bella > bella 's Quotes

“Writing what you wished was the most dangerous form of wishful thinking.”
― Amy Tan, The Bonesetter's Daughter

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison

“To Cassidy, the panopticon wasn't a metaphor. It was the greatest failing on everything she was, a prison she had built for herself out of an inability to appear anything less than perfect. And so she ghosted on, in relentless pursuit of escape, not from society, but from herself. She would always be confined by what everyone expected of her because she was too afraid and too unwilling to correct our imperfect imaginings.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“You see? You're just figuring it out now, but I discovered a long time ago that the smarter you are, the more tempting it is to just let people imagine you. We move through each other's lives like ghosts, leaving behind haunting memories of people who never existed. The popular jock. The mysterious new girl. But we're the ones who choose, in the end, how people see us. And I'd rather be misremembered. Please, Ezra, misremember me.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“The funny thing about gold is how quickly it can tarnish.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“It’s like . . . I’m paranoid about people borrowing my laptop because I’m convinced they’ll find some secret document on there that would make the whole world think I’m a terrible person—something I don’t even remember writing. And it doesn’t matter that there’s no document like that. I’m still terrified, you know?”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“Sometimes I think that everyone has a tragedy waiting for them, that the people buying milk in their pajamas or picking their noses at stoplights could be only moments away from disaster. That everyone's life, no matter how unremarkable, has a moment when it will become extraordinary - a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“The way I figured it, keeping quiet was safe. Words could betray you if you choose the wrong ones, or mean less if you used too many.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“No matter how screwed up life is today, today is just a collection of moments that stop and start where you want them to. And nothing upsetting matters when you know tomorrow's gonna be better than yesterday”
― Robyn Schneider

“We have all been fooled into believing in people who are entirely imaginary--made-up prisoners in a hypothetical panopticon. But the point isn't whether or not you believe in imaginary people; it's whether or not you want to.”
― Robyn Schneider

“Sorry,' I apologized, realizing she was the sort of girl who got upset when someone used an unfamiliar word, rather than learning what it meant.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“There. You see? You’re just figuring it out now, but I discovered a long time ago that the smarter you are, the more tempting it is to just let people imagine you. We move through each other’s lives like ghosts, leaving behind haunting memories of people who never existed. The popular jock. The mysterious new girl. But we’re the ones who choose, in the end, how people see us. And I’d rather be misremembered. Please, Ezra, misremember me.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“Austin believes that winning or losing in binary is meaningless when there's a high score to beat.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“You forgot how to be awesome because you were too busy being cool”
― robyn schneider

“So," I said as Cassidy and I headed toward Mr. Moreno's room, "I didn't see any secret messages last night."
"I didn't want to be predictable," Cassidy retorted. "But at least now I know you're paying attention.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“Oh come on,'Pheobe continued. 'You're asking for it. Pale skin, black clothes, no lunch and that whole brooding thing? It's hilarious. You should get body glitter and go after an unsuspecting freshman.'
'You should!' Cassidy agreed. 'Tell her you're a dangerous monster. And mention how good her blood smells.'
'Wrong time of the month on that one, and I'm getting slapped,' I muttered, and everyone laughed.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“In the lives of children, pumpkins turn into coaches, mice and rats turn into men. When we grow up, we realize it is far more common for men to turn into rats.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“If magic was present, it moved under the skin of the world, beneath the ability of human eyes to catch sight of it.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“It's the endlessly thinking about yourself that causes such heart shame.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“The thing about a mirror is this: The one who stares into it is condemned to consider the world from her own perspective.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“I take responsibility only for the future, not the past. The past can't hurt you the way the future can.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Immortality is a chancy thing; it cannot be promised or earned. Perhaps it cannot even be identified for what it is.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“...looking at him makes her feel like laughing all over - as if she could laugh not just with her mouth but with her eyes, her heart, her very limbs.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“...What is the use of beauty? i have lived my life surrounded by painters, and still I do not know the answer. But i suspect, some days, that beauty helps protect the spirit of mankind, swaddle it and succor it, so that we might survive. Beauty is no end in itself, but if it makes or lives less miserable so that we might be more kind-well, then, lets have beauty, painted on our porcelain, hanging on our walls, ringing through our stories.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Is there a relative value of beauty? Is evanescence - fleetingness - a necessary element of the thing that most moves us? A shooting star dazzles more than the sun. A child captivates like an elf, but grows into grossness, an ogre, a harpy. A flower splays itself into color - the lilies of the field! - more treasured than any painting of a flower. But of all these things, women's grace, shooting stars, flowers, and paintings, only a painting endures.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Is this the main thing that painters of portraits care about? The person on the verge of becoming someone else?”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“The beauty of the day is the only thing that doesn't fade in time. Day after day, such beauty revives itself.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“What is strange is that we may remember what we have done, but not always why we did it.”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

“Damn the human stomach, this fat betrayor of ideals”
― Gregory Maguire, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister