Top 100 Marieke Nijkamp Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “But as much as the town believed in her, they still didn’t value her enough to save her. And I lost myself to the world outside the town’s borders. I forgot about her too.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

52. “Before the accident – BTA – I didn’t know anger and pain could feel the same. I didn’t think physical pain and emotional pain could simply be extensions of each other. Now, I could hardly separate the two. And I wanted to crash my fist into a kitchen cabinet or my knee into a chair. Find a more harmful way to stim. Either make the pain worse or make it go away.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

53. “But I want my life to have meaning because I give it meaning, not because someone else says that it does. I want my life to mean something because I create. Because I love. Because I make the world a better place.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

54. “And at some point, you discover if you’re going to be afraid anyway, you may as well do the things that scare you.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

55. “Relief and sorrow follow each other rapidly, because with the names of those who live comes the void of those who have not. Death brings life; life brings death.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

56. “Here, everything is possible. And that is the biggest lie of all. I don’t just want to make the game good for them; I want to stay here and never go back.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

57. “This is what our world is now: the dead, the lost, the wounded. Could I have done anything about it? Could I have prevented this by speaking up?”

— Marieke Nijkamp

58. “It’d be easy to get lost here, in the spaces where I feel like a ghost. A spirit who couldn’t touch, or be touched. It’d be easy, so easy, to drown. But I keep swimming back towards the shore.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

59. “Here’s the thing. I never quite know if I’m responding the “right” way to anything happening around me. Should I be more scared? Should I be angrier? Should fear immobilize me? What happens around me and how my brain responds to it are two entirely different things, and I can’t tell all the time how they’re connecting.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

60. “She refuses to share her grief with me – or anyone. Even when she smiles, she isn’t the girl she used to be.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

61. “I want to be safe. And here isn’t safe anymore.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

62. “Thorn’s glances were as sharp as his words.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

63. “This morning, I wished I could escape to anywhere, be anything. Now all my dreams are out of reach, and.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

64. “Cities always got under her skin when she came in from the wild. But where she raised her hackles, Vax thrived. His shoulders dropped and his awareness sharpened. He walked with the gait of someone who expected trouble and would in fact welcome it.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

65. “Dad would call it my Sisyphus toll. Push a boulder up a hill, pretending it’s okay, and come nightfall it – and I – come crashing down. But he forgets the view each time I make it to the top.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

66. “Sometimes it felt as if he and I walked the same road, but each of us was going in a different direction.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

67. “If she dies, I will never be able to tell her that she is the one who keeps me standing. That her lips taste like a promise. That she makes me want to be a better version of myself. If she dies, I will believe every ugly word Dad ever said about me.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

68. “Vex shook her head when the man picked up his bow and, whistling a jaunty tune, started making his way down.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

69. “I’m not saying anyone did this. But people are capable of all kinds of things. And I can keep trusting people and getting hurt, or I can try to be more sensible about it.” I scowl and look away from them, but despite my determination, the words taste like bile in my mouth. It’s so much easier not to get attached to people, but I don’t think I can live like that.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

70. “Intent only takes us so far. It’s a shield people hide behind, but not a weapon.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

71. “The word pain does too much work, you know? It’s like sorry, which really shouldn’t have to carry both “I sympathize” and “this is all my fault.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

72. “Turyn looked at Vax as though he spoke a different language and with something that almost resembled pity.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

73. “You have to ask yourself how you can become the best you can be.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

74. “Hers is a story that deserves to be told. Hers is a story that deserves to be heard. It’s the story of a girl who believed in heroes and wanted to be one herself. Who saw stories in the world around her, and who regaled an entire Alaskan town with them. And hers is a story of how they started to believe her.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

75. “Today, all jokes fall flat, though we keep trying.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

76. “The fact that the dwarf didn’t have weapons visible on him didn’t make him any less dangerous. He was all sharp edges. Sharp words, sharp smiles, sharp knives. He exuded power.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

77. “Living with an obnoxious, stubborn body means I learned how to fall. I learned how to break my fall. I learned how to fall and protect myself. I learned how to fall and keep breathing. I learned how to fall in such a way that I didn’t break further. But getting back up again is never easy.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

78. “We’ll go farther than anyone in Lost ever has. Adventurers, looking for stories and stars.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

79. “Opportunity High will be rough for him, at least the first couple of months. But tell him it’s okay to be scared. We all are. It’s part of growing up.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

80. “Finn radiates pain. He’s so tense, it hurts to look at him. I wonder if he realizes it. In my experience, most people – most neurotypical people – don’t. Even if they’ll talk about nonverbal language and how important it is, they don’t realize how unconscious most reactions are and how much they’re sharing. But I do. You teach yourself how to read body language when winning a game – or navigating life – depends on it.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

81. “A current passes through the crowd with the news of each survivor. Relief and sorrow follow each other rapidly, because with the names of those who live comes the void of those who have not. Death brings life; life brings death. There are no words in that fleeting moment between hope and the knowledge. There is no way to express how a heart can burst and break at the same time, how the sun can cut through the darkness but will cast shadows everywhere.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

82. “Finn never told me how reassuring physical pain can be. It sends a thrill through me. A restless trembling that leaves me breathless – a hunger.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

83. “I would give up every single star in the night sky to have another day with her.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

84. “His presence steadies me like it always does.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

85. “To full-blood elves, they might appear too young to be this weathered and weary, but to any perceptive observer, it was clear they came by their caution honestly, and they moved with a grace brought on by years of traveling together.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

86. “What would I say? I lost the place where I didn’t have to think about who I need to be, a place where rules were clear and I excelled at them. I lost nearly everything I care about by simply trying to stay afloat, and this weekend, I’ll lose the rest. “Thanks.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

87. “A stillness came from the forest that she could find nowhere else.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

88. “I taught myself to be as fluent as possible in nonverbal languages because it’s the only way to understand what people aren’t saying, to carve out your space and claim it. It’s the only way I can feel like I know what’s going on.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

89. “Maybe it’s adrenaline, maybe it’s plain stupidity, but life makes the most sense to me if I do not have to take it seriously. And I want to make the most of every moment.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

90. “We also talked about the intensity of high school, because, let’s be honest, whether you have good experiences or bad or – for most of us – a combination thereof, high school is a lot. It’s like getting a bag full of puzzle pieces, but no one knows what the puzzle should look like or if the set is even complete.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

91. “The stars we see in the night sky are so far away that it takes years for us to see it when they die. I can’t help but wonder if Kyra had burned out long before I left – and if we simply hadn’t seen it.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

92. “To find magic in the mending.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

93. “It’s hard to fight a monster beloved by all.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

94. “The woods could provide for almost anything. Food, protection, a place where they didn’t have to be wary about anything or anyone else. It was simple and peaceful-most of the time.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

95. “We might not be able to beat this together, but we definitely can’t face it alone.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

96. “He didn’t care for the books their tutors gave them, but he did care for the shadowed alleyways, the exquisitely carved arched passageways, the dancing lights in the trees. He wanted to know and taste the parts of the city that never make it into a history book.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

97. “Trouble is, that’s exactly what scares me. I don’t feel safe with many people. I have literally never asked someone out on a date before. I don’t have a clue how to go about it. I never did crushes before. I didn’t feel comfortable enough in my own skin. I didn’t know how much of a hang-up gender would be for other people – or disability, for that matter. If you’re constantly told people like you don’t have meaningful relationships, you eventually believe it.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

98. “Losing is only permanent if you stop trying.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

99. “She understood the wilds, while he thrived in city streets and their accompanying shadows.”

— Marieke Nijkamp

100. “The relazed atmosphere and the pleasant buzz of voices wrapped around Vax as he followed Gideor, as if to remind him that perhaps the Clasp wasn’t so bad an ally to have. That perhaps there was something to the spireling’s words after all. Vax regarded it all warily, recognizing how the tavern functioned as both a lure and a mask for the dangers that lay underneath.”

— Marieke Nijkamp