“The more you don’t want to be like your parents, the more you will resemble them.”
“His parents’ pregnancies must have been all-out chromosomatic war”
“When you hate your parents or dislike certain traits that they have, you are actually giving them more attention and directing your energy toward them. They occupy your headspace, so how could it not affect your choices in life.”
“Maybe our parents lives are imprinted within us, maybe the only fate there is is the temptation of reliving their mistakes. Maybe, try as we might, we will never be able to outrun the blood that runs through our veins. Or. Or maybe we are free the moment we are born. Maybe everything we ve even done is by our own hands.”
“A dog s good for filling a grief-dug hole. In the Shape of Shep”
“...all I could think about was how both sets of parents had needed to make their decision, on whether to medicate their child, in a scientific vacuum. (p. 35)”
“Kinder lieben ihre Eltern zuerst. Nach einer Weile beurteilen sie sie. Selten, wenn je, verzeihen sie ihnen.”
“Her rage flopped awkwardly away like a duck. She felt as she had when her cold, fierce parents had at last grown sick and old, stick-boned and saggy, protected by infirmity the way cuteness protected a baby, or should, it should protect a baby, and she had been left with her rage--vestigial, girlhood rage--inappropriate and intact. She would hug her parents good-bye, the gentle, emptied sacks of them, and think Where did you go?”
“Nightmares did come true. Because, after her second night of major loving with the man of her dreams, the absolute last person she ever wanted to see was her mother. Yet there she was, her small, hefty frame trundling up the stairs to Maira’s front door. She was so frozen with horror, she couldn’t move until she heard the doorbell ring. Don’t answer it. Maybe she’ll go away. Well, that was just stupid.”
“Lolly nods. Though when is the right time for that? I asked her for a new sports bra since I outgrew my last one and she looked at me as if I d just asked her to buy me a pony.”
“-Du skjønner det, frøken, at når en har en mamma som er engel og en pappa som er negerkonge det her e så fantastisk, og når en selv har seilt rundt på havet hele livet, så vet en ikke hvordan en skal oppføre seg blant alle eplene og piggsvinene.”
“Those raised poorly end up hating their parents. They hate them until they realize... they could not help themselves. Just like us, they fall short. By honoring our parents, we honor the humanity in ourselves, and learn to not only forgive them, but also ourselves for having judged them so harshly.”
“Never involved your parents when you are in pain; they can t see your empty stomach in this worldliness. Don t make them feel helpless for your thirst of living.”
“The things which you get from your parents are valuable but the things which you earn by your blood become precious.”
“I write about you all the time, I said aloud. Every time I say I , it refers to you.”
“Still, it was hard to have parents who lived inside you, when all you really wanted was for them to come back, and hug you.”
“The best you can do is not be too strict and also, don’t be too lenient. Be like parents who adopt different ways to handle different situations so as to receive the right response from their kids.”