Quotes from Wither

Lauren DeStefano ·  358 pages

Rating: (91.6K votes)


“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“Fate, I think, is a thief.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“I always knew I was an excellent liar; I just didn't know that I had it in me to fool myself.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“Eventually I realize that I am holding on to him just as tightly as he holds on to me. And here we are: two small dying things, as the world ends around us like falling autumn leaves.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“I'll tell you something about true love. There's no science to it. It's as natural as the sky.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither



“‎I have always been fascinated by the ocean, to dip a limb beneath its surface and know that I'm touching eternity, that it goes on forever until it begins here again.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“Did you tell freedom hello for me?”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“You've been captive for so long that you don't even realize you want freedom anymore.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“Love is not enough to keep any of us alive.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“who once had dreams of saving the world, now laughs at anyone who
tries.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither



“The trick was looking past the illusion, because the exit was never as far away as it seemed.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“There's nothing here to say good-bye to. There's no dancing girl. No mischievous smile. She's gone, off with her sisters, broken free, escaped. And if she were here now, she would say, "Go.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“She smiles at our husband as she moves, and he blushes, overcome by her beauty. But I know what her smile really means...Her smile is her revenge.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“The world seems so clean if you only looked up.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“Real’ is a dirty word in this place.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither



“So how long do you think it’ll be?” he says. “Before the next hurricane comes along to take you home.”
“Can I tell you my biggest fear?” I say.
“Yes. Tell me.”
“That it will be a very windless four years.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“Rhine. The river that, somewhere out there, has broken free.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“You’re insane, you know that?” he says.
“It’s the only thing keeping me afloat,” I say.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“I can almost see what Gabriel meant when he asked, 'What has the free world got that you can’t get here?'
Almost.

Freedom, Gabriel. That’s what you can’t get here.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“As I go, I hear her screaming my name, in a brutal, bloody way, like she's being murdered, which maybe she is. But slowly. It will take her six years to die.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither



“But instead of tears, when I press my face against the pillow, a horrible, primal scream comes out of me. It's unlike anything I thought myself capable of. Rage, unlike anything I've ever known.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“Even the human race can't claim to be natural anymore. We are fake, dying things. How fitting that I would end up in this sham of a marriage.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“Tell freedom I said hello.'
'If I happen to see it, I will.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“Suddenly the clouds seem high above us. They’re moving over us in an arch, circling the planet. They have seen abysmal oceans and charred, scorched islands. They have seen how we destroyed the world. If I could see everything, as the clouds do, would I swirl around this remaining continent, still so full of color and life and seasons, wanting to protect it? Or would I just laugh at the futility of it all, and meander onward, down the earth’s sloping atmosphere?”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“It's the silence I imagine in the rest of the world, the silence of an endless ocean and uninhabitable island, a silence that can be seen from space.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither



“And here we are: two small dying things, as the world ends around us like falling autumn leaves.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“What have you done? What have you given up?'
So many things, Cecily. More than you know.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“I wonder if she has figured out that I'll never love Linden, especially not in the way she does, and that he'll never love anyone the way he loves her. I wonder if she realizes, despite all her efforts to train me, that I can never take her place.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


“Times like this, when she slips her hand into mine and holds on tight, and our husband becomes just a shadow in the doorway.”
― Lauren DeStefano, quote from Wither


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About the author

Lauren DeStefano
Born place: in New Haven, CT, The United States
Born date October 13, 1984
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Popular quotes

“The phone is an instrument of intrusion into order. It is a threat to control. Just when you think you are alone and safe, the call could come that changes your life. Or someone else's. It makes the same flat, mechanical noise for everyone and gives no clues what's waiting there on the other end of the line. You can never be too careful.”
― Janice Galloway, quote from The Trick is to Keep Breathing


“I used to be endlessly troubled by meat-eating people who were uneasy with hunters and hunting. ... How can someone suggest that paying for the slaughter of animals is more justifiable than taking the responsibility for one's food into one's own hands? ... Civilization is a mechanism that allows us to avoid the necessary but ugly aspects of life; most of us do not euthanize our own pets, we don't unplug the life support on our own ailing grandparents, we don't repair our own cars, and we don't process our own raw sewage. Instead, the delegations of our less-pleasant responsibilities is so widespread that taking these things on is almost like trying to swim upriver. It's easier not to do them, and those who insist on doing so are bound to look a little odd.”
― quote from American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon


“As the Holy Spirit prays for us, He purges us on three levels: spirit, soul, and body.”
― quote from The Walk of the Spirit - The Walk of Power : The Vital Role of Praying in Tongues


“There is a deeper point to be made here, however, having to do with the specificity of everything. One of the great failings of our culture is the nearly universal belief that there can be anything universal. We as a culture take the same approach to living in Phoenix as in Seattle as in Miami, to the detriment of all these landscapes. We turn wild trees to standardized two-by-fours. We turn living fish into fish sticks. But every fish is different from every other fish. Every student is different from every other student. Every place is different from every other place. If we are ever to hope to begin to live sustainably in place (which is the only way to live sustainably), we will have to remember specificity is everything.”
― Derrick Jensen, quote from Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution


“Did Mom notice you right away?"
He shook his head. "Nope."
"So what did you do?"
"Showed up."
"Where?"
"Wherever."
"So you showed up wherever she was?"
"Or wherever she might be."
"That must've taken a lot of time," I said.
Dad shrugged. "Worth it.”
― David Lubar, quote from Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie


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