Jodi Picoult: Doing (page 2)

“Did you ever wonder if the person in the picture is the same one you see when you look in the mirror?" - "That's the eternal question, isn't it? Are we born who we are, or do we make ourselves that way?”

“Good people are good people; religion has nothing to do with it.”

“How do you know that you are not part of a book? That someone's not reading your story right now?”

“I know what it's like to start something and have it suddenly grow out of control. And you want to get rid of it, because it's hurting you and everyone else around you, but every time you try to do that, it consumes you again.”

“do you fix a wheel that isn't broken, or do you wait until the cart collapses?”

“Who I am, and what I am capable of doing has always managed to surprise me.”

“It is so easy to think that the world revolves around you, but all you have to do is stare up at the sky to realize it isn't that way at all.”

“The truth was, history repeated itself on a daily basis; mistakes were made over and over. People were haunted by what they had done, and by what they hadn't had time to do.”

“They're fake bullets, so why do I feel like Im bleeding out?”

“Just because you had every right to feel sorry for yourself didn't mean you ever took the opportunity to do so.”

“My mother moves so fast I do not even see it coming. But she slaps my face hard enough to make my head snap backward. She leaves a print that stains me long after it’s faded. Just so you know: shame is five-fingered.”

“Parenting is really just a matter of tracking, of hoping your kids do not get so far ahead you can no longer see their next moves.”

“Sometimes, mothers say and do things that seem like they don't want their kids… but when you look more closely, you realize that they're doing those kids a favor. They're just trying to give them a better life.”

“I wonder if what makes a family a family isn't doing everything right all the time but, instead, giving a second chance to the people you love who do things wrong.”

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”

“She wanted him to tell her that when you love someone so hard and so fierce, it was all right to do things that you knew were wrong.”

“Some people don't know what to do with an act of kindness.”

“Campbell" Julia says "Don't do this to me"
"Do what?"
"Push me off the same cliff twice”

“Prayer is like water - something you can't imagine has the strength or power to do any good, and yet give it time and it can change the lay of the land.”