Court Stevens > Quotes

“So if you found out he did something awful, you'd still love him?"

"Yes. Same as you love Starr. And I think... I think that's how real love is supposed to work. Present when people are inconvenient or imperfect.”
― Court Stevens, Tell Me Something Good

“One of the things I love about love is you don't have to be perfect for it to exist.”
― Court Stevens, We Were Kings

“Fathers cannot give up on their children without risking that one day their children will return the favor.”
― Court Stevens, Tell Me Something Good

“We don't give up on people when bad things happen. We stick. And we stick when the rest of the world makes up the BS the world makes up. You'll understand when you're older and feel that way about your own friends.”
― Court Stevens, We Were Kings

“Fear is location specific. Which is not something people from Bent Tree usually learn because they rarely leave. But if you're not from somewhere rural, gunshots have a different connotation. Any bang-bang in the city and your adrenaline spikes. You lock the door. You pray.

At the Lodges, gunshots are like crickets; you don't hear them every day, but nearly. They are the sound of industry, and industry is money, and money makes you smile.”
― Court Stevens, Tell Me Something Good

“Good parents know when "Go away" means "Hug me." They barge through the door, through the noise, through the pain, and say, "I know you're hurting. I want to help." They keep coming back. Even when they're being pushed away.

Good parents also miss big moments, huge moments, with their kids. They're staring at their phone or wrapped up in their jobs or just ignorant about emotional intelligence. Sometimes they're scared to help because their own hurt is a lump in their float. And they end up drowning in guilt for not being superhuman.

What's a good parent? It's just so hard to know.

It's especially hard that day in Roseville, New Jersey.

But maybe, just maybe, we should root for this mom to be braver than she normally is.”
― Court Stevens, Tell Me Something Good

“My grief is undignified and sloppy. I love someone I don't really know, and it occurs to me that Frankie has felt this way my whole life. My love for her is new; what I'm receiving is old. Older than my breath, the very age of my heartbeat. Which means she's hurting now, even more than I am. I hurt for my hurt and hers and all the hurts to come.”
― Court Stevens, We Were Kings

“We don't live to see all the ripples we make, but we must make them all the same.”
― Court Stevens, Tell Me Something Good

“There isn't a specific age when you become a man.

If you're doing it properly, you become a man over and over, each version better than the last.”
― Court Stevens, Tell Me Something Good

“Nyla, we don’t give up on people when bad things happen. We stick. And we stick when the rest of the world makes up the BS the world makes up. You’ll understand when you’re older and feel that way about your own friends.”
― Court Stevens, We Were Kings

“Jack isn't particularly superstitious. Except when he is. Which means he isn't the kind of guy who stops at a palm reader's booth, but he does believe dating is a magical cosmic matching contest.”
― Court Stevens, Tell Me Something Good

“The trouble with the truth is this: we can't always control when it comes.”
― Court Stevens, Tell Me Something Good

“A hand in yours can work magic—a magic that says no matter how bad things are, you aren’t as alone as you feel.”
― Court Stevens, We Were Kings

“Anna needs the power of controlling the vehicle. Difficult emotions are better digested above sixty miles an hour on a curvy country road. Starr needs her darling daughter to slow the eff down so she can die of cancer rather than by putting the truck through a tree.”
― Court Stevens, Tell Me Something Good

“Life gave him too much lemonade, so he makes lemons when it suits him.”
― Court Stevens, Tell Me Something Good