Jodi Picoult: Forgiveness is spiritual. Punishment is legal," Leo says...

There's always going to be bad stuff out there. But here's the amazing thing -- light trumps darkness, every time. You stick a candle into the dark, but you can't stick the dark into the light.

Jodi Picoult

recovery dark inspirational

It never failed to amaze me how the most ordinary day could be catapulted into the extraordinary in the blink of an eye.

Jodi Picoult

ordinary-days blink eye

There are two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations.

Jodi Picoult

happy happiness reality

Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, 'You're not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.' It's saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future.

Jodi Picoult

forgiving important past

I think grief is like a really ugly couch. It never goes away. You can decorate around it; you can slap a doily on top of it; you can push it to the corner of the room-but eventually, you learn to live with it.

Jodi Picoult

ugly grief thinking

I believe that having something to hope for - even if it's just a better tomorrow- is the most powerful drug on this planet.

Jodi Picoult

drug powerful believe

This is what I like about photographs. They're proof that once, even if just for a heartbeat, everything was perfect.

Jodi Picoult

heartbeat photograph perfect

You can't look back - you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.

Jodi Picoult

moving-on behind-you past

Heroes didn't leap tall buildings or stop bullets with an outstretched hand; they didn't wear boots and capes. They bled, and they bruised, and their superpowers were as simple as listening, or loving. Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were impossibly knotted, they could untangle someone else's. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back.

Jodi Picoult

simple hero hands

Where you come from does matter -- but not nearly as much as where you are headed.

Jodi Picoult

where-you-come doe travel

She became whoever she needed to be to survive,but she never let anyone else define her.

Jodi Picoult

needed

When you are attracted to people, it's because of the details. Their kindness. Their eyes. The fact that they can get you to laugh when you need it the most.

Jodi Picoult

eye kindness love

if you tell yourself you feel fine, you will.

Jodi Picoult

fine positive thinking

Life can change in an instant; don't be so worried about the future that you forget to celebrate what you have right now.

Jodi Picoult

worried celebrate forget

true love is felonious… You take someone’s breath away… You rob them of the ability to utter a single word… You steal a heart.

Jodi Picoult

true-love heart love-is

You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.

Jodi Picoult

pages writing might

words are like nets - we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that much joy, or grief, or wonder.

Jodi Picoult

grief joy mean

Words are like eggs dropped from great heights; you can no more call them back than ignore the mess they leave when they fall.

Jodi Picoult

height eggs fall

When you finally start to write something, do not let yourself stop...even when you are convinced it's the worst garbage ever. This is the biggest caveat for beginning writers. Instead, force yourself to finish what you began, and THEN go back and edit it.

Jodi Picoult

garbage force writing

Someone real," I hear myself saying. "Someone who never has to pretend, and who I never have to pretend around. Someone who's smart, but knows how to laugh at himself. Someone who would listen to a symphony and start to cry, because he understands music can be too big for words. Someone who knows me better than I know myself. Someone I want to talk to first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Someone I feel like I've known my whole life, even if I haven't.

Jodi Picoult

real morning relationship

Forgiveness is spiritual. Punishment is legal," Leo says. "They're not mutually exclusive.