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
Each memory is like a paper flower stowed up a magician's sleeve: invisible one moment and then so substantial and florid the next I cannot imagine how it stayed hidden all this time. And like those paper flowers, once they've been let loose in the world, the memories are impossible to tuck away again.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Memories can be fleeting and then unexpectedly vivid, revealing emotions we thought were hidden.
This quote illustrates the ephemeral nature of memories. It suggests that memories, much like paper flowers hidden in a magician's sleeve, can suddenly become vivid and impactful, reminding us of their significance even after lying dormant for a long time. Once these memories surface, they cannot simply be forgotten or tucked away; they hold a lasting presence in our lives.
Themes
MemoriesFleetingEmotionsHiddenSignificance
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech, one might use this quote to reflect on the importance of cherished memories.
More from Jodi Picoult
All quotes →Whether 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
Most of God's people are contented to be saved from the hell that is without; they are not so anxious to be saved from the hell that is within.
Robert Murray M'CheyneRead
The humiliation I go through/when I think of my past/can only be described as grace./We are created by being destroyed.
Franz WrightRead
When the world is itself draped in the mantle of night, the mirror of the mind is like the sky in which thoughts twinkle like stars.
Khushwant SinghRead
The human moral sense can excuse any atrocity in the minds of those who commit it, and it furnishes them with motives for acts of violence that bring them no tangible benefit.
Steven PinkerRead
Time is the River on which the leaves of our thoughts are carried into oblivion.
Doris LessingRead
I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.
Nikos KazantzakisRead