Jenny Downham Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Dad, you played rounders with me, even though you hated it and wished I'd take up cricket. You learned how to keep a stamp collecion because I wanted to know. For hours you sat in hospitals and never, not once, complained. You brushed my hair like a mother should. You gave up work for me, friends for me, four years of your life for me. You never moaned. Hardly ever. You let me have Adam. You let me have my list. I was outrageous. Wanting, wanting so much. And you never said, 'That's enough. Stop now.

  Jenny Downham

  Mother, Dad, Hair

  Jenny Downham (2008). “Before I Die”, p.307, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• I said I wouldn't leave her.

  Jenny Downham

  Said

  Jenny Downham (2007). “Before I Die”, David Fickling Books

  4 Copy quote

• Every few years we disappear, Zoey. All our cells are replaced by others. Not a single bit of me is the same as when I was last in this room.

  Jenny Downham

  Cells, Years, Lasts

  4 Copy quote

• I can see inside planes!' he yells. 'Come and look!' It's difficult climbing in a mini dress...I haul myself up even though my arms ache. I want to see inside planes too. I want to watch the wind and catch birds in my fist.

  Jenny Downham

  Climbing, Wind, Bird

  4 Copy quote

• She'll understand what I already know - that death surrounds us all. And it tastes like metal between your teeth.

  Jenny Downham

  Teeth, Taste, Metals

  4 Copy quote

• Adam strokes my head, my face, he kisses my tears. We are blessed. Let them all go. The sound of a bird flying low across the garden. Then nothing. Nothing. A cloud passes. Nothing again. Light falls through the window, falls onto me, into me. Moments. All gathering towards this one.

  Jenny Downham

  Blessed, Fall, Kissing

  4 Copy quote

• when I was four I almost fell down the shaft of a tin mine and when I was five the car rolled over on the motorway and when I was seven we went on holiday and the gas ring blew out in the caravan and nobody noticed I've been dying all my life

  Jenny Downham

  Holiday, Car, Dying

  Jenny Downham (2007). “Before I Die”, David Fickling Books

  4 Copy quote

• And in bed, deep inside the building, are all the headaches that won't go away. The failed kidneys, the rashes, the ragged-edged moles, the lumps on the breast, the coughs that have turned nasty. In the Marie Curie Ward on the fourth floor are the kids with cancer. Their bodies secretly and slowly being consumed. And then there's the mortuary, where the dead lie in refrigerated drawers with name tags on their feet.

  Jenny Downham

  Cancer, Lying, Kids

  Jenny Downham (2007). “Before I Die”, David Fickling Books

  4 Copy quote

• The inside of the door is glossy white. A total re-paint. I touch it with my fingers, but it stays the same. It's so bright it makes the room waver at the edges. Every few years we disappear.

  Jenny Downham

  Doors, Years, White

  4 Copy quote

• The shops in High Street still have their metal grilles down, blank-eyed and sleeping. My name is scrawled across them all. I'm outside Ajay's newsagent's. I'm on the expensive shutters of the health food store. I'm massive on Handie's furniture shop, King's Chicken Joint and the Barbecue Cafe. I thread the pavement outside the bank and all the way to Mothercare. I've possessed the road and am a glistening circle at the roundabout.

  Jenny Downham

  Kings, Sleep, Circles

  7 Copy quote

• I feel something very small growing inside me as I look at her, and I realize in one absolutely clear moment that I don't like her at all. 'You know what?' I say. 'Forget it. I'll do the list by myself.' She stands up, swings her stupid hair about and tries to look offended. It's a trick that works with guys, but it makes no difference to the way I feel about her.

  Jenny Downham

  Stupid, Hair, Swings

  4 Copy quote

• Moments. All gathering towards this one.

  Jenny Downham

  Gathering, Moments

  Jenny Downham (2007). “Before I Die”, David Fickling Books

  4 Copy quote

• We make patterns, we share moments. Sometimes, I think I'm the only one to see it.

  Jenny Downham

  Thinking, Patterns, Sometimes

  Jenny Downham (2007). “Before I Die”, David Fickling Books

  4 Copy quote

• Then she says, ‘I love you.’ Like three drops of blood falling onto snow.

  Jenny Downham

  Fall, Love You, Blood

  Jenny Downham (2008). “Before I Die”, p.311, Random House

  12 Copy quote

• Death straps me to the hospital bed, claws its way onto my chest and sits there.I didn't know it would hurt this much. I didn't know that everything good that's ever happened in my life would be emptied out by it.

  Jenny Downham

  Hurt, Cancer, Bed

  Jenny Downham (2008). “Before I Die”, p.253, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• Maybe you should say goodbye, Cal.' 'No.' 'It might be important.' 'It might make her die.

  Jenny Downham

  Goodbye, Important, Might

  Jenny Downham (2007). “Before I Die”, David Fickling Books

  4 Copy quote

• But all that is warm will go cold. My ears will fall off and my eyes will melt. My mouth will be clamped shut. My lips will turn to glue. ...No taste or smell or touch or sound.Nothing to look at. Total emptiness for ever.

  Jenny Downham

  Fall, Eye, Smell

  Jenny Downham (2012). “Now is Good (Also published as Before I Die)”, p.141, Random House

  4 Copy quote

• Like a tree losing its leaves. I forget even the thing I was thinking.

  Jenny Downham

  Thinking, Tree, Losing

  Jenny Downham (2007). “Before I Die”, David Fickling Books

  4 Copy quote

• No, really. I free you.' I don't want to be free.

  Jenny Downham

  Want

  4 Copy quote

• The light is heart-breaking.

  Jenny Downham

  Heart, Light, Heart Breaking

  4 Copy quote

• It's as if a child with a brush and too much enthusiasm has been set free with a tin of black paint inside me.

  Jenny Downham

  Children, Black, Tin

  Jenny Downham (2007). “Before I Die”, David Fickling Books

  4 Copy quote

• I imagine horses in the engine, their manes flying, their breaths steaming, their nostrils flaring as they gallop.

  Jenny Downham

  Horse, Flying, Imagine

  Jenny Downham (2007). “Before I Die”, David Fickling Books

  4 Copy quote

• Are you afraid, Tessa?

  Jenny Downham

  Jenny Downham (2007). “Before I Die”, David Fickling Books

  4 Copy quote

• Three points for the dead slowly prising open the lids of their coffins. They want to hunt the living. They can't stop. Their throats have turned to liquid and their fingers glint under the weak autumn sun.

  Jenny Downham

  Autumn, Three, Coffins

  4 Copy quote

• . . . my bones they'll burn or bury. It'll be my death.

  Jenny Downham

  Bones

  Jenny Downham (2007). “Before I Die”, David Fickling Books

  4 Copy quote

Page 3 of 4

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin