Jon Cohen > Quotes

“What else is a library, but a temple of truth? What other function do books have, the great ones, but to change the reader? Books to comfort. But most of all, books to disturb you forward.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“To every story we bring the story of ourselves.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“Because it’s worth it. Worth the risk and the pain. Of all the glorious enchantments of this world—spring, snow, laughter, red roses, dogs, books—love is by far the best.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“There are no guarantees, except that every morning, the sun will rise. No matter what happens, good or bad, each day will be followed by a new day.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“You keep the lights on in a library the same way you keep the lights on in the emergency of a hospital.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“am so grateful to have tasted love. But all love ends tragically. Because, tragically, love always ends. What a heartbreaking and wondrous conundrum! Whether you have it just a few weeks, or years, or your entire life—always, it ends.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“Because that’s how the world is saved. Piece by piece, every day. Somebody like you has to step up. Somebody like you has to be wonderful.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“Reading solves most things. Or at least assuages the heart.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“You keep the lights on in a library the same way you keep the lights on in the emergency room of a hospital.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“Pine sap is antiseptic, astringent, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial. Best damn Band-Aid in the world, Harry, remember that.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“This is what fairy tales have always been for, to guide children through the scary parts of their lives.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“By its very nature, though, love is tragic. You can’t protect it. No matter how tightly you hold on to the one you love, they leave you or you leave them. That’s what life is, loving and letting go. I am so grateful to those two young lovers of sixty years ago. I am so grateful to have tasted love. But all love ends tragically. Because, tragically, love always ends. What a heartbreaking and wondrous conundrum! Whether you have it just a few weeks, or years, or your entire life—always, it ends.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“That’s a lot of plot in one sentence, dear.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“Of all the glorious enchantments of this world—spring, snow, laughter, red roses, dogs, books—love is by far the best.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“It's only five words long—she died a year ago. And I'm out here to say goodbye. Which turns out to be a long and complicated process. I'm not sure I'll ever finish saying it.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“A quality that always amazed him about trees: the constancy of their temperature. In winter, trees are never cold to the touch, and in summer they give off no acquired solar heat. It spoke to their essential aliveness. They were not rocks growing warm in the midday sun or streams that froze over; they were as self-regulating as the human body. It was a small leap to imagine that trees had souls.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“The Grum’s Ledger is a tale of regret. In real life, there was no happy ending. Alexander Grum died alone because he was afraid to seize love and risk all the unknowns that go with it. He chose certainty—and it was his ruin. “The only guarantee I could offer him—against all the unknowns, all the obstacles—was that we would face life together.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“The old know that no matter what you looked like when you were young—even if you wore tortoiseshell glasses and had mousy brown hair—you were beautiful. Because youth itself is beautiful.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“You're so tangled up in endings," Ronnie said, gesturing at the scattered books and fallen bookshelves, "you forgot about your beginnings. Think of all the beginnings that began right here, in this magic place.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“You can always count on a tree to get you through, Harry.” The old professor dabbed the sap onto his cut, and almost immediately, the slow bleeding stopped. “Pine sap is antiseptic, astringent, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial. Best damn Band-Aid in the world, Harry, remember that.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“Pine sap is antiseptic, astringent, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial. Best damn Band-Aid in the world,”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“He didn't know kids, but he knew that Oriana was a fellow traveler. It scared him, it really did, but he sensed that, inexplicably, she needed something only he could provide. Winter was over, but spring had not yet come for him and Oriana. They were between uncharted seasons, at the cusp of change, but only at the cusp. He didn't know kids, but he supposed that sometimes a kid needed something she couldn't find at home, but only in the wild of the forest.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“You know what’s even more magic than a fairy tale?” Harry said. “Real life.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“Why does the universe allow love to happen? Against such odds—death, abandonment, and a thousand other misfortunes and ordeals—why would we risk falling in love? When it can be snatched from us at any time for any reason?”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“What a terrible thing you will carry inside you for the rest of your life. I forgive you, but you will never forgive yourself.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“The world does what the world does.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“Because it’s worth it. Worth the risk and the pain. Of all the glorious enchantments of this world—spring, snow, laughter, red roses, dogs, books—love is by far the best.” She released Harry and got down off the low stone wall. She took in the sugar maple, the wall, the forest. Hugged herself and smiled sorrowfully. “By its very nature, though, love is tragic. You can’t protect it. No matter how tightly you hold on to the one you love, they leave you or you leave them.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“And special makes people a little scared of you.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“Because youth itself is beautiful.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees

“The world had not ended. Watching the sun from her window, young Olive thought, Now I understand how life works. There are no guarantees, except that every morning, the sun will rise. No matter what happens, good or bad, each day will be followed by a new day.”
― Jon Cohen, Harry's Trees