Hello Beautiful Quotes

“You’re depressed, not crazy. It’s not insane to be depressed in this world. It’s more sane than being happy. I never trust those upbeat individuals who grin no matter what’s going on. Those are the ones with a screw loose, if you ask me.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“She was no longer who she used to be, and she wasn't yet whoever she was becoming.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“When an old person dies,” Kent said, “even if that person is wonderful, he or she is still somewhat ready, and so are the people who loved them. They’re like old trees, whose roots have loosened in the ground. They fall gently. But when someone like your aunt Sylvie dies—before her time—her roots get pulled out and the ground is ripped up. Everyone nearby is in danger of being knocked over.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“We’re part of the sky, and the rocks in your mother’s garden, and that old man who sleeps by the train station. We’re all interconnected, and when you see that, you see how beautiful life is. Your mother and sisters don’t have that awareness. Not yet, anyway. They believe they’re contained in their bodies, in the biographical facts of their lives.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“When your love for a person is so profound that it’s part of who you are, then the absence of the person becomes part of your DNA, your bones, and your skin.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“She wondered if dying was simply going to be an exercise in letting go of one thing after another.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“Sylvie had read somewhere that the more times a story was told, the less accurate it became. Humans were prone to exaggeration; they leaned away from the parts of the narrative they found boring and leaned into the exciting spots. Details and timelines changed over years of repetition. The story became more myth and less true. Sylvie thought about how she and William rarely told their story and felt pleased; by not being shared, their love story remained intact.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“that just because you never thought about someone didn’t mean they weren’t inside you.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“You know what Daddy would say when he saw Sylvie,” Julia said in a quiet voice. Emeline and Izzy nodded, and Cecelia said, “Hello beautiful.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“Opportunity did not knock until I built the door.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“Grief is love.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“She existed outside her own body-she was scattered across this ground-but somehow this made her feel less vulnerable. She was painted into this family, mirrored in her father's face. She was more abundant than she'd believed possible.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“He was her heart. He had changed all the molecules inside her. Sylvie had known love would come for her with the force of a tsunami. She’d dreamed of this”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“The thing was—” He stopped, looking for the right language. “Yes?” the doctor said. “Alice is a lamp. A bright lamp, from the moment she was born. She kind of shines. Looking at her hurt my eyes, and I was afraid to touch her.” “You were afraid of her light?” “No. I was afraid I was going to put her light out. That my darkness would swamp her light.” “So you felt like you had to stay away from her, to keep her safe.” “I have to stay away from her, yes.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“Mark Twain quote about how the only reason for time is so everything doesn’t happen at once? I feel like everything that’s ever happened in my life is happening”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“It’s because you know that more is possible that you’ll always see the pointlessness in following a stupid rule or clocking in and out of a boring class. Most people can’t see that distinction, so they just do as they’re told. Of course, this makes them bored and irritated, but they think that’s the human condition. You and I are lucky enough to see that it doesn’t have to be that way.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“But Carrie had told her friend once, during high school, not to model herself on Julia. "I like your mom a lot," Carrie had said, "but anyone that dresses and does their hair as carefully as your mom does every single day is unhappy on the inside. She's trying to hide all her messiness, and I want better than that for you.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“The passage of time, and the details that spun some moments into unforgettable memories and others into thin air, traveled with Sylvie--the swirling atmosphere of her own life--while she walked.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“It was hard for me to accept the fact that we don’t choose who we love, because who you love changes everything.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“The child inside Julia lay wide-eyed in the dark, knowing that she was Jo, but only because Sylvie was Beth.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“We’re not separated from the world by our own edges.” Charlie set down his beer glass, empty now, and rubbed his hand up and down his arm, as an example of one of his edges. “We’re part of the sky, and the rocks in your mother’s garden, and that old man who sleeps by the train station. We’re all interconnected, and when you see that, you see how beautiful life is. Your mother and sisters don’t have that awareness. Not yet, anyway. They believe they’re contained in their bodies, in the biographical facts of their lives.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“She realized that she was most certainly a mammal and had the ability to shake the world apart and create a human when she unleased her power. She was a mother. This identify shuddered through her, welcome like water to a dry riverbed. It felt so elemental and true that Julia must have unknowingly been a mother all along, simply waiting to be joined by her child.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“They were dismantling their habits and routines, and it was like pulling up floorboards and finding joy underneath.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“Stop thinking about who you were when you were living the wrong life, William. You’re built for the life you’re living now.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“I didn’t expect”—she paused—“for it to be part of everything, every minute. I didn’t know that you could lose someone, and that meant you lost so much else.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“Basketball was the first thing in William’s life that loved him back.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“He’s not ambitious. He never knew what to do, so he wanted me to give him instructions for everything, big and small. I’m a fast walker, and he’s slow. I thought I needed a husband, because that’s what we were told as little girls, right? Or maybe not told but shown. It didn’t occur to me that I might be better on my own. I was carrying him,”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“We're all interconnected, and when you see that, you see how beautiful life is.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“Julia sought to collect labels like honors student, girlfriend, and wife, but Sylvie steered away from labels. She wanted to be true to herself with every word she uttered, every action she took, and every belief she held.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

“It occurred to him, for the first time, that just because you never thought about someone didn’t mean they weren’t inside you.”
― Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful