Christina Baker Kline Quotes

Time constricts and flattens, you know. It's not evenly weighted. Certain moments linger in the mind and others disappear.

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?

It's human nature to want to think the best of others, but if you listen carefully, people will always tell you who they are.

You got to learn to take what people are willing to give.

And so it is that you learn how to pass, if you're lucky, to look like everyone else, even though you're broken inside.

I like the assumption that everyone is trying his best, and we should all just be kind to each other.

I've come to think that's what heaven is- a place in the memory of others where our best selves live on.

One of the wonderful things about being a writer is that you're constantly dredging up some arcane knowledge or long-forgotten experience, rediscovering old passions and interests.

I never want to feel constrained by writing a novel for a specific audience.

I have a lot of empathy for women who fit their writing into the crevices of their too-busy lives, as I once did.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

I've come to think that's what heaven is - a place in the memory of others where our best selves live on.",

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.

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

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

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

If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead.

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

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.

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.

People have to snatch at happiness when they can, in this world. It is always easier to lose than to find...

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

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

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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

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...