A biography for Jennifer E. Smithhasn’t been written yet.
“It had always been the two of them through everything -every adventure and every expedition- and now there was this awful distance between them, and she tried not to think about all the stories they were missing out on, all the litle moments and bigger milestones that had happened over the past few weeks without the other knowing”
“It can’t be epic if there’s no challenge to it.”
“Because even this --being so close to her --was no longer the same. That light he'd felt when he first saw her --he understood now that it was only a lightbulb. It was quick and easy, full of electricity, but there was something artificial about it. What he wanted was fire: heat and spark and flame.”
“She understands now what she, in all her worry, had forgotten. That even as she hesitates and wavers, even as she thinks too much and moves too cautiously, she doesn't always have to get it right. It's okay to look back, even as you move forward.”
“Somehow he'd become the one constant in this whole uneven chapter in her life, & the idea that could change was unsettling.”
“There are different kinds of happy, some kinds don't need any proof-Ellie O'Neill, This is What Happy Looks Like”
“Clare's been called a lot of things- smart and funny, driven and talented- but memorable certainly isn't one of them. The most important things about her- the ones she's most proud of- are apparent only once you get to know her.”
“Here. There. Everywhere. Somewhere. Home.”
“Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?”
“and the boy's eyes are searching hers with something like loneliness, like the very last thing he wants is to be left behind right now.”
“And the geography of the thing--the geography of them--was completely and hopelessly wrong.”
“It's just one more thing she hadn't considered, and as the idea of it settles over her, she realizes again how entwined their lives are. They're like two trees whose branches have grown together. Even if you pull them out by the trunks, they're still going to be twisted and tangled and nearly impossible to separate at the roots.”
“She filed those moments away like precious documents, wore them smooth with memory, collected them like bits of prayers.”
“People talk about books being an escape, but here on the tube, this one feels more like a lifeline...The motion of the train makes her head rattle, but her eyes lock on the words the way a figure skater might choose a focal point as she spins, and just like that, she's grounded again.”
“You could tell a lot about someone by the way they carried a secret-by how safe they kept it, how soon they told, the way they acted when they were trying to keep it from spilling out.”
“I might not say it, but I obviously show you how I feel,” she says. “Why do the words have to be so important?”“They just are,” he says, standing up and brushing off the back of his jeans. “Not because you’re saying them, but because you’re not.”
“Exactly. How can you know it makes you happy if you’ve never experienced it?”“There are different kinds of happy,” she said. “Some kinds don’t need any proof.”
“She couldn't ignore the disjointed sensation that they were now two different pieces of two puzzles, and nothing in the world could make them fit together again.”
“Childhood memories were like airplane luggage; no matter how far you were traveling or how long you needed them to last, you were only ever allowed two bags”
“Someone once told her there's a formula for how long it takes to get over someone, that it's half as long as the time you've been together. Hadley has her doubts about how accurate this could possibly be, a calculation so simple for something as complicated as heartbreak.”