Jennifer Donnelly > Quotes

“Together in our house, in the firelight, we are the world made small.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“Right now I want a word that describes the feeling that you get--a cold sick feeling, deep down inside--when you know something is happening that will change you, and you don't want it to, but you can't stop it. And you know, for the first time, for the very first time, that there will now be a before and an after, a was and a will be. And that you will never again quite be the same person you were.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light

“Life’s all about the revolution, isn’t it? The one inside, I mean. You can’t change history. You can’t change the world. All you can ever change is yourself.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“I know it is a bad thing to break a promise, but I think now that it is a worse thing to let a promise break you.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light

“For mad I may be, but I will never be convenient.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“I don't like hope very much. In fact, I hate it. It's the crystal meth of emotions. It hooks you fast and kills you hard. It's bad news. The worst. It's sharp sticks and cherry bombs. When hope shows up, it's only a matter of time until someone gets hurt.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“I'm wishing he could see that music lives. Forever. That it's stronger than death. Stronger than time. And that its strength holds you together when nothing else can.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“It goes on, this world, stupid and brutal.
But I do not.
I do not.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“Meet me where the sky touches the sea. Wait for me where the world begins.”
― Jennifer Donnelly

“There is only one thing I fear now - love. For I have seen it and I have felt it and I know that it is love, not death, that undoes us.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“Voice is not just the sound that comes from your throat, but the feelings that come from your words.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light

“Hope is the crystal meth of emotions. It hooks you fast and kills you hard.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“I will rain down silver and gold for you. I will shatter the black night, break it open, and pour out a million stars. Turn away from the darkness, the madness, the pain. Open your eyes and know that I am here. That I remember and hope. Open your eyes and look at the light.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“Stop yelling. If everyone’s yelling, no one can be heard.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“And I knew in my bones that Emily Dickinson wouldn't have written even one poem if she'd had two howling babies, a husband bent on jamming another one into her, a house to run, a garden to tend, three cows to milk, twenty chickens to feed, and four hired hands to cook for. I knew then why they didn't marry. Emily and Jane and Louisa. I knew and it scared me. I also knew what being lonely was and I didn't want to be lonely my whole life. I didn't want to give up on my words. I didn't want to choose one over the other. Mark Twain didn't have to. Charles Dickens didn't.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light

“History is a Rorschach test, people. What you see when you look at it tells you as much about yourself as it does about the past.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“I will go out again this very night with my rockets and fuses. I will blow them straight out of their comfortable beds. Blow the rooftops off their houses. Blow the black, wretched night to bits. I will not stop. For mad I may be, but I will never be convenient.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“I have done this—made the sad prince laugh. Made his grieving parents smile. None but me. Think you only kings have power? Stand on a stage and hold the hearts of men in your hands. Make them laugh with a gesture, cry with a word. Make them love you. And you will know what power is.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“I play until my fingers are blue and stiff from the cold, and then I keep on playing. Until I'm lost in the music. Until I am the music--notes and chords, the melody and harmony. It hurts, but it's okay because when I'm the music, I'm not me. Not sad. Not afraid. Not desperate. Not guilty.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“Turn away. From the darkness, the madness, the pain. Open your eyes and look at the light.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“Most of the mess that is called history comes about because kings and presidents cannot be satisfied with a nice chicken and a good loaf of bread.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“What I saw next stopped me dead in my tracks. Books. Not just one or two dozen, but hundreds of them. In crates. In piles on the floor. In bookcases that stretched from floor to ceiling and lined the entire room. I turned around and around in a slow circle, feeling as if I'd just stumbled into Ali Baba's cave. I was breathless, close to tears, and positively dizzy with greed.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light

“Cry your grief to God. Howl to the heavens. Tear your shirt. Your hair. Your flesh. Gouge out your eyes. Carve out your heart. And what will you get from Him? Only silence. Indifference. But merely stand looking at the playbills, sighing because your name is not on them, and the devil himself appears at your elbow full of sympathy and suggestions. And that's why I did it....Because God loves us, but the devil takes an interest.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“Little by little, the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“Cripes Miss Wilcox, they're not guns,' I said.
No, they're not Mattie, they're books. And a hundred times more dangerous.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light

“Sometimes, when you catch someone unaware at just the right time and in just the right light, you can catch sight of what they will be.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light

“We're not punished for our sins, lad. We're punished by them.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, The Tea Rose

“There were lives in those books, and deaths. Families and friends and lovers and enemies. Joy and despair, jealousy, envy, madness, and rage. All there. I reached out and touched the cover of one called The Earth. I could almost hear the characters inside, murmuring and jostling, impatient for me to open the cover and let them out.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light

“Because God loves us, but the devil takes an interest.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“She's got a big belt around her hips. It has a shiny buckle with PRADA on it, which is Italian for insecure.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution