Heidi Heilig > Quotes

“Sometimes a person has to let go of something to take hold of something else.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“Sometimes fate makes choices for us.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“When I was young, I learned to expect loss. Every time you slept, something disappeared. Whenever you woke up, someone else was gone. But . . . I also learned that every day, you created everything anew. And whatever you had, you enjoyed as long as it lasted. Spend money when it’s in your pocket.” He took my hand and put the orange in it. “Eat fruit while it’s ripe.” His other hand found my cheek, his thumb brushing the corner of my mouth. “Paradise is a promise no god bothers to keep. There’s only now, and tomorrow nothing will be the same, whether we like it or not.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“After all, you can only hold one person tight if you're holding on with both hands.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“And once everyone agrees something is one way, all the other ways it could have been disappear.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“Jealousy is nothing but a fear of being abandoned”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“Love makes fools of us all. He has to believe it will work, because he’s in love.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“Paradise is a promise no god bothers to keep. There’s only now, and tomorrow nothing will be the same, whether we like it or not.”
I bit my lip and tasted oranges; the juice was very sweet. “Is that really true?”
His smile was bright in the moonlight. “I promise.”
“Then I suppose . . . just tonight—”
This time I did not turn away, and so I discovered that his lips were even sweeter than the orange.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“There are a lot of things that are illegal but not wrong. And probably more that are wrong, and still legal.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“Sometimes a person has to let go of something to take hold of something else. You always have to choose what’s more important.” “Oh?”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“The age of exploration is long over, amira. Now it’s the age of globalization. And once everyone agrees something is one way, all the other ways it could have been disappear.” I”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“I was a closed book, a rolled map, a dark territory uncharted; I was surprised by my urgency, but after all, to be known was to exist.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“Nothing lasts forever. Not even sorrow.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Ship Beyond Time

“You know, if I had your morals, I could solve all my problems.”
He shrugged one shoulder and slipped the watch back into his pocket. “If I had your problems, I could afford to have better morals.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“Live to regret it.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“There has to be a line, Kashmir,” I said angrily. “A person can’t do just anything for love.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I would.”
“Yeah, well, you’re a thief. Your relative morality is already suspect.”
“Ah,” he said then, standing. “Well. I’ll leave the morality for those that like the taste of it. I always preferred bread.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“His eyes were so inviting that for a moment, everything in me wanted to reveal this part of myself, as though the truth was a butterfly, wings fluttering, green and gold and quivering to be free. I was a closed book, a rolled map, a dark territory, uncharted; I was surprised by my urgency, but after all, to be known was to exist.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“The laws of the jungle remind me of the laws of the street. When I came abroad, I had to learn a different set of laws. Everywhere we go there is a different set of laws. Most of them unwritten.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“I bit my lip to keep it from trembling; he'd let me go a long time ago. After all, you can only hold one person tight if you're holding on with both hands.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“Love isn’t much of a legacy, Mr. Firas.”
“I think there’s none better.”
“It doesn’t last.”
“It doesn’t have to.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Ship Beyond Time

“She is not philosophy, I am not an ethical question. I will not risk my existence to satisfy your curiosity.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Ship Beyond Time

“Don’t get caught. The last thing we need is for you to go to jail.”
“For treason?” he said, running a comb through his tousled hair. “We wouldn’t go to jail.”
“Really?”
“We’d be shot.”
“You always know just what to say.”
“I try to look on the bright side.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“Now is all I have.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Ship Beyond Time

“Who said it was thieves who know the price of everything and the value of nothing?”
“Oscar Wilde,” I said. “And it’s cynics, not thieves.”
“Ah! That explains it, then.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“Blake . . . it’s inevitable,” I said, repeating the words I’d learned. “You’ve seen it on the horizon. You know what’s coming. Paradise is always lost.”
“That’s a convenient turn of phrase,” he said. “But paradise is never lost. Only destroyed.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“If wishes were fishes, aquariums would be much more terrifying.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Ship Beyond Time

“Why hold off the inevitable? Why, for the ephemeral.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“Aye, Captain!” With little effort, he swept me up and hoisted me over his shoulder, knocking the air out of me. “Shore leave!” he shouted as he trotted down the gangplank.
“Kashmir!”
“Ah!” he said as I pounded him on the back. “That was my kidney!”
“Put me down,” I said breathlessly, “or I’ll take out the other one!”
“You should know, amira,” he said, emphasizing the Persian accent he often kept hidden. “We don’t negotiate with terrorists!”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“There is something terrifying about seeing someone strong standing on the edge of the abyss, like a ship on the lip of a whirlpool where the whole sea plunges into the maw of Charybdis. There is that moment when they reach out—like a drowning man will—and if you’re within reach, they will pull you down with them. I didn’t want to stand there beside him. I didn’t want to be dragged down.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Girl from Everywhere

“That's all we can do. Live in the moment. Love in the moment.”
― Heidi Heilig, The Ship Beyond Time