"Jacqueline Koh
Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting around for somebody to give you flowers"

Tuesday, November 23, 2010 || 7:12 AM

Compiled quotes from Jodi Picoult's latest novel - House Rules

Sometimes i think the human heart is just a simple shelf. There's only so much you can pile onto it
before something falls off an edge and you are left to pick up the pieces

When someone dies, it feels like the hole in your gum when a tooth falls out. You can chew, you can eat, you have plenty of other teeth, but your tongue still keeps going back to that empty place, where all the nerves are still a little raw.

Death isn't about angels or ghosts. It's a physical state of breakdown, a change in all those carbon atoms that create the temporary house of a bodys so that they can return to their most elemental stage.

In reality, someone who asks you how you are doing doesnt really want to hear the truth. He wants the pat answer, the expected response so that he can go on his merry way.

Logical thinking keeps you from wasting time worrying, or hoping. It prevents disappointment. Imagination, on the other hand, only gets you hyped up over things which will never realistically happen.

I cannot take away your sadness, so why should i acknowledge it?

Dear Auntie Em,
Recently, I have been dreaming about my ex. Should i consider this a sign from a higher power and call him to say hi?

Auntie Em's reply:
Yes, but I wouldnt tell him you are calling because he's starring in your dreams. Unless he happens to say, "Gosh, it's so strange you called today, because i dreamed about you last night."

If i give you a compliment, it's not because it's the right thing to say, it's because it's true. Routine language doesnt come easily to me. If you say thank you, i'll have to rummage through my database brain for you're welcome. I cant chat about the weather just to fill up the silence. The whole time im thinking, this is so fake. If you're wrong about something, I'll correct you - not because i want to make you feel bad (in fact, i am not thinking about you at all) but because facts are very important to me, more important than people are.