Laurel Snyder > Quotes

“Problems don't always get fixed. Lots of the time things are boring or dumb for no good reason. Or even terrible. And you can't do anything about it. That's life.”
― Laurel Snyder, Penny Dreadful

“Everything had its purpose. If you waited long enough, a useless thing would become useful again.”
― Laurel Snyder, Orphan Island

“But sometimes it doesn't matter whether someone is right or wrong. Sometimes you just have to love them when they need you.”
― Laurel Snyder, Bigger than a Bread Box

“It's hard not to be happy when you're eating a big steak.”
― Laurel Snyder, Bigger than a Bread Box

“Dear reader who finds this, if I am gone,
My name is Jinny
I lived here on this island.
I loved it.
I stayed.
I held on.
Then, after a pause, Jinny added a line. She'd never be able to write it in ink, bit it was there all the same, a ghost in the letter. As she slid the piece of paper into her pocket, she whispered it aloud.
I held on
Too long.”
― Laurel Snyder, Orphan Island

“what a thing to do—to give up your whole self for someone else. To love someone that much. To be always and forever there, no matter what. To hold on like that.”
― Laurel Snyder, Orphan Island

“Sometimes it's nice to be sick, to give up trying to function, to crawl into bed and be cared for a little.”
― Laurel Snyder, Bigger than a Bread Box

“Mom always says you can solve most problems at the library, and there's a lady there who's my friend. We could ask her about helping Bernice. She has to answer people's questions. It's her job.”
― Laurel Snyder

“Because you don’t live in a book. Nobody does, silly. Things never happen the way they would in a book. There isn’t foreshadowing.”
― Laurel Snyder, Penny Dreadful

“The world is a hungry place, and Anna will feed it beauty.”
― Laurel Snyder, Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova

“....I always have liked him. He's basically a good guy. But sometimes, Rebecca, a person goes so far down a road, they can't find the energy to walk back the other way.”
― Laurel Snyder, Bigger than a Bread Box

“Can something be a secret if everyone in the whole world knows it?”
― Laurel Snyder, My Jasper June

“sometimes it doesn’t matter whether someone is right or wrong. Sometimes you just have to love them when they need you.”
― Laurel Snyder, Bigger than a Bread Box

“The counting felt good to her. It was something, anyway, a thing she could do, a kind of knowledge.”
― Laurel Snyder, Orphan Island

“I’d never listened so carefully to something I didn’t want to hear.”
― Laurel Snyder, Bigger than a Bread Box

“They”
― Laurel Snyder, Orphan Island

“After a moment, she decided to stick out her own little hand alongside the other two, as though this was the way people greeted each other on the island. Hand extended, she looked up at the boys for approval.”
― Laurel Snyder, Orphan Island

“Everything felt wrong, lopsided. I knew from the weird fuzzy humming inside my head.”
― Laurel Snyder, Bigger than a Bread Box

“She remembered once, years back, she and Deen had snuck away on a Changing night and made a bed in the high grass of the prairie, with their blankets and pillows. When they’d woken up, there had been a mouse, chewing on the pillow between them, and Deen had screamed so loud that Jinny’s ears rang.”
― Laurel Snyder, Orphan Island

“Have a nice day,” she said, waving. Which people said all the time, and probably didn’t really mean, but I swear, in that moment, she sounded like she really meant it. Like she genuinely hoped I’d have an especially nice
day.”
― Laurel Snyder, My Jasper June

“I turned away from her again. “I hate you,” I whispered. “I hate you.”
― Laurel Snyder, Bigger than a Bread Box

“chocolate muffin, which is just a cupcake without icing.”
― Laurel Snyder, Bigger than a Bread Box

“Honestly, I don’t understand how someone so great came out of something so terrible. It’s
like she hasn’t had any chance to be happy, but somehow she knows how to do it anyway. It’s like she’s so full of joy, nothing can squish it.”
― Laurel Snyder, My Jasper June

“Like, you make a new friend or get a free piece of cake or enjoy a pickle, and that’s enough to make things feel okay for a while. Just because things are hard doesn’t mean life isn’t still full of good things. Right? The same way your brother died, but the pickles are still good to you too.”
― Laurel Snyder, My Jasper June

“Dear reader who finds this, if I am gone
My name is Jinny
I lived on this island
I loved it
I held on
Too long”
― Laurel Snyder, Orphan Island