"My sister will die over and over again for the rest of my life. Grief is forever. It doesn't go away; it becomes a part of you, step for step, breath for breath. I will never stop grieving Bailey because I will never stop loving her. That's just how it is. Grief and love are conjoined, you don't get one without the other. All I can do is love her, and love the world, emulate her by living with daring and spirit and joy."
About Jandy Nelson
Jandy Nelson — Life and Legacy
Jandy Nelson is a prominent figure in contemporary young adult literature, renowned for her ability to delve into the intricacies of love and loss. Her novel, 'I'll Give You the Sun,' showcases her distinctive voice and profound understanding of human emotions, making her a significant contributor to the genre. Nelson's core philosophy revolves around the idea that love is both beautiful and painful, a theme that resonates deeply in her writing. For instance, her quote, 'You are the piece of me I will always need,' encapsulates the complexity of relationships, suggesting that our connections with others are integral to our identity. This perspective reflects her belief that love shapes us, even as it brings heartache. Moreover, Nelson's exploration of grief reveals her nuanced understanding of how loss intertwines with love. Her characters often navigate the tumultuous waters of sorrow, illustrating that grief is not a linear journey but a multifaceted experience. This is evident in her reflections on family dynamics, where she highlights the tension and beauty that coexist in familial love. Today, Nelson's quotes continue to resonate with readers, offering insights into the emotional landscapes of adolescence. Her ability to articulate the complexities of human relationships ensures that her work remains relevant, providing solace and understanding to those grappling with their own experiences of love and loss.
Quote collection
Jandy Nelson quotes (page 1 of 5)
84 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I wish my shadow would get up and walk beside me."
"How will I survive this missing? How do others do it? People die all the time. Every day. Every hour. There are families all over the world staring at beds that are no longer slept in, shoes that are no longer worn. Families that no longer have to buy a particular cereal, a kind of shampoo. There are people everywhere standing in line at the movies, buying curtains, walking dogs, while inside, their hearts are ripping to shreds. For years. For their whole lives. I don't believe time heals. I don't want it to. If I heal, doesn't that mean I've accepted the world without her?"
"But then I think about my sister and what a shell-less turtle she was and how she wanted me to be one too. C'mon, Lennie, she used to say to me at least ten times a day. C'mon Len. And that makes me feel better, like it's her life rather than her death that is now teaching me how to be, who to be."
"Who wants to know that the person you love and need the most can just vanish forever"
"There were once two sisters who were not afriad of the dark because the dark was full of the other's voice across the room, because even when the night was thick and starless they walked home together from the river seeing who could last the longest without turning on her flashlight, not afraid because sometimes in the pitch of night they'd lie on their backs in the middle of the path and look up until the stars came back and when they did, they'd reach their arms up to touch them and did."
"I know the expression love bloomed is metaphorical, but in my heart in this moment, there is one badass flower, captured in time-lapse photography, going from bud to wild radiant blossom in ten seconds flat."
"She's a sun-kissed beach girl who goes gothgrungepunkhippierockeremocoremetalfreakfashionistabraingeekboycrazyhiphoprastagirl to keep it under wraps."
"I'm layering away: sauce, noodles, I belong to you, cheese, sauce, my heart is yours, noodles, cheese, I hear your soul in your music, cheese, cheese, CHEESE."
"Or maybe a person is just made up of a lot of peopleMaybe we’re accumulating these new selves all the time. Hauling them in as we make choices, good and bad, as we screw up, step up, lose our minds, find our minds, fall apart, fall in love, as we grieve, grow, retreat from the world, dive into the world, as we make things, as we break things."
"When people fall in love, they burst into flames."
"The first thing I notice is the sky, so full of blue and the kind of brilliant white clouds that make you ecstatic to have eyes. Nothing can go wrong under this sky."
"I always imagined music trapped inside my clarinet, not trapped inside of me. But what if music is what escapes when a heart breaks?"
"Grief is forever. It doesn't go away; it becomes part of you, step for step, breath for breath."
"Grief and love are conjoined, you don't get one without the other. All I can do is love her, and love the world, emulate her by living with daring and spirit and joy."
"We wish with our hands, that's what we do as artists."
"In one split second I saw everything I could be, everything I want to be. And all that I'm not."
"... if you're someone who knows the worst thing can happen at any time, aren't you also someone who knows the best thing can happen at any time too?"
"I have an impulse to write all over the orange walls- I need an alphabet of endings ripped out of books, of hands pulled off of clocks, of cold stones, of shoes filled with nothing but wind."
"... every available inch of his face busts into a smile - whoa. Has he blown into our school on a gust of wind from another world? The guy looks unabashedly jack-o'-lantern happy, which couldn't be more foreign to the sullen demeanor most of us strove to perfect."