Bridget Farrell > Bridget's Quotes

“They placed their lives on hold for a group of strangers and asked for nothing in return. They affirmed the basic goodness of man at a time when it was easy to doubt such humanity still existed. If the terrorists had hoped their attacks would reveal the weaknesses in western society, the events in Gander proved its strength.”
― Jim DeFede, The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

“Their willingness to help others is arguably the single most important trait that defines them as Newfoundlanders. Today, it is an identity they cling to, in part, because it is something that cannot be taken away from them.”
― Jim DeFede, The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

“There was no hatred. No anger. No fear in Gander. Only the spirit of community. Here, everyone was equal, everyone was treated the same. Here, the basic humanity of man wasn’t just surviving but thriving”
― Jim DeFede, The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

“We're all Americans tonight.”
― Jim DeFede, The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

“The passengers weren't treated like refugees but rather long lose relatives.”
― Jim DeFede, The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

“Over three nights they went through more than two hundred cases of beer, more kegs than they could count, and enough hard liquor to embalm a herd of moose.”
― Jim DeFede, The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

“Clemens was a passenger, Clemens Briels, and when teachers at the school did a little further checking, they learned that he was a renowned Dutch artist. In fact, Briels was one of the official artists for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The drawing he crafted on the school blackboard was a version of his piece A Jump for Joy. one of the paintings he created especially for the Olympic Games and which was on display in Salt Lake City. The principal had the blackboard removed from the wall, framed, and covered with Plexiglas. It now hangs in the school’s library.”
― Jim DeFede, The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

“if you want to enjoy the rewards of being loved, you also have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.”
― Tim Kreider, I Wrote This Book Because I Love You: Essays

“Of course no one is the Right Person when you meet her; this is just an illusion necessary to lure you into investing the years and making the sacrifices necessary to love someone. It's like telling yourself your book is going to be a masterpiece and make you rich in order to undertake the laborious ordeal of writing it. It's only after making all those compromises and forfeitures, and amassing a shared fortune in memories, regrets, in-jokes and secrets, fights and reconciliations, that that person becomes the only possible one for you, unique and irreplaceable.”
― Tim Kreider, I Wrote This Book Because I Love You: Essays

“God, how I long to go out west again someday—to drive some blue highway in Nevada or Utah until there’s absolutely nothing around me, then stop the car, in the middle of the road, maybe, and get out and just stand there, where I can see from one horizon to the other, and smell the air and feel the sun and listen to the silence of the desert. I have this idea that if I could do this, time might hold still for a second, and I would know, for just a moment, what it feels like to be here.”
― Tim Kreider, I Wrote This Book Because I Love You: Essays

“we are happiest living our lives this way—saying I love you and kissing each other good-bye in the morning, venturing out into the uncaring world to have all kinds of adventures, then returning home to share our daily pocketful of collected anecdotes and complaints.15”
― Tim Kreider, I Wrote This Book Because I Love You: Essays

“How it could make Diana happy to be around me was mysterious to me, since I was always around me and I was never happy. We always forget the Heisenberg effect of our own presence—that we only ever get to see what other people are like when we're around. I'd been drawn to her hoping I might absorb some of her radiance, not realizing it was, in part, my own reflected light. 197”
― Tim Kreider, I Wrote This Book Because I Love You: Essays

“Young people don’t say the new normal anymore; to them it’s just normal. But I guess no one finds themselves in the same country they were born in at the ends of their lives. We all die in exile.”
― Tim Kreider, I Wrote This Book Because I Love You: Essays

“Centaurs!” Annabeth yelled. The Party Pony army exploded into our midst in a riot of colors: tie-dyed shirts, rainbow Afro wigs, oversize sunglasses, and war-painted faces. Some had slogans scrawled across their flanks like HORSEZ PWN or KRONOS SUX. Hundreds of them filled the entire block. My brain couldn’t process everything I saw, but I knew if I were the enemy, I’d be running.
“Percy!” Chiron shouted across the sea of wild centaurs. He was dressed in armor from the waist up, his bow in his hand, and he was grinning in satisfaction. “Sorry we’re late!”
“DUDE!” Another centaur yelled. “Talk later. WASTE MONSTERS NOW!” He locked and loaded a double-barrel paint gun and blasted an enemy hellhound bright pink. The paint must’ve been mixed with Celestial bronze dust or something, because as soon as it splattered the hellhound, the monster yelped and dissolved into a pink-and-black puddle.
“PARTY PONIES!” a centaur yelled. “SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER!”
Somewhere across the battlefield, a twangy voice yelled back, “HEART OF TEXAS CHAPTER!”
“HAWAII OWNS YOUR FACES!” a third one shouted.
It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. The entire Titan army turned and fled, pushed back by a flood of paintballs, arrows, swords, and NERF baseball bats. The centaurs trampled everything in their path.
“Stop running, you fools!” Kronos yelled. “Stand and ACKK!”
That last part was because a panicked Hyperborean giant stumbled backward and sat on top of him.”
― Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian

“With great power... comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later.”
― Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian

“If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

“Deadlines just aren't real to me until I'm staring one in the face.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

“Love conquers all," Aphrodite promised. "Look at Helen and Paris. Did they let anything come between them?"
"Didn't they start the Trojan War and get thousands of people killed?"
"Pfft. That's not the point. Follow your heart.”
― Rick Riordan, The Titan’s Curse

“Ever had a flying burrito hit you? Well, it's a deadly projectile, right up there with cannonballs and grenades.”
― Rick Riordan, The Titan’s Curse

“How did you die?"
"We er....drowned in a bathtub."
"All three of you?"
"It was a big bathtub.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

“I nodded, looking at Rachel with respect. "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush.”
― Rick Riordan

“In a way, it's nice to know that there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some devine force is really trying to mess up your day.”
― Rick Riordan, The Titan's Curse

“Even strength must bow to wisdom sometimes.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

“Go on with what your heart tells you, or you will lose all.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

“We're staying together," he promised. "You're not getting away from me. Never again.”
― Rick Riordan, The Mark of Athena

“Knowing too much of your future is never a good thing.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

“It's hard to enjoy practical jokes when your whole life feels like one.”
― Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian

“The world was collapsing, and the only thing that really mattered to me was that she was alive.”
― Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian

“Um...is that thing tame?" Frank said.
The horse whinnied angrily.
"I don't think so," Percy guessed. "He just said, 'I will trample you to death, silly Chinese Canadian baby man'.”
― Rick Riordan, The Son of Neptune

“Can you surf really well, then?"
I looked at Grover, who was trying hard not to laugh.
"Jeez, Nico," I said. "I've never really tried."
He went on asking questions. Did I fight a lot with Thalia, since she was a daughter of Zeus? (I didn't answer that one.) If Annabeth's mother was Athena, the goddess of wisdom, then why didn't Annabeth know better than to fall off a cliff? (I tried not to strangle Nico for asking that one.) Was Annabeth my girlfriend? (At this point, I was ready to stick the kid in a meat-flavored sack and throw him to the wolves.)”
― Rick Riordan