Failing to grapple with complexity actually turns out to be a pretty bad life strategy. John Green More Quotes by John Green More Quotes From John Green I don't think you're dying," I said. "I think you've just got a touch of cancer. He smiled. Gallows humor. John Green cancer dying thinking You'll live forever in our hearts, big man. That particularly galled me, because it implied the immortality of those left behind: You will live forever in my memory, because I will live forever! I AM YOUR GOD NOW, DEAD BOY! I OWN YOU! John Green real heart memories But I could always tell in her eyes if she got really pissed at me, and her eyes were still pretty smiley John Green smiley stills eye But if you consider all the unlikely things together, at least one of them will probably happen to each of us. John Green unlikely towns together And now life has become the future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future—you go to high school so you can go to college so you can get a good job so you can get a nice house so you can afford to send your kids to college so they can get a good job so they can get a nice house so they can afford to send their kids to college. John Green nice jobs school I smiled. She smiled. I believed the smile. John Green real Doing stuff never feels as good as you hope it will feel. John Green stuff feels You should see it. V for Vendetta I mean. "I'll look it up." No. With Me. At my house. Now John Green house mean looks To be abandoned like that! Shut out when you most need to be loved. John Green abandoned needs The easiest way to solve a mystery is to decide that there is no mystery to solve. John Green mystery towns way Maybe this time she wanted to be found, and to be found by me. John Green found wanted Before any of it could make sense, it had to be heard. John Green make-sense towns heard In the end the listening exposes you even more than it exposes the people you're trying to listen to. John Green listening trying people When you leave a place, it's best to leave. John Green But as for me: I must ask the wounded man where he is hurt, because I cannot become the wounded man. The only wounded man I can be is me. John Green wounded hurt men We are now as I wished we could be then. John Green Maybe we're grass—our roots so interdependent that no one is dead as long as someone is still alive. John Green alive roots long We don't suffer from a shortage of metaphors . . . But you have to be careful which metaphor you choose, because it matters. John Green towns suffering matter I can't be you. You can't be me. You can imagine another well—but never quite perfectly, you know? John Green be-you wells imagine This is what happens: somebody—girl usually—got a free spirit, doesn't get on too good with her parents. These kids, they're like tied-down helium balloons. They strain against the string and strain against it, and then something happens, and that string gets cut, and they just float away. And maybe you never see the balloon again . . . Or maybe three or four years from now, or three or four days from now, the prevailing winds take the balloon back home . . . But listen, kid, that string gets cut all the time. John Green girl home kids