Normal, in our house, is like a blanket too short for a bed--sometimes it covers you just fine, and other times it leaves you cold and shaking; and worst of all, you never know which of the two it's going to be.
Jodi PicoultRead
That's because you've never been one. You haven't spent years wearing someone else's clothes, taking someone else's name, living in someone else's houses, and working someone else's job to fit in. And if you don't sell out, then you run away... proving you're the Gypsy they said you were all along.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the struggle of conformity and the importance of being true to oneself.
Jodi Picoult's quote reflects on the experience of living inauthentically by adopting the identities, roles, and possessions of others to fit societal norms. It emphasizes the pain of not being true to oneself and suggests that those who reject conformity are often labeled as outsiders, embodying a free spirit despite societal pressures to conform.
Themes
AuthenticityIdentityConformitySelf-DiscoveryIndividuality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used to inspire a friend struggling with peer pressure.
More from Jodi Picoult
All quotes βWhether it was power they sought, or revenge, or love-well, those were all just different forms of hunger. The bigger the hole inside you, the more desperate you became to fill it.
Jodi PicoultRead
she told me she'd be a phoenix." The image of the mythical creature rising from the ashes glitters in my mind. "They don't really exist." "She said that depends on whether or not there's someone who can see them.
Jodi PicoultRead
for 100,000 (dollars), you [can] flatten a house with a wrecking ball. Imagine how much less it [takes] to destroy something than it [does] to build it in the first place.
Jodi PicoultRead
But if you seek forgiveness, doesn't that automatically mean you cannot be a monster? By definition, doesn't that desperation make you human again?
Jodi PicoultRead
when you [lose someone], 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 keeps going back to that empty place, where all nerves are still a little raw
Jodi PicoultRead
Similar quotes
The pain was quite extraordinary. And yet also weirdly welcome and restorative, bringing him news of his aliveness and his caughtness in a story larger than himself.
Jonathan FranzenRead
Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.
Leo BuscagliaRead
A life without impact and contribution is a very empty life, so use your life to make the world better.
Robin SharmaRead
I take so little interest in my daily life, that I hardly remember to eat and drink.
Emily BronteRead
I tell my daughter every morning, 'Now, what are the two most important parts of you?' And she says, 'My head and my heart.' Because that's what I've learned in the foxhole: What gets you through life is strength of character and strength of spirit and love.
Viola DavisRead
So this was the rest of his life. It felt like a party to which he'd been invited, but at an address he couldn't actually locate. Someone must be having fun at it, this life of his; only, right at the moment, it wasn't him.
Margaret AtwoodRead