18 Grey's Anatomy Quotes That Were All Too Real For Television

“Lexie: [voiceover] Grief may be a thing we all have in common, but it looks different on everyone. Mark: It isn’t just death we have to grieve. It’s life. It’s loss. It’s change. Alex: And when we wonder why it has to suck so much sometimes, has to hurt so bad. The thing we gotta try to remember is…”

— Krista Vernoff, imdb.com

“You didn't love her! You just didn't want to be alone. Or maybe, maybe she was good for your ego. Or, or maybe she made you feel better about your miserable life, but you didn't love her, because you don't destroy the person that you love!”

— Allan Heinberg, Dr. Callie Torres, Sara Ramirez, imdb.com

“Maybe we’re not supposed to be happy, maybe gratitude has nothing to do with joy. Maybe being grateful means recognizing what you have for what it is, appreciating small victories. Admiring the struggle it takes simply to be human. Maybe we’re thankful for the familiar things we know. And maybe we’r…”

— Shonda Rhimes, Dr. Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo, imdb.com

“We’ve all done things we weren’t proud of. I understand that. I know nobody’s perfect, but how do you live with it? How do you get up every morning knowing you could have done better, that you should have done better? Is being sorry enough? Can an apology actually heal our wounds? Ease our pain? Can…”

— Stacy McKee, Dr. Callie Torres, Sara Ramirez, amazon.com

“At the end of the day, faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don’t really expect it. It’s like one day you realize the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed of. The castle, well, it may not be a castle. And it’s not so important that it’s happy ever after just that it’s happy…”

— Mimi Schmir, Dr. Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo, amazon.com

“The first time I kissed my wife, she wasn't my wife then, she was just this girl in a bar. But when we kissed, it was like, I gotta tell you, it was like I'd never kissed any other woman before. It was like my first kiss. The right kiss.”

— Shonda Rhimes, Dr. Derek Shepherd, Patrick Dempsey, imdb.com

“People have scars in all sorts of unexpected places. Like secret road maps of their personal histories, diagrams of all of their old wounds. Most of our old wounds heal, leaving nothing behind but a scar. But some of them, don’t. Some wounds, we carry with us everywhere… and though the cut is long g…”

— Debora Cahn, Dr. Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo, imdb.com

“Sometimes the future changes quickly and completely and we’re left with only the choice of what to do next. We can choose to be afraid of it, to stand there trembling, not moving, assuming the worst that can happen or we can step forward into the unknown and assume it will be brilliant.”

— Shonda Rhimes, Dr. Cristina Yang, Sandra Oh, amazon.com

“Change…We don’t like it, we fear it. But we can’t stop it from coming. We either adapt to change, or we get left behind. It hurts to grow. Anybody who tells you it doesn’t, is lying. But here’s the truth: Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. And sometimes, oh, sometimes, c…”

— Shonda Rhimes, Dr. Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo, imdb.com

“The thing about addiction is it never ends well, because eventually, whatever it is that was getting us high stops feeling good and starts to hurt. Still, they say you don't kick the habit until you hit rock bottom, but how do you know when you're there? Because no matter how badly a thing is hurtin…”

— Debora Cahn, Dr. Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo, imdb.com

“Oh, screw beautiful. I'm brilliant. If you want to appease me, compliment my brain.”

— Peter Nowak, Dr. Cristina Yang, Sandra Oh, imdb.com

“At some point, you have to make a decision. Boundaries don't keep other people out. They fence you in. Life is messy. That's how we're made. So, you can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them. But there are some lines... that are way too dangerous to cross.”

— Shonda Rhimes, Dr. Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo, imdb.com

“Okay, here it is, your choice...it's simple, her or me, and I'm sure she is really great. But Derek, I love you, in a really, really big 'pretend to like your taste in music, let you eat the last piece of cheesecake, hold a radio over my head outside your window', unfortunate way that makes me hate…”

— Shonda Rhimes, Dr. Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo, imdb.com

“Don't let what he wants eclipse what you need. He's very dreamy but he's not the sun, you are.”

— Shonda Rhimes, Dr. Cristina Yang, Sandra Oh, imdb.com

“You're letting her think you're emotionally available. You're letting her think she has a chance. And there is nothing worse in the world than thinking you have a chance when you really don't.”

— James D. Parriott, Dr. Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo, imdb.com

“Pain, you just have to ride it out, hope it goes away on its own, hope the wound that caused it heals. There are no solutions, no easy answers, you just breath deep and wait for it to subside. Most of the time pain can be managed but sometimes the pain gets you where you least expect it. Hits way be…”

— Shonda Rhimes, Dr. Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo, imdb.com

“If you want crappy things to stop happening to you, stop accepting crap and demand something more.”

— Stacy McKee, Dr. Cristina Yang, Sandra Oh, imdb.com

“They say death is hardest on the living. It’s tough to actually say goodbye. Sometimes it’s impossible. You never really stop feeling the loss. It’s what makes things so bitter sweet. We leave little bits of ourselves behind, little reminders. A lifetime of memories, photos, trinkets. Things to reme…”

— Stacy McKee, Dr. Meredith Grey, Ellen Pompeo, imdb.com