My Sister's Keeper Quotes

Life isn't nearly as stable as we want it to be.

remember that every fire will burn itself out, even without your help.

Seeing her sitting there unresponsive makes me realize that silence has a sound.

I sometimes wonder if it is just me, or if there are other women who figure out where they are supposed to be by going nowhere.

And if your parents have you for a reason, then that reason better exist. Because once it's gone, so are you.

Sometimes to get what you want the most, you have to do what you want the least.

i'm sure i'm worth a lot more dead than alive

if you tell yourself you feel fine, you will.

There are some nights when you just want to know there's someone else besides you in this wide world.

A photo says, you were happy, and I wanted to catch that. A photo says, you were so important to me that I put down everything else to come watch.

When you don't know where you're headed, you find places no one else would ever explore.

A fire can't burn forever. Eventually, it consumes itself.

It is the things you cannot see coming that are strong enough to kill you.

I used to pretend that I was just passing through this family on my way to my real one.

so i do what i do best. i move in the opposite direction.

I have only known her for two years. But if you took every memory, every moment, if you stretched them end to end-they'd reach forever.

You know how every now and then, you have a moment where your whole life stretches out ahead of you like a forked road, and even as you choose one gritty path you've got your eyes on the other the whole time, certain that you're making a mistake.

There are always sides. There is always a winner and a loser. For every person who gets, there's someone who must give.

It doesn't take a whole long life to realize that what we deserve to have, we rarely get.

there's something nice about knowing that i'm not the only one who doesn't quite fit the part.

Clearly God was in some kind of mood on my birthday.

I am not my sister's keeper. I am my sister.

think about it: Romeo and Juliet bucked the system, and look where it got them. Superman has the hots for Lois Lane, when the better match, of course, would be with Wonder Woman.

You would wind up as a cat, I told her. They don't need anyone else. I need you, she replied. Well, I said. Maybe I'll come back as catnip.

I think many of my books, including "Handle with Care," including "My Sister's Keeper" circle back to how far are we willing to go for the people we love? I think love changes the way we think. It's the thing that takes you out of what your normal set of beliefs would be.

I didn't want to see her because it would make me feel better. I came because without her, it's hard to remember who I am.

is it like this every night, while we're asleep?

Life sometimes gets so bogged down in the details, you forget you are living it.

You can make it dark, but I can't make it light.

Dark matter has a gravitation effect on other objects. You can't see it, you can't feel it, but you can watch something being pulled in its direction.

If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?

A real friend isn't capable of feeling sorry for you.

Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work. That's the promise of America - the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.

Until this moment, I had not realized that someone could break your heart twice, along the very same fault lines.

See, as much as you want to hold on to the bitter sore memory that someone has left this world, you are still in it

They don't really pay attention to me, except when they need my blood or something. I wouldn't even be alive, if it wasn't for Kate being sick.

The bottom line is that we never fall for the people we're supposed to.

A woman isn't all that different from a bonfire. A fire's a beautiful thing, right? Something you can't take your eyes off, when it's burning. If you can keep it contained, it'll throw light and heat for you. It's only when it gets out of control that you have to go on the offensive.

But I think half the battle is figuring out what works for you, and I am much better at being a mother than I ever would have been as a lawyer. I sometimes wonder if it is just me, or if there are other women who figure out where they are supposed to be by going nowhere." - My Sister's Keeper

The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance.

Lately, I have been having nightmares, where I'm cut into so many pieces that there isn't enough of me to be put back together.

Yes, she is." He looks at me, his face carved in pain. "She is dying, Sara. She will die, either tonight or tomorrow or maybe a year from now if we're really lucky. You heard what Dr. Chance said. Arsenic's not a cure. It just postpones what's coming." My eyes fill up with tears. "But I love her," I say, because that is reason enough.

You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not.

The answer is that there is no good answer. So as parents, as doctors, as judges, and as a society, we fumble through and make decisions that allow us to sleep at night--because morals are more important than ethics, and love is more important than law.

It is that fundamental belief, it is that fundamental belief, I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.

America's not just [about] looking out for yourself, it's not just about greed, it's not just about trying to climb to the very top and keep everybody else down. ... Hard work, that's a value. Looking out for one another, that's a value. The idea that we're all in it together and [that] I'm my brother's keeper and [my] sister's keeper, that's a value.

On the surface, we're polar opposites. Under the skin, though, we're the same: people think they know what they're getting, and they're always wrong.

people think they know what they're getting, and they're always wrong.

Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut.

I know that books I have written will still resonate in 50 years - particularly 'My Sister's Keeper.' It has sold three million copies in the States alone. I strongly feel that, as a novelist, you have a platform and the ability to change people's minds.