep your eye on the goal, not the steps you must take to reach it. The goal is everything. The steps are nothing. No matter how difficult the journey is, the goal is always worth it.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“A body can't live without a heart. And I can't live without you.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“The woman may be a biomedical engineer, but I begin to think that she is a certifiable idiot.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“They all seem infected with a vivaciousness that isn't common in our compound, and there are more smiles on their faces than I've ever seen at once. And yet as I watch them, I feel more intensely than ever the knowledge that I'm not one of them. For these moral humans, birthdays are a kind of countdown to the end, the ticking clock of a dwindling life. For me, birthdays are notches on an infinite timeline. Will I grow tired of parties one day? Will my birthday become meaningless? I imagine myself centuries from now, maybe at my three-hundredth birthday, looking all the way back to my seventeenth. How will I possibly be happy, remembering the light in my mother's eyes? The swiftness of Uncle Antonio's steps as he dances? The way my father stands on edge of the courtyard, smiling in that vague, absent way of his?
The scene shifts and blues in my imagination. As if brushed away by some invisible broom, these people whom I've known my entire life disappear. The courtyard is empty, bare, covered in decaying leaves. I imagine Little Cam deserted, with everyone dead and gone and only me left in the shadows.
Forever.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“Love is nothing more than elevated levels of dopamine, nor-epinephrine, and other chemicals. But the way Uncle Antionio's face lights up as they dance... I wonder what it would be like to feel that. To let the chemicals of romance take over for just a little while. Then I remember that I am immortal and that my body doesn't work like everyone else's. Who knows if I can even feel love?”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“I think of the five generations it will take before [Mr. Perfect]'s born, and I want to scream. I want someone now. I want someone who will look into my eyes and understand everything behind them.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“Do you know the Ai'oan word for heart? he asks.
I shake my head.
"It's py'a." We're so close, his whisper is right in my ear, and his breath warms the side of my neck. "You are my heart, Pia.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“What? You don't think I'm perfect?" I can't resist, because he gets so riled whenever I bring it up. "I can run up to thirty miles without stopping. I can jump six feet in the air. There is not a material in this world sharp enough to pierce my skin. I cannot drown or suffocate. I am immune to every illness known to man. I have perfect memory. My senses are more acute that anyone else's. My reflexes rival those of a cat. I will never grow old" - my voice falls, all smugness gone -"and I will never die.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“I may as well shackle my wrist to a bolt of lightning as attach myself to a mortal.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“It slowly dawns on me what it is, the sensation that has bridged the gap between how I saw the world yesterday and how I see it today. It compensates for my lost keenness and even makes everything around me a little brighter.
Hope.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“As we walk, he begins telling me all the names of the plants we pass. I already know their names, but I don't tell him that. He seems to think that scientists always want to know the names of things, and so I guess he thinks he's being helpful.Anyway, I like listening to his voice. It's deep and a little hoarse, as if he's been yelling all day, and his accent makes every word sound new and exciting, as if he's speaking another language I don't have to strain to understand.
"Here is annatto,for repelling insects and curing snakebites. The girls say it makes a love potion, but I don't believe them. They have all tried it on me, and I don't love any of them.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“It's time for both of us to be free.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
“Now, when I look into his eyes, I don't see death - but eternity. For the first time in my life, I am looking into someone's gaze and realizing that not only do I understand what's in his eyes...he understands what's in mine.”
― Jessica Khoury, quote from Origin
Jessica Khoury
Born place: The United States
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“I sometimes think if we knew all, we should be more glad to get away.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson, quote from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
“When people are cruel it's often said that they have no heart, only a cold space or lump of ice in their chest. This was never true of Avalon. She had no heart, everyone knew, but there was nothing cold about her. In her chest burned an enormous coal, white-hot, brighter than the North Star. North knew the truth about Avalon: she was made of fire, and she would burn them all.”
― Kirsty Logan, quote from The Gracekeepers
“It was a little unsettling how quiet the skies were. Clay”
― Tui T. Sutherland, quote from The Brightest Night
“But I've been kidding myself that this thing I feel for her is just a crush. No matter what I'd heard or read or seen in a movie - no one ever said it was supposed to suck so badly.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space
“You're telling someone in a wheelchair 'Walking is awesome. You should get up and walk.' It's not that easy.”
― Jeff Zentner, quote from The Serpent King
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ImajicaBookQuoters 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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