As she turns her head and focuses on me, I lift her palm to my mouth, press a kiss in its center. "You are so brave," I tell her, and then I smile. "When I grow up, I want to be just like you." To my surprise, Kate shakes her head hard. Her voice is a feather, a thread. "No Mommy," she says. "You'd be sick.

— Jodi Picoult

At 17, the smallest crises took on tremendous proportions; someone else's thoughts could take root in the loam of your own mind; having someone accept you was as vital as oxygen. Adults, light years away from this, rolled their eyes and smirked and said, 'This too shall pass' - as if adolescence was a disease like chicken pox, something everyone recalled as a milk nuisance, completely forgetting how painful it had been at the time.

— Jodi Picoult

A trial, it often came down to who had the best story.

— Jodi Picoult

At seventeen, the smallest crises took on tremendous proportions; someone else's thoughts could take root in the loam of your own mind; having someone accept you became as vital as oxygen. Adults, light years away from this, rolled their eyes and smirked "this too shall pass" - as if adolescence was a disease like chicken pox, something that everyone recalled as a mild nuisance, completely forgetting one how painful it had been at the time.

— Jodi Picoult

At that moment, Oliver realized that home is not a place, but rather, the people who love you.

— Jodi Picoult

A very wise man once told me that you can't look back-you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.

— Jodi Picoult

A woman isn't all that different from a bonfire. A fire's a beautiful thing, right? Something you can't take your eyes off, when it's burning. If you can keep it contained, it'll throw light and heat for you. It's only when it gets out of control that you have to go on the offensive.

— Jodi Picoult

Babies don't come with instruction booklets. You'd learn the same way we all do -- you'd read up on dinosaurs, you'd Google backhoes and kidders. And you don't need a penis to go buy a baseball glove.

— Jodi Picoult

Be a good listener, don't judge and don't put boundaries on someone else's grief.

— Jodi Picoult

Because in the past words have only driven them apart.

— Jodi Picoult