Ruta Sepetys Quotes

I needed, I decided, to really know her, because I needed more to remember. Before I could begin the shameful process of forgetting the how and the why of her living and dying, I needed to learn it: How. Why. When. Where. What.

The wars don't end when you sign peace treaties or when the years go by. They will echo on until I'm gone and all the widows and orphans are gone.

The bells cease, and the power goes from me, and I descend again to the world of the living; and if in some foolish confiding moment I try to explain why I want to re-live those old days, to tear the Truth out of the past so that all men shall see plainly, perhaps someone will say to me, 'Oh, the War! A tragedy - best forgotten.'

Bereavement is terrible, of course. And when somebody you love dies, it's a time for reflection, a time for memory, a time for regret.

I died on that mountain, too. I left a part of myself up there.

Not a day goes by that I don't think about my finger, but I don't really miss it.

The dead are visible only in the terrible lidless eye of memory.

It's too late to fall in love with Sharon Tate / But it's too soon to ask me for the words I want carved on my tomb.

The cries of the dead are terrible indeed; you should try not to hear them.

Remembering is only a new form of suffering.

At the temple there is a poem called "Loss" carved into the stone. It has three words, but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read loss, only feel it.

I didn't dare think of the future; the past was still happening.

I wanted to forget the past, but it refused to forget me; it waited for sleep, then cornered me.

I have a beautiful address book a friend gave me in 1966. I literally cannot open it again. Ever. It sits on the shelf with over a hundred names crossed out. What is there to say? There are no words. I'll never understand why it happened to us.

I guess I should have forgotten about it ages ago, but forgetting isn't something I'm very good at.

Jennifer had never liked the pain of remembering what had happened, but for Theo it was the pain that kept Laura alive in his memory. He was afraid that if it ever began to heal she would disappear.

I try not to remember the life that I didn’t want to lose but lost and have to remember

Of all our sorrows, memory is the worst.

Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion.

Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get.

I have no desire to suffer twice, in reality and then in retrospect.

You were unsure which pain is worse -- the shock of what happened or the ache for what never will.

Every junkie, he thought, is a recording.

Forgetting lets you live without the pain for a moment but remembering hits hard.

When I hear that whistle blowing, I hang my head and cry.