Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed--sometimes it covers you just fine, and other times it leaves you cold and shaking; and worst of all, you never know which of the two it's going to be.
Jodi PicoultRead
It feels like a punch. Tears fill my eyes, and I wonder how I could be upset over losing something I never had.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the pain of loss despite never having truly possessed what was lost.
In this quote, Jodi Picoult captures the emotional turmoil of experiencing grief or sadness over an unattainable or imagined connection. It reveals how deep desires and the hope of what could have been can evoke powerful feelings of loss, even when the relationship or situation was never fully realized.
Themes
LossGriefRelationshipsEmotionSadness
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the complexities of love and its discontents.
More from Jodi Picoult
All quotes βWhether it was power they sought, or revenge, or love-well, those were all just different forms of hunger. The bigger the hole inside you, the more desperate you became to fill it.
Jodi PicoultRead
she told me she'd be a phoenix." The image of the mythical creature rising from the ashes glitters in my mind. "They don't really exist." "She said that depends on whether or not there's someone who can see them.
Jodi PicoultRead
for 100,000 (dollars), you [can] flatten a house with a wrecking ball. Imagine how much less it [takes] to destroy something than it [does] to build it in the first place.
Jodi PicoultRead
But if you seek forgiveness, doesn't that automatically mean you cannot be a monster? By definition, doesn't that desperation make you human again?
Jodi PicoultRead
when you [lose someone], it feels like the hole in your gum when a tooth falls out. You can chew, you can eat, you have plenty of other teeth, but your tongue keeps going back to that empty place, where all nerves are still a little raw
Jodi PicoultRead
Similar quotes
They always threw their arms around and hugged me while crying our Yiddish endearments. Yet none of them believed in God. They believed in social justice, good works, Israel, and Bette Midler. I was nearly thirty before I met a religious Jew.
Anne LamottRead
They can see their neighbors. Roosters and dogs can be heard from there. Still, they will age and die without visiting one another.
LaoziRead
She had borne so long the cruelty of belonging to him and not being claimed by him.
D. H. LawrenceRead
I do not believe in things. I believe in relationships.
Georges BraqueRead
The more healthy relationships a child has, the more likely he will be to recover from trauma and thrive. Relationships are the agents of change and the most powerful therapy is human love.
Bruce D. PerryRead
Later, going home, I realized they didn't look alike at all; what made them seem to was the aftermath of stress and the lingering of sorrow. It's strange how pain marks our faces, and makes us look like family.
Stephen KingRead