Top 200 Jennifer E. Smith Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “For a long time, it had felt like something way out on the horizon, this moment, something she had to squint to make out, so far away it didn’t seem quite real. Until now, when it’s suddenly hurtling toward them at an impossible pace, so swiftly that it doesn’t matter whether or not Clare is ready for it. There’s no preparing at this point. There’s only steeling yourself. There’s only hoping for the best.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

152. “But it was different, somehow, to be reading it here, where the actual events had taken place all those hundreds of thousands of years ago. That was the thing about books, she was realizing; they could take you somewhere else entirely, it was true. But it wasn’t the same thing as actually going there yourself.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

153. “Sometimes it felt like she was still in the middle of a conversation with him, that they’d only paused for a beat; that this was nothing more than the space between musical notes, the timeout on a playing field, the long, slumbering winter before an inevitable spring.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

154. “Maybe this was why Owen had been so desperate to travel, why she’d longed for it herself without ever really knowing why. It wasn’t just that you got to be somewhere else entirely. It was that you got to be someone else entirely, too.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

155. “The quiet between them had gone on for far too long now to pretend it was anything other than what it was. There were no more words; all that was left were two faintly beating hearts.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

156. “They were like a couple of asteroids that had collided, she and Owen, briefly sparking before ricocheting off again, a little chipped, maybe even a little scarred, but with miles and miles still to go.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

157. “If you were to draw a map of the two of them, of where they started out and where they would both end up, the lines would be shooting away from each other like magnets spun around on their poles. And it occurred to Owen that there was something deeply flawed about this, that there should be circles or angels or turns, anything that might make it possible for the two lines to meet again. Instead, they were both headed in the exact opposite directions. The map was as good as a door swinging shut. And the geography of the thing- the geography of them- was completely and hopelessly wrong.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

158. “For a long time they just stay there like that, as still as the statues in the garden. And when he gives her no sign – no gestures of welcome, no indication of need – Hadley swallows hard and comes to a decision. But just as she turns to walk away she hears him behind her, the word like the opening of some door, like an ending and a beginning, like a wish. “Wait,” he says, and so she does.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

159. “Sometimes it seemed as if his whole life was an exercise in waiting; not waiting to leave, exactly, but simply waiting to go. He felt like one of those fish that had the capacity to grow in unimaginable ways if only the tank were big enough. But his tank had always been small, and as much as he loved his home- as much as he loved his family- he’d always felt himself bumping up against the edges of his own life.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

160. “By the time they finished eating, it was fully dark and a little bit chilly, the kind of night that’s caught somewhere between summer and fall, old and new.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

161. “But there’s something about him that makes her heart quicken in the way it does when she’s surprised. And she supposes that might just be it: the surprises of it all.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

162. “Clare’s been called a lot of things- smart and funny, driven and talented- but memorable certainly isn’t one of them. The most important things about her- the ones she’s most proud of- are apparent only once you get to know her.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

163. “And here’s the amazing thing: Now it was.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

164. “That was the thing about books, she was realizing; they could take you somewhere else entirely, it was true. but it wasn’t the same thing as actually going there yourself.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

165. “Someone once told her there’s a formula for how long it takes to get over someone, that it’s half as long as the time you’ve been together. Hadley has her doubts about how accurate this could possibly be, a calculation so simple for something as complicated as heartbreak.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

166. “He was a mystery that – for reasons I didn’t quite understand – I felt desperate to solve.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

167. “There were times when she missed New York – the familiarity of it, and her own deep knowledge of the place – but really, there was nothing pulling her back there anymore.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

168. “Soon enough, his shapeless future would start to mold itself into something more concrete. In the meantime, he was in no hurry.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

169. “When she finally says them, she wants it to be to the first, last, and only person. She wants it to count.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

170. “She twisted a piece of his T-shirt, then let it go and laid her palm flat against his chest, right over his heart, and he could suddenly feel it again: the steady thump of it drowning out all his other thoughts. It was more drumbeat than countdown, more metronome than ticking clock, and he felt himself carried forward with each muffled beat, as if hope were a rhythm, a song he’d only just discovered.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

171. “It’s like that feeling of getting off a long flight and taking your first breath of fresh air. You were okay on the plane. You could breathe just fine. And you could survive like that for a pretty long time if you had to. But once you’re off, you realize you wouldn’t want to live that way forever. Not if you had a choice. I think being away did that for me. It helped me realize I hadn’t breathed – really breathed – in a very long time.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

172. “But Hadley understood. It wasn’t that she was meant to read them all. Maybe someday she would, but for now, it was more the gesture itself. He was giving her the most important thing he could, the only way he knew how. He was a professor, a lover of stories, and he was building her a library in the same way other men might build their daughters houses.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

173. “Sometimes it feels like if I wish for it hard enough, it might just come true. But I know that’s not the way it works. Life doesn’t bend to anyone’s will.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

174. “Sometimes it feels like if I wish for it hard enough, it might just come true. But I know that’s not the way it works. Life doesn’t bend to anyone’s will. And it doesn’t run on credit either. Just because the world stole something from me doesn’t mean it owes me anything. And just because I’ve stockpiled a whole lot of bad luck doesn’t mean I’m due anything good.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

175. “It hasn’t been easy, loving him; it’s like a dull throb, constant and persistent as a toothache, and there’s no real cure for it.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

176. “Sometimes it’s good for you to be spectacularly stupid.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

177. “For starters, I don’t even know what my dreams are. All I know is that I feel... restless. And I’d love to do something different, you know? Something new.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

178. “No one is useless in this world,” it reads, “who lightens the burden of it for any one else.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

179. “I don’t know if it’ll work out with you guys. Not everyone is that lucky. But don’t screw it up for yourself. If it’s gonna happen, at least let the universe do it for you.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

180. “It’s not that she doesn’t believe in love. But seeing other people’s stories unfold always feels like watching a movie she would never have picked out for herself. Somewhere there must be a version that’s more like the films in her head, bright and colorful and unique.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

181. “When you move, it’s like your life gets split in two. So you never really feel at home in either place.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

182. “Sometimes the best ideas come from the most unlikely sources.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

183. “She knows this can’t last – whatever it is; that a few days from now, they’ll be getting off at different stations, going in different directions. But she doesn’t care. Because for now, they have this: a happiness so big it doesn’t leave the room for worries.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

184. “Maybe the point isn’t always to make things last. Maybe it’s just to make them count.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

185. “I was in love many times before I met your grandfather. Some of them lasted a long time; some of them didn’t. The trick is not to worry about it. If you spend too much time thinking about when it will disappear, you’ll miss the whole thing.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

186. “And being part of something – really part of it – means it can be taken away. It means you have something to lose. And I’ve already lost way too much.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

187. “Everyone grows up dreaming of something different, Hugo. And that’s okay. It’s what makes life so interesting.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

188. “It’s like reading a map of the future, and she wonders if there are such tell tale signs on everyone, hidden clues to the people they’ll one day become.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

189. “Or maybe he’s just not used to being alone; maybe that’s something you need to practice, like playing football or the violin.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

190. “Most terrible things that happen are out of your control. So it makes no sense to add some of your own.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

191. “The proper function of a man is to live, not to exist.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

192. “Still, it doesn’t seem like all that much to ask: that the boy I love might love me back.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

193. “I’m starting to realise that a lot of people don’t put much stock in dreams. They think of them like these faraway planets they never really expect to reach. I was only supposed to step out of my life for a week, but that’s another thing nobody tells you: that once you get there, it’s never enough. There are always more planets to see.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

194. “Once upon a time,′ she says, looking straight into the camera, ‘my grandmother fell in love on a train.’ She hesitates, taking a sharp breath. ‘Fifty years later, so did I.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

195. “The truth is, love isn’t just one word. At least not to him. It’s different things for different people.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

196. “Love is like this pizza. It’s warm and gooey and delicious, but it doesn’t last.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

197. “I want to belong.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

198. “It’s a particularly strange kind of loss, when something you don’t think you even want gets taken away from you.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

199. “Everything is always beginning again.”

— Jennifer E. Smith

200. “It was like having an extra sun in their orbit, an inexhaustible source of warmth and energy.”

— Jennifer E. Smith