Mary H.K. Choi > Quotes

“Loving someone was traumatizing. You never knew what would happen to them out there in the world. Everything precious was also vulnerable.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“I like knowing that you exist. It doesn't make me feel any less lonely, because life is lonely, but it makes me feel a lot less alone.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“To be a hero, you had to decide it was you.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“Penny thought of this Korean saying for when you really, really liked something. You'd say it 'fit your heart exactly.' Sam fit her heart exactly.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“It's piles and piles of emotional homework forever if you ever want to qualify as a grown-up”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“It's crazy how lonely it is to be in a family.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Yolk

“Fiction was fine, but real life was the true freak show.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“There was more than one type of perfectionist. And that I qualified because the kind of perfectionist I was, was the kind that abandoned everything if I wasn’t good enough at it. And that’s why I couldn’t finish tasks.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Yolk

“Penny believed with her whole heart that there were moments - crucial instances - that defined who someone was going to be. There were clues or signs, and you didn't want to miss them.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“You've got to understand that not everybody's going to be exactly your kind of person. They're not going to be completely satisfactory or meet your myriad qualifications.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“People don’t really want to know how you’re doing. They want to wait until you’re done telling them so they can tell you how they’re doing.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Yolk

“I find that the more I hide, the more presentable I am to the world”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Yolk

“Let’s just say when I was little and my mom was out, I’d go to bed with a ketchup bottle.”

“I already love this story so much...”

“It was a foolproof plan. If the bad guys came in I could douse myself and they wouldn’t kill me because I was already dead.”

“Jesus, I can’t tell if that’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard or the absolute most sad.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“Finally, if you're wondering if it counts and it feels like it counts, it counts.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“It's easier to watch myself be sad than actually feel sad.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Yolk

“We all have the same boring problems. Sometimes the best thing you can do is talk about it.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Yolk

“It wasn't a romance; it was too perfect for that. With texts there were only the words and none of the awkwardness. They could get to know each other completely and get comfortable before they had to do anything unnecessarily overwhelming like look at each other's eyeballs with their eyeballs.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“I want a world where everything lights up because I'm in it”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“Everything precious was also vulnerable.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“Trying to get better at the thing you want to be the best at is humiliating.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Permanent Record

“You can be with the same person for a long time and have it be fine and meet someone else who instantly makes you see that it's broken”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“I want to be with someone I can talk to. I want to be with someone who automatically has a fat folder on me. Someone who feels lucky when I tell them the most unflattering, scary stuff.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“If you're going to be racist you should at least try to be less ignorant, although maybe that was a contradiction . . .”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“Sisters never stand a chance to be friends. We're pitted against each other from the moment we are born. A daughter is a treasure. Two is a tax.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Yolk

“Everything about my existence feels like a costume.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Yolk

“What's the point? The planet is on fire and everything is random.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Yolk

“Yoyoyoyoyoyoyoyooyoyoyyoyoyoyo
Come by
I baked a SHEETCAKE
Your favorite
Confetti emoji”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“Life isn't a destination. It's the continual practice of things that make you wiser and happier.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Permanent Record

“She smiled.
Sam smiled back.
She died.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact

“She wished she could explore his body and inspect him. Learn him and memorize him. That way she'd know what to miss when he was gone. Sam was heartbreakingly, hauntingly beautiful. It made her heart hurt. This couldn't end well.”
― Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact