Stephanie Oakes > Quotes

“Jude taught me what love was: to be willing to hold on to another person's pain. That's it.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“That's how you avoid becoming a moth," he says. "Stop asking others what to believe. Figure it out for yourself.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“I guess people can't be content without answers, even if they're wrong. We'd rather have a lie than a question that we can never know the answer to.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“Moments like this occurred more and more frequently, and I think that was the biggest difference between us. That we could look at the same stars in the same sky, but not have the same questions. Not want the same answers.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“I think you should be angry if you're angry. But it's also true that hate has a way of hurting you more than the person you're hating.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“Everything in the universe comes from stars. Before anything else existed, there were just stars. Stars are like ovens,” she says. “Inside, they’re cooking planets and asteroids, and when they explode, out spews all this, like, space vomit that’s been cooking all these years. And solar systems formed, and Earth formed, and algae and eventually oxygen. And small organisms evolved into big animals and after about a billion years we came out, so that’s your answer. We come from the stars.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“Growing up, I believed in miracles. I guess I don’t anymore.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“I am a blood-soaked girl.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“Anger is a kind of murder you commit in your heart.” If this is true, I’m a daily murderer. My heart is more full of blood than I ever imagined.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“It is amazing that, though I am small and ungifted and barely educated, even I can appreciate the scale of the universe. And from this perch in space, for this moment at least, it seems unimportant whether someone made it, or if it made itself.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“You know, when I was little, my dad told me that if I misbehaved, he'd send me to live with a witch who ate children.'

'Really?'

She nods. 'I was so afraid of the witch. Feelings are magnified when you're young, I think, and the fear can stay with you for a long time. I eventually grew out of the fear but even now when I read something with a witch, my mind always traces back to that story. Isn't that weird?'

'How'd you grow out of it?' I ask. 'The fear?'

She takes a long moment to answer. 'I read lots and lots of books about witches.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“She would tell me to never change for anyone, because the people you change for are the people who control you.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Arsonist

“I figure out they’re not making me new hands. They can’t do that, the doctor says like I’m slow, and I turn away to glare at the wall, eyes burning. Growing up, I believed in miracles. I guess I don’t anymore.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“Even after months of healing, it doesn't take much to make me bleed”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“Jude used to try to make me laugh, and when I'd crack a smile he'd keep the joke going , like breath on an ember, making it grow into a fit of giggles that'd echo around the whole forest and make all the birds in the trees quiet.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“Did he say anything interesting?” I ask. “A revelation that the Lord is reborn in a chicken nugget, maybe?”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“Belief shouldn't be compatible with lies, but is.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“I replay the scene again and again, the broken mashed-up face looming over me, the knowledge between the two of us that I'd done it. That act of kindness is still more unfathomable to me than any cruelty.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“A human God. How preferable to an invisible God, I thought, one you’re not even sure exists. I was never taught basic math, but by the time I figured out how to finger count, I deduced that Charlie was around my age.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“For years, we had stood on opposite sides of a divide, calling across because we could never jump the distance. This was the moment we discovered that, if we both shifted our weight forward, if we abandoned our fear of the drop below, not looking down, we could touch the tips of our fingers together. And though it wasn't much, in that moment, it was enough.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“I could tell he was afraid, but not for the immediate future. Not for that night. He was afraid for the rest of his life. That it would always be like this, living in that cabin with his father going slowly decrepit from homemade alcohol, getting meaner. I knew because it was the same fear I felt every day. Fear of being stuck in a place forever.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“The worst crime you can do to yourself is to forget why you chose the path you're on, but keep walking down it anyway.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Arsonist

“We're stars who run off of stars.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“Crime is never preventable because the mind will always grow bored.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“When I lost my son, I became a citizen of a country I never knew existed.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“In that moment, I feel the Prophet's canvas ceiling lift away from my head, walls flying off me, and a pressure I've never put into words hisses somewhere at the back of my mind as the size of the universe assembles itself in my mind. If I close my eyes, I can see it, the endlessness beyond my ears, and knowing I'm only in a corner of that vastness doesn't make me feel tiny. It is amazing that, though I am small and ungifted and barely educated, even I can appreciate the scale of the universe.

And from this perch in space, for this moment at least, it seems unimportant whether someone made it, or if it made itself.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“The Prophet saw him waver, too. He clamped his hand heavily against my father’s shoulder. “DO IT!” he bellowed. “DO IT NOW!” My father raised the hatchet above his head. It wobbled there, breath passing his chapped lips in ragged waves. He jammed his eyes shut as he brought the hatchet down and punched it into my wrists.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“That’s all religion is. Strategy.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“Fuck," she whispered back, a smile creeping onto her face. And, inside that smile is the knowledge that some things are just too sad, too screwed up. Sometimes there's nothing for it but shouting "Fuck" with your best friend at the top of your lungs.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

“I wonder if you can overdose on words.”
― Stephanie Oakes, The Arsonist