Jenny Downham > Quotes

“I wish I had a boyfriend. I wish he lived in the wardrobe on a coat hanger. Whenever I wanted, I could get him out and he'd look at me the way boys do in films, as if I'm beautiful.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“I love you. I love you. I send this message through my fingers and into his, up his arm and into his heart. Hear me. I love you. And I'm sorry to leave you.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“I love you. It hurts more than anything ever has, but I do. So don't you dare tell me I don't. Don't you ever say it again!”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“Bye, Tess. haunt me if you like. I don't mind.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“It was strange how words meant something when they came out of your mouth. Inside your head they were safe and silent, but once they were outside, people grabbed hold of them.”
― Jenny Downham, You Against Me

“Adam strokes my head, my face, he kisses my tears.

We are blessed.


Let them all go.


The sound of a bird flying low across the garden. Then nothing. Nothing. A cloud passes. Nothing again. Light falls through the window, falls onto me, into me.

Moments.

All gathering towards this one.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“Sometimes if you want something badly enough, you can make it happen. If you miss someone so desperately that it wrecks your insides, you say their name over and over until you conjure then. It's called sympathetic magic and you just have to believe in it to make it work.”
― Jenny Downham, You Against Me

“Keep breathing. Just keep doing it. It's easy. In and out.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“Every few years we disappear, Zoey. All our cells are replaced by others. Not a single bit of me is the same as when I was last in this room.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“Moments.

All gathering towards this one.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“It's all right, Tessa, you can go. We love you. You can go now.'
'Why are you saying that?'
'She might need permission to die, Cal.'
'I don't want her to. She doesn't have my permission.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“We said we'd be friends.'

He looks confused. 'Yeah.'

I don't want to be.'

There's space between us, and in that space there's darkness. I take another step, so close that we share a breath. The same one. In and out.

Tess,' he says. I know it's a warning, but I don't care.

What's the worst thing that can happen?'

It'll hurt,' he says.

It already hurts.'

He nods very slowly. And it's like there's a hole in time, as if everything stops and in this one minute, where we look at each other so close, is spread out between us. As he leans towards me, I feel a strange warmth filtering through me. I forget that my brain is full of every sad face at every window I've ever passed.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“I made a fatal error thinking he could save me.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“Hold my hand. Don't let go.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“Then she says, ‘I love you.’ Like three drops of blood falling onto snow.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“We make patterns, we share moments. Sometimes, I think I'm the only one to see it.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“I've always wanted to be a cat. Warm and domesticated when you want to be, wild when you don't.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“I want to die in my own way. It's my illness, my death, my choice. This is what saying yes means.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“Instructions for Adam

Look after no one except yourself. Go to university and make lots of friends and get drunk. Forget your door keyes. Laugh. Eat pot-noodles for breakfast. Miss lectures. Be irresponsible.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“We make patterns, we share moments.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“I'm me and you're you, and all of them out there are them. And we're all so different and equally unimportant.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“It's really going to happen. I really won't ever go back to school. Not ever. I'll never be famous or leave anything worthwhile behind. I'll never go to college or have a job. I won't see my brother grow up. I won't travel, never earn money, never drive, never fall in love or leave home or get my own house.
It's really, really true.
A thought stabs up, growing from my toes and ripping through me, until it stifles everything else and becomes the only thing I'm thinking. It fills me up like a silent scream.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“If you want a girl to like you, you have to listen like a woman and love like a man.”
― Jenny Downham, You Against Me

“Every seven years our bodies change, every cell. Every seven years, we disappear.”
― Jenny Downham , Before I Die

“when I was four I almost fell down the shaft of a tin mine and when I was five the car rolled over on the motorway and when I was seven we went on holiday and the gas ring blew out in the caravan and nobody noticed


I've been dying all my life”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“Cal says that humans are made from the nuclear ash of dead stars. He says that when I die, I'll return to dust, glitter,rain. If thats true, I want to be buried right here under this tree. Its roots will reach into the soft mess of my body and suck me dry. I'll be re-formed as apple blossom. I'll drift down in the spring like confetti and cling to my family's shoes. They'll carry me in their pockets to help them sleep. What dreams will they have then?”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“Statement: A girl and a boy jump into a river. The boy swims over to the girl and says, "God, it's cold."
Question: What's the probability they will kiss?”
― Jenny Downham, You Against Me

“I want the people I love to get up and speak about me, and even if you cry it'll be OK. I want you to say honest things.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“Maybe you should say goodbye, Cal.'
'No.'
'It might be important.'
'It might make her die.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die

“All I know is that I have two choices – stay wrapped in blankets and get on with dying, or get the list back together and get on with living.”
― Jenny Downham, Before I Die