Quotes From Books That Changed My Brain Chemistry
from a variety of genres
Sometimes when I’m staring at a blank Word document and fumbling over the text, I remind myself that it’s all just words. There isn’t a way to magically paint the page in the right tone or theme. I just have to use words. The best writers don’t have magic keyboards. They’re working with the same tools I am—just 26 letters. But a good writer can take these admittedly scarce letters (how are there only 26??) and turn them into something beautiful.
So, here are six quotes from books I like that changed my brain chemistry and made me realize what can be done with just 26 letters.
“To fall in love with the world isn’t to ignore or overlook suffering, both human or otherwise. For me anyway, to fall in love with the world is to look up at the night sky and feel your mind swim before the beauty and the distance of the stars. It is to hold your children while they cry and watch the sycamore trees leaf out in June. When my breastbone starts to hurt, and my throat tightens and tears well in my eyes, I want to look away from feeling. I want to deflect with irony or anything else that will keep me from feeling directly. We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.” —John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed (nonfiction)
It can be easy to think the world and humanity are doomed, that there’s no hope or point in setting up our futures. But I believe in the small magics of the world, and that belief is perfectly captured in this quote. There’s a vulnerability here that’s both relatable and beautiful. When I read this, it resonated with me in a way that nothing else ever has, making The Anthropocene Reviewed easily one of my favorite books I’ve read.
“Happy endings can be caught, but they are difficult to hold on to. They are dreams that want to escape the night. They are treasure with wings. They are wild, feral, reckless things that need to be constantly chased, or they will certainly run away.” —Stephanie Garber, The Ballad of Never After (romantasy)
There’s this idea that love is a destination, that once you’re married, you’ve achieved a happily ever after. But love is something you have to work for. You must choose to love every day. I like this quote because, though I had my problems with this book, it was a refreshing acknowledgement of what ‘true love’ is really like, even in a fairy tale setting. Evangeline chooses to love Jacks despite everything. Love is something to hold onto, which makes it all the more precious.
“To a parent, your child wasn't just a person: your child was a place, a kind of Narnia, a vast eternal place where the present you were living and the past you remembered and the future you longed for all at the same time. You could see it every time you looked at her: layered in her face was the baby she'd been and the child she'd become and the adult she would grow up to be, and you saw them all simultaneously, like a 3-D image. It made your head spin. It was a place you could take refuge, if you knew how to get in. And each time you left it, each time your child passed out of your sight, you feared you might never be able to return to that place again.” —Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere (literary fiction)
I’m not a mother, so I’m sure this quote will resonate with mothers in a way it simply can’t with me, but I enjoyed it all the same. A child is infinite potential and possibility; they are an embodiment of love that once was; they are what makes you get up in the morning. The comparison to Narnia was unlike any comparison I’d seen made to children before, but I thought it captured the feeling of wonder and almost magic that comes with creating and raising a child. From what I’ve heard, at least. #CatMom
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.” —Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird (nonfiction)
Not to get morbid, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how everyone dies.
Hear me out!
We all die, and I would rather die having done things, even if they weren’t perfect or even good. I would rather have lived trying than lived doing nothing. That realization felt like letting go. As a self-diagnosed control freak, that’s a pretty big thing for me. This quote resonated with me because of that, and Bird by Bird is filled with similar wise-cracking advice. Any writer should give it a read.
“I yearn to know the people I love deeply and intimately—without context, without boxes—and I yearn for them to know me that way, too.” —Jennette McCurdy, I’m Glad My Mom Died (nonfiction)
McCurdy is specifically speaking on people you know within certain contexts, like the workplace or classroom. We meet these people and learn their lives, their habits, and their loves, without ever knowing them beyond that context. I have plenty of old coworkers whose lives I know in graphic detail, but who I’ll probably never hear from again. I relate to McCurdy in this way. I want to be friends, I want what I know about you to mean something.
“I would have come for you. And if I couldn't walk, I'd crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we'd fight our way out together—knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that's what we do. We never stop fighting.” —Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom (YA fantasy)
Fiiiiiinnee okay, you got me! I love yearning! I love romance! I love devotion! This quote shook my 16-year-old self and I’ve never recovered. Given that Kaz, the speaker, is cold, unempathetic, and never speaks like this, the quote felt like an indirect confession of love. Readers were given crumbs and I was eating them up. I wanted someone to love me enough to rescue me if I were in danger, but still see me as an equal. So far, I haven’t been kidnapped by evildoers. I’ll keep you posted.
Love it.