“And only now that I loved a grenade did I understand the foolishness of trying to save others from my own impending fragmentation. I couldn't unlove Augustus Waters. And I didn't want to.”— John Green, Hazel, amazon.com
“Much of my life had been devoted to trying not to cry in front of people who loved me, so I knew what Augustus was doing. You clench your teeth. You look up. You tell yourself that if they see you cry, it will hurt them, and you will be nothing but A Sadness in their lives, and you must not become a…”— John Green, Hazel, amazon.com
“There was a lot they didn’t tell you about death, she had discovered, and one of the biggies was how long it took the ones you loved most to die in your heart.”— Stephen King, amazon.com
“I wanted to know that he would be okay if I died. I wanted to not be a grenade, to not be a malevolent force in the lives of people I loved.”— John Green, Hazel, amazon.com
“I believe humans have souls, and I believe in the conservation of souls. The oblivion fear is something else, fear that I won't be able to give anything in exchange for my life.”— John Green, Augustus Waters, amazon.com
“That's God, I think, the rising sun, and the light is too bright and her eyes are losing but they aren't lost. I don't believe we return to haunt or comfort the living or anything, but I think something becomes of us.”— John Green, Augustus Waters, amazon.com
“Hearts can break. Yes, hearts can break. Sometimes I think it would be better if we died when they did, but we don't.”— Stephen King, amazon.com
“The Master sees times as they are without trying to control them. She lets them go their own way and resides at the center of the circle.”— Lao Tzu, amazon.com
“When people die you have to bury them but you do not have to write about it. You do not have to write about an undertake nor all the business of burial. You do not have to write about that day nor the next night of the day after and the night after, and the progress from numbness into sorrow nor all…”— Ernest Hemingway, amazon.com
“The dead are visible only in the terrible lidless eye of memory. The living, thank heaven, retain the ability to surprise and to disappoint.”— John Green, Peter Van Houten, amazon.com
“You do not immortalize the lost by writing about them. Language buries, but does not resurrect.”— John Green, Peter Van Houten, amazon.com
“I'm like a grenade, Mom. I'm a grenade and at some point I'm going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, okay?”— John Green, Hazel, amazon.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
“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
“It was an amazing sight, that splendor alongside death. I felt something like the surge hit me, a wave of sorrow followed by an even bigger wave of exhilaration and gratitude. I felt alive in a way I hadn’t in years.”— Mary Taugher, narrativemagazine.com
“Hospital time takes place in another dimension, in a subterranean sort of zone where the world outside feels unreal and remote, where it can feel like you’re wading through hip-high waves, salt water screwing up your vision and clogging your ears.”— Mary Taugher, narrativemagazine.com