Healing wasn’t always the best thing. Sometimes a hole was better left open. Sometimes it healed too thick and too well and left separate pieces fused and incompetent. And it was harder to reopen after that. Ann Brashares More Quotes by Ann Brashares More Quotes From Ann Brashares She wasn’t sure if he wanted more from her or if he wanted less. Maybe it was both. Maybe it was always both. Ann Brashares ifs wanted There was a moment in between, a moment flung free in the midst of the transition, when he made contact. That was the moment she would dwell on. Ann Brashares midst transition moments Alice suspected Paul couldn’t really picture his father, just like she couldn’t picture Paul when he was away. Maybe that was the case with people you wanted more than was good for you. Ann Brashares cases father people Sometimes you couldn’t face the sadness of being forgotten until you felt the comfort of being remembered again. Ann Brashares sadness comfort faces It was their mothers, long ago. Tibby noted with joy that all four of them were wearing jeans. Ann Brashares long-ago jeans mother How sad it was, Carmen thought, that you acted awful when you were desperately sad and hurt and wanted to be loved. How tragic then, the way everyone avoided you and tiptoed around you when you really needed them. Carmen knew this vicious predicament as well as anyone in the world. How bitter it felt when you acted badly to everyone and ended up hating yourself the most. Ann Brashares hate hurt world I hated motorcycles. I said to my mother, 'I'll never get a motorcycle.' And she said, 'You never know what you'll want when you are older.' After that, the thing that scared me was not so much the motorcycle itself, but that I could turn into a person who would want one. I was scared of the idea that I could become an entirely different person, a stranger to myself. Ann Brashares motorcycle mother ideas And I thought about the color and I realized what blue it was. It was the soft and changeable, essential blue of a well-worn pair of pants. Pants = Love Ann Brashares essentials color blue She realized all at once the deeper thing that bothered her, the thing that made him not just irritating but intolerable: how he kept loving her blindly when she deserved it so little. Ann Brashares irritating made littles She wanted him to see all of her and also none of her. She wanted him to be dazzled by the bits and blinded by the whole. She wanted him to see her whole and not in pieces. She had hopes that were hard to satisfy. Ann Brashares pieces wanted love During intermission she peeked out at the theater, watching it refill. When it was almost full and the lights blinked on and off, she saw three people file in through the center door and her breath caught. Time lapsed as they walked down the center aisle: three teenage girls all in a row. They were so big, so bright, so beautiful, so magnificent to Carmen’s eyes that she thought she was imagining them. They were like goddesses, like Titans. She was so proud of them! They were benevolent and they were righteous. Now, these were friends. Ann Brashares teenage girl beautiful She perched on her windowsill, gazing at the lurid sun soaking into the Caldera, trying to appreciate it even though she couldn’t have it. Why did she always feel she had to do something in the face of beauty? Ann Brashares gazing appreciate trying The ocean was the best place, of course. That was what she loved most. It was a feeling of freedom like no other, and yet a feeling of communion with all the other places and creatures the water touched. Ann Brashares ocean feelings water People left a lot of things behind when they went in the water. Their clothes, their stuff, their makeup, their fixed-up hair, their voices, their hearing, their sight—at least as the normally experienced them. Ann Brashares makeup sight hair Love made you admire funny things about a person, like how good she was at remembering to return her library books and at slicing cucumbers very thin. She was a veritable wonder at pulling a splinter out of her foot. Ann Brashares funny-things feet book He loved her for being so beautiful, and he hated her for it. He loved how she put shiny stuff on her lips for him, and he also reviled her for it. He wanted her to walk home alone, and he wanted to run after her and grab her up before she could take another step. Ann Brashares home running beautiful She had willed her heart to stay small and contained, but it wouldn’t be. Oh, well. Ann Brashares wells oh-well heart I love you, I'll never stop. Ann Brashares love-you she never showed girly weaknesses like cellulite or crushes. she never lingered on injustices committed against her. Ann Brashares girly crush weakness His distress and pleasure mixed and married, giving birth to several anxious children. Ann Brashares married giving children
