Jodi Picoult

to run the gauntlet of protesters

When you are used to fending for yourself, being taken care of is a drug.

Having a child is a terrible risk, no matter what. You might have a healthy baby who then gets a heart condition, diabetes, addicted to opioids. You might raise a kid who gets her heart broken, who miscarries her own baby, whose husband dies fighting overseas. If we are meant to only have children who never encounter difficulty in life, then no one should be born.

Boy, she told Louie, don’t you let nobody tell you who you can’t be.

Violence, from one angle, looked like mercy from another.

Did you have to be missed to exist?

“I didn’t know about your dad. I’m sorry.”
Hugh paused in the doorway. “My dad was the greatest guy. He never touched a drop of alcohol in his life, Chief.” He inclined his head. “I was just selling hope.”

… but I think you’d get it. I’ll just say that no kid deserves to be hit all the time. And no parent should be drunk all the time.

if men were the ones to get pregnant, abortion would probably be a sacrament. The Super Bowl halftime show would celebrate it. Men who had terminated pregnancies would be asked to stand and be applauded at church for the courage to make that decision. Viagra would be sold with a coupon for three free abortions.

If you slipped inside, you saw an easel with a white canvas, and a scatter of colored Sharpies. BEFORE I DIE, Bex had painted across the top, I WANT TO …
Over the course of two weeks, people who came to the park to eat lunch or skateboard or read a book had wandered inside out of curiosity, and had contributed their own answers.
… swim in all five oceans.
… run a marathon.
… fall in love.
… learn Mandarin.
When Bex took down the installation she had, at the very bottom of the canvas, finished her own open sentence, painting the word
Live.