Catherine Ryan Hyde > Quotes

“There is no wrong way to perform an act of kindness.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay It Forward

“If it takes you apart, that's not love. Love puts you back together.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde (Love In The Present Tense)

“If you want to see a man come to his senses, try something like, Do you happen to carry a rubber in your wallet? Did I mention I'm not on the pill?”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay It Forward

“I guess it's hard for people who are so used to things the way they are - even if they're bad - to change. 'Cause they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kind of loses.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay It Forward

“Because it proves that you don't need much to change the entire world for the better. You can start with the most ordinary ingredients. You can start with the world you've got.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay It Forward

“Nobody said it was a beautiful world with no scars.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Becoming Chloe

“Most people prefer to think that their resentment is entirely the fault of the person they resent, and that twisted logic seems to make sense in their minds. But it makes no sense to me at all... But it's a popular point of view. Probably because it's so much easier. It relieves you of the burden of any and all self-examination.
(Nathan to Nat)”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, When I Found You

“... even though it was beautiful and comfortable, and even though it was the world, it was also a little bit boring.

No, wait. Maybe boring isn’t the right word. What’s the word I’m wanting here? Lonely. That’s it. It was a little bit lonely.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Second Hand Heart

“I decided that not talking is like a litmus test for a real friend. You can just sit there and be. Not always be filling up the air with words”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Jumpstart the World

“Things are so easy to do, so hard to undo.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, The Day I Killed James

“I keep telling you the future isn't set in stone. It's not all decided yet. The future is just what's down the road we decided to walk on today. You can change roads anytime. And that changes where you end up.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Chasing Windmills

“Everybody is a good person and a bad person at the same time. The only real variation is in the balance. How much good to how much bad. When a person has a bigger good side, we call him a good person. But it’s never absolute.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Take Me with You

“The closer you get to heaven, the less air there is, because when you get to heaven for real, you don't need to breathe anymore.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Becoming Chloe

“The fact that you don’t grasp the meaning of something doesn’t mean it has none.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, When I Found You

“[Grace talking to Billy.] "It's like people who want to feel only happy but not sad," she said. "It never works. You either feel things or you don't. You don't get to pick and choose. At least, I don't think so.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Don't Let Me Go

“The people with the least to give always give the most. Haven’t you noticed that?”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Don't Let Me Go

“Because if you take something you're a thief.' She nursed the silence a moment. Downed the balance of her drink and silently signaled for another. 'Sounds simple, but you'd be amazed how many people don't get it. They steal but they call themselves honest. They cheat on their spouses and lovers but they think they're good people. They lie but they'd never call themselves liars. Well, let me tell you something, Todd. . . ." She pointed toward him with her right hand, with her lit cigarette. He leaned away slightly. She looked into the mirror of his eyes and saw herself going too far. 'You are what you do. That's what I'm trying to tell you. What we do defines us. However we behave, conduct our lives . . . that's real. The rest is just a story for publication.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, The Day I Killed James

“It’s just words. How can words be dangerous?”
“You have a lot to learn about the world, baby girl. Nothing is more dangerous than words.”
“That’s stupid. What about a gun? A gun can kill you dead.”
“Only your body,” Billy said. “It can’t kill your soul. Words can kill your soul.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Don't Let Me Go

“I think it's the things we don't talk about that make us old before out time.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, The Day I Killed James

“Living long is a gift denied to many, and so it comes with a responsibility to make the most of it. At very least to appreciate it. People gripe about growing older—their aches and pains, how much harder everything is—as if they had forgotten that the alternative is dying young.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Have You Seen Luis Velez?

“You are what you do. That's what I'm trying to tell you. What we do defines us. However we behave, conduct our lives...that's real. The rest is a story for publication.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, The Day I Killed James

“[There] was a time when a lot of people came to the door. The milkman. The iceman. The Fuller Brush man. Encyclopedia salesmen. There was a sense of interaction with the world that started right at your own front doorstep.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Walter's Purple Heart

“It's really hard to know what's a good idea when you're growing and these ideas don't hold still and neither do you.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay It Forward

“A kiss, she thinks, has to be entirely balanced -- it has to have a little conflict, a little dialectic, a little revolution.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Electric God

“You want to be OK right now, so you trade that for having a good life in the long run. It’s a bad trade, but people do it all the time. That’s all addiction really is. It’s trading away the future so you can feel OK right now.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Don't Let Me Go

“Maybe she doesn't want to understand things she doesn't think she can change anyway. Maybe sometimes you just have a couple of rotten choices. Like you can fail to comprehend the world you've got, or you can see it as this ugly, evil, dangerous place and not be able to do a damn thing about it.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Becoming Chloe

“What's weird is when you mean a lot more to somebody else than they ever meant to you. I mean, a whole lot more. Like life on two whole different planets.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay It Forward

“I try to think of a way to get there without going past it. There are lots of ways, but they all have me walking a little farther. And that's stupid, I decide. What am I, a little kid? I can stand to see something it hurts to want. I can see it and then just keep walking. It happens to lots of people everyday. We all survive.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Becoming Chloe

“We should all be much more careful with each other`s hearts.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, The Day I Killed James

“The way you feel is the way you feel, and no matter how much you think you should feel some other way, you can’t change that. There’s some things in this life you can change and some you can’t. I’m sure August tells you the same thing. Here’s what you do when the time comes to talk to your dad. Here’s what I do. I say to my creator, ‘I’m about to open my mouth here. And, historically, that’s been a dicey thing, as we both know. So some help is in order. So let me know what you want me to say to this person in this situation. Say it through me.”
― Catherine Ryan Hyde, Take Me with You