Quotes from Something Like Spring

Jay Bell ·  452 pages

Rating: (1.6K votes)


“I guess I should have known back then. All the guys after him only left flesh wounds. Benjamin managed to get into my bones on day one.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“No wheelchair can support damaged self-esteem until it learns to stand upright. No cane can help emotions limp along until they can walk.

A cast or brace can't protect a vulnerable spirit, and not even the strongest painkiller can stop the ache cause by a failed relationship.

No, the only way a broken heart mends itself is with stitches of time and the sticky tape of hastily rearranged dreams.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“I've been waiting for you without even knowing it.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“Ladies and gentleman, Tim said. May I present to you, our son, Jason Grant!”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“Jason hesitated. “Does it ever stop hurting?” “When you lose someone?” Jace considered this for a moment. “No. Not entirely. There will always be times when you think of him, and it’ll always hurt that it didn’t work out… but it won’t remain the constant pain you feel now. You might go weeks, maybe even months without thinking of him. Then, on the long sleepless nights when you do, you’ll feel a little pang of regret that still stings. That’s all.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring



“Jason nodded. “I’d be willing to give it a shot, although ideally, I would love to be out walking my dog and run into some cute guy walking his dog. Naturally that would lead to us talking. Then we’d start meeting in that same place every day, like little ten-minute dates. After weeks of this, maybe even months, we’d agree to meet without the dogs. Unchaperoned, so to speak. That would be romantic. Way more so than a party or a bar.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“Don't be sorry. The only thing love needs to apologize for is being too difficult to understand and too easy to give in to.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“It's called restraint, the part that wants to wander is always there, even for straight people. But commitment is commitment. Once I sign on the dotted line, I'll devote myself to that person only.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“there are people in this world who, after you meet them, you walk away a better person. No matter how okay you were before, they have a way of making you even better.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“Just in case, he had asked Ms. Townson to call him if William talked about leaving town. He hadn’t, obviously, making it possible now for him and William to dig through the refrigerator and stand at the counter making sandwiches together, all of which felt delightfully domestic. This would be their life together. Spreading margarine on white bread and debating if Swiss or American cheese was better. With any luck, they would be spending countless days this way, doing little mundane tasks that were so much better with someone to share them with.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring



“I am sure the ocean catches fire ocassionally.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“Half the time he seems self-centered, the other half it's like he lives solely for Ben.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“Strange how the present could become the past so quickly.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“It's much easier to just keep moving, keep avoiding the truth.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


“Money can't buy love, but it certainly could rent it.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring



“Old habits die hard. Some refused to die at all.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Spring


About the author

Jay Bell
Born place: in The United States
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Popular quotes

“Only Sebastian really knew what she was going through. Her demons, as she called them. Jessica never stopped chattering whenever they were on their own, but the moment she became the centre of attention, like a tortoise she slipped back into her shell, hoping no one would notice her.”
― Jeffrey Archer, quote from Be Careful What You Wish For


“Mais les signes de ce qui m'attendait réellement, je les ai tous négligés. Je travaille mon diplôme sur le surréalisme à la bibliothèque de Rouen, je sors, je traverse le square Verdrel, il fait doux, les cygnes du bassin ont reparu, et d'un seul coup j'ai conscience que je suis en train de vivre peut-être mes dernières semaines de fille seule, libre d'aller où je veux, de ne pas manger ce midi, de travailler dans ma chambre sans être dérangée. Je vais perdre définitivement la solitude. Peut-on s'isoler facilement dans un petit meublé, à deux. Et il voudra manger ses deux repas par jour. Toutes sortes d'images me traversent. Une vie pas drôle finalement. Mais je refoule, j'ai honte, ce sont des idées de fille unique, égocentrique, soucieuse de sa petite personne, mal élevée au fond. Un jour, il a du travail, il est fatigué, si on mangeait dans la chambre au lieu d'aller au restau. Six heures du soir cours Victor-Hugo, des femmes se précipitent aux Docks, en face du Montaigne, prennent ci et ça sans hésitation, comme si elles avaient dans la tête toute la programmation du repas de ce soir, de demain peut-être, pour quatre personnes ou plus aux goûts différents. Comment font-elles ? [...] Je n'y arriverai jamais. Je n'en veux pas de cette vie rythmée par les achats, la cuisine. Pourquoi n'est-il pas venu avec moi au supermarché. J'ai fini par acheter des quiches lorraines, du fromage, des poires. Il était en train d'écouter de la musique. Il a tout déballé avec un plaisir de gamin. Les poires étaient blettes au coeur, "tu t'es fait entuber". Je le hais. Je ne me marierai pas. Le lendemain, nous sommes retournés au restau universitaire, j'ai oublié. Toutes les craintes, les pressentiments, je les ai étouffés. Sublimés. D'accord, quand on vivra ensemble, je n'aurai plus autant de liberté, de loisirs, il y aura des courses, de la cuisine, du ménage, un peu. Et alors, tu renâcles petit cheval tu n'es pas courageuse, des tas de filles réussissent à tout "concilier", sourire aux lèvres, n'en font pas un drame comme toi. Au contraire, elles existent vraiment. Je me persuade qu'en me mariant je serai libérée de ce moi qui tourne en rond, se pose des questions, un moi inutile. Que j'atteindrai l'équilibre. L'homme, l'épaule solide, anti-métaphysique, dissipateur d'idées tourmentantes, qu'elle se marie donc ça la calmera, tes boutons même disparaîtront, je ris forcément, obscurément j'y crois. Mariage, "accomplissement", je marche. Quelquefois je songe qu'il est égoïste et qu'il ne s'intéresse guère à ce que je fais, moi je lis ses livres de sociologie, jamais il n'ouvre les miens, Breton ou Aragon. Alors la sagesse des femmes vient à mon secours : "Tous les hommes sont égoïstes." Mais aussi les principes moraux : "Accepter l'autre dans son altérité", tous les langages peuvent se rejoindre quand on veut.”
― Annie Ernaux, quote from A Frozen Woman


“I couldn’t comprehend the magnetic pull
that could be felt. I never understood the way love
overpowers common sense and passion overtakes
logic, or how unnerving it is that no one else really knows how you feel—no one can judge me for being weak or stupid, no one can put me down for
the way I feel.”
― Anna Todd, quote from After Ever Happy


“Gözümü dikip baktım suratına. Suratı sıska ve dingindi; gri gözleri de donuk ve sakin. Hiçbir heyecan izi seçilmiyordu. Tavrında en ufak bir tedirginlik, öfke, sinir ya da küstahlık olsa, ya da şöyle söyleyeyim, olağan bir insanî ifade olsa, hiç durmaz yaka paça kovardım ofisimden. Ama bu durumda bunu yapmak, Paris işi alçıdan Cicero büstümü kapı dışarı etmek gibi bir şey olacaktı.”
― Herman Melville, quote from Bartleby el escribiente


“Sometimes when your life seems most out of control, you know there's a direction. I don't mean you can't have free will--in fact, that can be the most important part.”
― quote from The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less


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