Jenny Valentine > Quotes

“Even when you’d lost everything you thought there was to lose, somebody came along and gave you something for free.”
― Jenny Valentine, Broken Soup

“I smiled back and I thought
how incredible that was, that they would find the time to smile. There was goodness in the world still, even if you couldn’t always see it.”
― Jenny Valentine, Broken Soup

“Everything is going to be fine.”

I hate it when people say that, people who have absolutely no idea of what’s coming next. They turn you into an idiot for even asking.”
― Jenny Valentine

“I told myself that some families we get without asking, while others we choose.
And I chose those two. I think that’s what you’d call a silver lining.”
― Jenny Valentine, Broken Soup

“I thought about having a proper room,
breathing life into it, and nobody minding.”
― Jenny Valentine, Broken Soup

“It's amazing what storms your face can hide, what terrible wrecks can writhe and heave beneath, without one ripple on the surface.”
― Jenny Valentine, Double

“There was goodness in the world still, even if you couldn't always see it.”
― Jenny Valentine, Broken Soup

“What's wrong with the world Peter?
God, I don't know. Where do you start? People give up. We're defeatists and we stop striving or fighting or enjoying things. It doesn't matter what you're talking about - war, work, marriage, democracy, love, it all fails because everybody gives up trying after a while, we can't help ourselves. And don't ask me to solve it because I am the worst. I'd escape tomorrow if I could, from every single thing I've always wanted.”
― Jenny Valentine, Finding Violet Park

“I didn't have time to lose it. I didn't have time to lie down in the corner shop and scream and beat the floor until my hands bled. I didn't have time to miss Jack. Stroma kept on chattering away and getting excited over novelty spaghetti shapes and finding the joy in every little thing, and it occurred to me even then that she was probably looking after me, too.”
― Jenny Valentine, Broken Soup

“It's not knowing that drives you mad. It's imaging things that you wish you couldn't think up all by yourself.”
― Jenny Valentine

“What are you afraid of," she said. "Daylight?"
No. I'm afraid of you. I'm afraid of myself, of whatever it is I'm going to do or say to make it all go wrong. I'm desperately trying to avoid that moment and walking straight toward it, all at the same time.
"I'm just tired," I said.”
― Jenny Valentine, Double

“But Wishing is addictive.”
― Jenny Valentine

“According to Grandad, being a vegetarian wasn't about just health or cruelty of money or flavor: it was about manners. He said that stealing milk and eggs and honey was enough of a liberty without hacking off someone's leg and then drowning it in gravy. He had a point.”
― Jenny Valentine, Double

“Get on with the business of living," Ernest told me. "You don't have any other choice.”
― Jenny Valentine, Fire Colour One

“I told him I hadn't seen Thurston since a week before we left the States. I said he had no idea where I was, and I had no way of finding him either.

"We fell out," I said. "I don't think he was talking to me."

He smiled. "What did you do?"

I felt like crying. That doesn't happen often, to me. "I hurt his feelings." I told him. "I said some things I shouldn't. And then I got dragged here, so I lost him. He's a needle in a haystack."

Ernest nodded. "The world is a very big place when you're looking for someone."

"I miss him," I said. "And I don't know what I'm supposed to do next."

"Get on with the business of living," Ernest told me. "You don't have any other choice.”
― Jenny Valentine

“I cut off a piece of meatball dripping with sauce. I tried to make my face right. I tried to smile and not grimace, tried to close my eyes in delight , not panic; tried to swallow, not gag. They watched me like hawks.
'Delicious,' I said, still chewing. They tasted like salt and shit and gristle.
'As good as you remember?'
'Better.'
I got through two. I drank a lot of water. I broke them down into fractions of themselves, sixteen more to go, fourteen more, eight, one. In my head I said sorry to grandad, and to the lamb or pig or mixture of creatures I was eating. I put my knife and fork together with four of them still swimming on my plate.”
― Jenny Valentine, Double

“It's what you do when you grow up, apparently, face up to things you'd rather not and accept the fact that nobody is who you thought they were, maybe not even close.”
― Jenny Valentine, Me, the Missing, and the Dead

“I savoured the moment because the moment was more than enough”
― Jenny Valentine

“Büyükannem siyah kanatlı kelebeklerin iyi şans getirdiğini söylerdi. Onları bu dünyadan göçmüş kişilerden bir mesaj olarak görürdü. Onlardan gelen ufak bir merhaba.”
― Jenny Valentine, Us in the Before and After