The legal system works really well, if you communicate a certain way. But if you don't, it all goes to Hell in a handbasket really quickly. Jodi Picoult More Quotes by Jodi Picoult More Quotes From Jodi Picoult When you love someone - when you create a child with him - you don't just suddenly lose that bond. Like any other energy, it can't be destroyed, just channeled into something else. Jodi Picoult when-you-love-someone energy children When it comes to memories, the good and the bad never balance. Jodi Picoult balance memories So much of marriage was implicit and nonverbal. Had I gotten so complacent I'd forgotten to communicate? Jodi Picoult complacent communicate forgotten There were lies we told to save ourselves, and then there were lies we told to rescue others. What counted more, the mistruth, or the greater good? Jodi Picoult greater-good rescue lying The cost of growth is always a small act of violence. Jodi Picoult small-acts cost growth I think there are two different oceans - the one that plays with you in the summer, and the one that gets so mad in the winter. Jodi Picoult ocean summer winter What was wrong with me? I had a decent life. I was healthy. I wasn't starving or maimed by a land mine or orphaned. Yet somehow, it wasn't enough. I had a hole in me, and everything I took for granted slipped through it like sand. I felt like I had swallowed yeast, like whatever evil was festering inside me had doubled in size. Jodi Picoult healthy land evil I told myself that if I didn't care, this wouldn't have hurt so much - surely that proved I was alive and human and all those touchy-feely things, for once and for all. But that wasn't a relief, not when I felt like a skyscraper with dynamite on every floor. Jodi Picoult relief alive hurt I always hated when my scars started to fade, because as long as I could still see them, I knew why I was hurting. Jodi Picoult pain hurt long Once upon a time there were two sisters. One of them was really, really strong, and one of them wasn't.' You looked at me. 'Your turn.' I rolled my eyes. 'The strong sister went outside into the rain and realized the reason she was strong was because she was made out of iron, but it was raining and she rusted. The end.' No, because the sister who wasn't strong went outside into the rain when it was raining, and hugged her really tight until the sun came out again. Jodi Picoult eye strong rain It was a strange thing, to still be in love with your wife and to not know if you liked her. What would happen when this was all over? Could you forgive someone if she hurt you and the people you love, if she truly believed she was only trying to help? I had filed for divorce, but that wasn't what I really wanted. What I really wanted was for all of us to go back two years, and start over. Had I ever really told her that? Jodi Picoult divorce hurt years Here's what I hadn't realized: the mother you haven't seen for almost thirty-six years isn't your mother, she's a stranger. Sharing DNA doesn't make you fast friends. This wasn't a joyous reunion. It was just awkward. Jodi Picoult dna mother years Maybe a mother wasn't what she seemed to be on the surface. Jodi Picoult surface mother People changed. Even the people you thought you knew as well as you knew yourself. Jodi Picoult wells changed people I truly believed that the cost of success for us shouldn't be the cost of failure for a good friend. Jodi Picoult good-friend cost I could not remember my first kiss, but I could have told you Charlotte would be my last. Jodi Picoult first-kiss kissing would-be Memory is like plaster: peel it back and you just might find a completely different picture. Jodi Picoult different might memories I shouldn't have eavesdropped, but sometimes, that's the only way to find out the truth. Jodi Picoult eavesdropping sometimes way There is no cosmic scale on which you can weigh your actions; you learn too late what choices ruin the fragile balance. Jodi Picoult balance choices too-late By definition, love made you better than good enough; it redefined perfection to include your traits, instead of excluding them. Jodi Picoult good-enough definitions perfection