Katrina Leno > Quotes

“The people we love get under our skin and crawl through our veins and fine their way into our heart. They choke up our blood flow and mess up our breathing and tangle themselves through our bodies like wire. Like razors, like fire.
We remember them even when we don't remember them.
We try and forget, but it's pointless.
Even amnesia. Even comas and brain damage and traumatic shock.
Whatever makes us not remember, we still remember.
Our minds flounder like fish but our bodies...
Our bodies remember.”
― Katrina Leno, The Half Life of Molly Pierce

“Three little girls all eating things they weren’t supposed to eat. Three little girls all eating things in order to fill their bodies with something other than the anger, the rage, that would otherwise consume them.”
― Katrina Leno, Horrid

“Because there was nothing in a girl’s history that might negate her right to choose what happens to her body.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“I knew that he would use that gun, because that is what small, scared men did: they used things more powerful than themselves to make up the difference. They hid behind weapons of mass destruction: big guns and bigger bombs.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“On the island of By-the-Sea you could always smell two things: salt and magic.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“Are you happy at all?" she asked tentatively.
"Of course I'm happy. Why wouldn't I be happy?"
"Oh, I don't know. Sometimes you just find reasons not to be.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“You deserve to be whole. You deserve to remember. And you deserve to live.”
― Katrina Leno, The Half Life of Molly Pierce

“You can’t decide how much you
love people. It just happens. If you have to think about it, then it’s not really real.”
― Katrina Leno, The Half Life of Molly Pierce

“I think the important thing to realize, to try and remember, is that grief doesn't have a rule book. You're allowed to feel every emotion under the sun. You're even allowed to invent new ones. I think I've done that a few times”
― Katrina Leno, Horrid

“The combined smell of coffee and used books felt like the intersection of all things good and necessary.”
― Katrina Leno, Horrid

“Except there weren’t any princes on By-the-Sea. We didn’t need princes; we saved ourselves.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“Oh, By-the-Sea, island of Fernwehs and everything I had ever known and loved. How I would miss you—every part of you—but especially the smell, always the smell: of salt, of brine, of water, of spells, of potions, of feathers, and of what it would mean to leave it all in just two months.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“Buy yourself some books, Lottie. They help with everything. Books can make you live a thousand lifetimes, a thousand different lives. Books make you immortal.”
― Katrina Leno, Everything All at Once

“The moment I started reading, I was no longer in my bedroom, no longer sad, no longer even myself.”
― Katrina Leno, Everything All at Once

“There’s a sadness in her voice but it’s a sadness that’s unsure of its place. She doesn’t know where to put it; she doesn’t know where it came from or how it works.”
― Katrina Leno, The Half Life of Molly Pierce

“She was tied to the water, my sister. Moods like tides, temper like a hungry shark.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good,
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad, she was horrid”
― Katrina Leno, Horrid

“She ripped a corner from the page and put it into her mouth.
The house creaked again.
She imagined the paper re-forming in her belly. She imagined the words dissolving off the paper and sinking into her bloodstream. She imagined her body fill with words. Made up of them. Words instead of blood, words instead of organs.”
― Katrina Leno, Horrid

“No, she couldn't remember the first book she'd eaten, but she could remember the first book she'd eaten purposefully. And that was maybe more important.”
― Katrina Leno, Horrid

“I was tempted to tell her that babies born on By-the-Sea tended to always smell like salt, always crave the ocean on their skin, always look for the full moon or North Star to guide them home.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“He always said the same thing, no matter what book they were reading. He always opened it and brought it to his nose and inhaled deeply and said, “Ugh. I love this book.” “You say that about every book,” Jane would say, giggling. “Because I love every book! Don’t you just love books, Janie? I love books so much I could eat them.”
― Katrina Leno, Horrid

“You can’t decide how much you love people. It just happens. If you have to think about it, then it’s not really real.”
― Katrina Leno, The Half Life of Molly Pierce

“It isn't always easy. Returning to the past.”
― Katrina Leno, Horrid

“Her head was on fire, pounding. She felt like she was on a boat like the bed was gently rocking back and forth, tossed among huge rolling waves.”
― Katrina Leno, Horrid

“What more could I want?” I said. But I think we both knew the answer to that question was: Lots lots lots lots lots.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“What if time really exists, like - everything all at once, all at the same moment, every single moment happening at the same time, over and over, for all eternity. Simultaneously.”
― Katrina Leno, Everything All at Once

“Would a house like this ever be fully settled? Or would it ache and moan until the end of time, until all the newer, shodier houses had fallen to ruins around it?”
― Katrina Leno, Horrid

“What time is it, Georgie?” “I’m not saying.” “Georgieeeee.” “I’m not saying it.” “Georgie, what time is it?” “Cute o’clock,” I relented. “It’s cute o’clock, okay, you psychopath.”
― Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt

“Keep going, be nice, make friends.”
― Katrina Leno, Everything All at Once

“Books can make you live a thousand different lifetimes, a thousand different lives. Books can make you immortal.”
― Katrina Leno, Everything All at Once