Justine > Justine's Quotes

“If there was one thing that defined adolescence it was hysterical laughter. You never laughed like that again. In adolescence the brutal realisation that the world and life were completely absurd made you laugh until you couldn’t catch your breath, whereas in later life it would only result in a weary sigh.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“How many things do we feel obliged to do for the sake of it, or for appearances, or because we are trained to do them, but which weigh us down and don’t in fact achieve anything?”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“Can you experience nostalgia for something that hasn’t happened? We talk of ‘regrets’ about the course of our lives, when we are almost certain we have taken the wrong decision; but one can also be enveloped in a sweet and mysterious euphoria, a sort of nostalgia for what might have been.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“What I really need is a friend just like me; I'm sure I'd be my own best friend.”
― Antoine Laurain, The Red Notebook

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted just like that, and it didn't mean anything? What then?”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“Because,' she said, 'when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it?”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“The names are the first things to go, after the breath has gone, and the beating of the heart. We keep our memories longer than our names.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“Mirrors,' she said, 'are never to be trusted.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“Coraline wondered why so few of the adults she met made any sense.”
― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

“Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect.”
― JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

“She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

“I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass

“Do you know, I always thought unicorns were fabulous monsters, too? I never saw one alive before!"

Well, now that we have seen each other," said the unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland: and Through The Looking Glass

“I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir,' said Alice, 'Because I'm not myself you see.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

“...Adventures, once they were over, were things that had to stay inside one--that no one else could quite understand.”
― Eva Ibbotson, Journey to the River Sea

“When you know what you want you usually get it.”
― Eva Ibbotson, Journey to the River Sea

“What do you mean to do with Maia when you do find her?” the professor asked that night.
“Take her back to the Keminskys and never let her out of my sight again,” said Miss Minton.
“She may not find it easy.”
“Why on earth not? The Keminskys are the kindest people in the world.”
“Yes. But she has tasted freedom.”
― Eva Ibbotson, Journey to the River Sea

“She realized that adventures, once they were over, were things that had to stay inside one--that no one else could quite understand.”
― Eva Ibbotson, Journey to the River Sea

“...she made her home in between the pages of books.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Linger

“There are moments that you'll remember for the rest of your life and there are moments that you think you'll remember for the rest of your life, and it's not often they turn out to be the same moment.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races

“Clutter is my natural habitat.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races

“I think every now and then about Sean’s thumb pressed against my wrist and daydream about him touching me again. But mostly I think about the way he looks at me – with respect – and I think that’s probably worth more than anything.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races

“It was like when you had been unhappy and didn't know it until you weren't anymore.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Sinner

“And suddenly I was just eaten by nostalgia, for a past that wasn't mine.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Sinner