41 Quotes & Sayings By Christina Baker Kline

Before we leave the gravesite, Mary sings Mother's favorite gospel hymn ...Mary's lovely voice rises and lingers in the air, and by the end of the song most of us are crying. I am too, though I still don't know what those stars are meant to represent. My mistake, I suppose, is in thinking they should mean something. Christina Baker Kline

Something inexorable seeds itself in the place of your origin. You can never escape the bonds of family history, no matter how far you travel. Christina Baker Kline

It's painful to hold out hope for the things that once brought you joy. You have to find ways to make yourself forget. Christina Baker Kline

My heart is shattered, an all that's left are jagged shards. Christina Baker Kline

I remember her words to me when I left school: Your mind will be your comfort. It is, sometimes. And sometimes it isn't. Christina Baker Kline

If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead. Christina Baker Kline

I couldn't have imagined how much more there was to lose. Christina Baker Kline

I learned long ago that loss is not only probable but inevitable. I know what it means to lose everything, to let go of one life and find another. And now I feel, with a strange, deep certainty, that it must be my lot in life to be taught that lesson over and over again. Christina Baker Kline

I ... am left with the lingering feeling that the places we go in our minds to find comfort have little to do with where our bodies go. Christina Baker Kline

The smallest things get to her. It's as if she assumes everything will go right, and when it doesn't -- which, of course, is pretty often -- she is surprised and affronted. Christina Baker Kline

The older I get, the more I believe that the greatest kindness is acceptance. Christina Baker Kline

So is it just human nature to believe that things happen for a reason – to find some shred of meaning even in the worst experiences?" Molly asks when Vivian reads some of these stories aloud." It certainly helps, " Vivian says. Christina Baker Kline

I think about all the ways I’ve been perceived by others over the years: as a burden, a dutiful daughter, a girlfriend, a spiteful wretch, an inva Christina Baker Kline

Know what a symbol is?... Shit that stands for shit. Christina Baker Kline

She is so white-hot furious she can barely see. She stokes the fire of her hatred, feeding it tidbits about bigoted Dina and spineless mushmouth Ralph, because she knows that just beyond the rage is a sorrow so enervating it could render her immobile. She needs to keep moving, flickering around the room. She needs o fill her bags and get the hell out of here. Christina Baker Kline

To get it all done I have to dim my brain, turn it down by notches like the flat-turn knob on a gas lantern, leaving only a nub of flame. Christina Baker Kline

She has never tried to find out what happened to her family – her mother or her relatives in Ireland. But over and over, Molly begins to understand as she listens to the tapes, Vivian has come back to the idea that the people who matter in our lives stay with us, haunting our most ordinary moments. They're with us in the grocery store, as we turn a corner, chat with a friend. They rise up through the pavement; we absorb them through our soles. . Christina Baker Kline

Do our natures dictate the choices we make, I wonder, or do we choose to live a certain way because of circumstances beyond our control? Christina Baker Kline

You can live for a long time inside the shell you were born in. But one day it'll become too small."" Then what?" I ask." Well, then you'll have to find a larger shell to live in." I consider this for a moment. "What if it's too small but you still want to live there?" She sighs. "Gracious, child, what a question. I suppose you'll either have to be brave and find a new home or you'll have to live inside a broken shell. Christina Baker Kline

It is marvelous to be young on a big city street. Christina Baker Kline

This life of ours can feel an awful lot like waiting. Christina Baker Kline

Molly learned long ago that a lot of the heartbreak and betrayal that other people fear their entire lives, she has already faced. Father dead. Mother off the deep end. Shuttled around and rejected time and time again. And still she breathes and sleeps and grows taller. She wakes up every morning and puts on clothes. So when she says it's okay, what she means is that she knows she can survive just about anything. . Christina Baker Kline

He reaches over and touches my necklace. "You still have it. That gives me faith." "Faith in what?"" God, I suppose. No, I don't know. Survival. Christina Baker Kline

I want to say, Christina, that you are ... unusual. And somehow..." her voice trails off. "Your mind-- your curiosity-- will be your comfort. Christina Baker Kline

How did I go from being the maiden in a fairy tale to a wretched old maids so quickly? It happened almost without my realizing it... Christina Baker Kline

I have come to think that's where Heaven is, a place in the memories of other where our best selves live Christina Baker Kline

It's a peculiar kind of dissatisfaction, a bittersweet nostalgia for a moment not yet past. Christina Baker Kline

I want each day to last forever .. . It's a peculiar kind of dissatisfaction, a bittersweet nostalgia for a moment not yet past. Even in the midst of a pleasurable outing I'm aware of how ephemeral it is. Christina Baker Kline

If you really want to know me, I said, we'll have to start with the witches. Christina Baker Kline

Molly is the opposite. So many things have gone wrong for her in her seventeen years that she’s come to expect it. When something does go right, she hardly knows what to think. Christina Baker Kline

I'll play your fucking game. But I don't have to play by your rules. Christina Baker Kline

When something terrible happens, a lifetime of small events and unremarkable decisions, of unresolved anger, and unexplored fears begins to play itself out in ways you least expect. You've been going along from one day to the next, not realizing that all those disparate words and gestures were adding up to something, a conclusion, you didn't anticipate. And later, when you begin to retrace your steps you see that you will need to reach back further than you could have imagined, beyond words and thoughts and even dreams, perhaps to make sense of what happened. Christina Baker Kline

It's as if she assumes everything will go right, and when it doesn't - which, of course, is pretty often - she is surprised and affronted. Christina Baker Kline

This is like telling a person who has leapt off a cliff to be careful. I am already in midair. Christina Baker Kline

I am acutely aware that like a slip of paper in the wind, something in his nature eludes my grasp. Christina Baker Kline

That man would have chipped away at your heart bit by bit until there was nothing left. It may have been bruised, but at least it's whole. Christina Baker Kline

It's hard to say what's in my head. It's been a long time since anyone cared to ask. Christina Baker Kline

Most people are remarkably resilient. Even those who have been through war or great loss often find reservoirs of strength. But the legacy of trauma is a heavy burden to bear. Christina Baker Kline