36 Quotes by Stephanie Oakes

That's how you avoid becoming a moth," he says. "Stop asking others what to believe. Figure it out for yourself.

...and the joy on the bride's and groom's faces at the unquestioned beauty of a minute-old marriage.

I replay the scene again and again, the broken mashed-up face looming over me, the knowledge between the two of us that I'd done it. That act of kindness is still more unfathomable to me than any cruelty.

Growing up, I believed in miracles. I guess I don’t anymore.

Jude used to try to make me laugh, and when I'd crack a smile he'd keep the joke going , like breath on an ember, making it grow into a fit of giggles that'd echo around the whole forest and make all the birds in the trees quiet.

Georg Winkler: – You take a lesson from Ava, […]. You want to know how to navigate life? Don’t live and die by the beliefs you had when you were young. Everything changes, that’s what you learn when you’ve lived as long as I have. The worst crime you can do to yourself is to forget why you chose the path you’re on, but keep walking down it anyway.

Grief is a kind of war, I think now. Loss is like a bullet. A person can only take so much.

When I lost my son, I became a citizen of a country I never knew existed.

For years, we had stood on opposite sides of a divide, calling across because we could never jump the distance. This was the moment we discovered that, if we both shifted our weight forward, if we abandoned our fear of the drop below, not looking down, we could touch the tips of our fingers together. And though it wasn't much, in that moment, it was enough.