Top 100 Rachael Lippincott Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Lighten up, Stella. It’s just life. It’ll be over before we know it.”

— Rachael Lippincott

2. “We need that touch from the one we love, almost as much as we need air to breathe. I never understood the importance of touch, his touch... until I couldn’t have it.”

— Rachael Lippincott

3. “Cystic fibrosis will steal no more from me. From now on, I am the thief.”

— Rachael Lippincott

4. “There’s one theory I like that says in order to understand death, we have to look at birth. So, while we’re in the womb, we’re living that existence, right? We have no idea that our next existence is just an inch away. Maybe death is the same. Maybe it’s just the next life. An inch away.”

— Rachael Lippincott

5. “En este mundo, todos respiramos aire prestado.”

— Rachael Lippincott

6. “If this year has taught me anything, it’s that grief can destroy a person.”

— Rachael Lippincott

7. “I’m tired of living without really living. I’m tired of wanting things. We can’t have a lot of things. But we could have this.”

— Rachael Lippincott

8. “Like my lesbian ass hasn’t religiously watched the movie adaptation with Helena Bonham Carter a thousand times more than that.”

— Rachael Lippincott

9. “If I’m going to die, I’d like to actually live first. And then I’ll die.”

— Rachael Lippincott

10. “Don’t think about what you’ve lost. Think of how much you have to gain.”

— Rachael Lippincott

11. “I’m not going far. I’ll always be here. Just an inch away. I promise.”

— Rachael Lippincott

12. “For the first time I feel the weight of every single inch, every millimeter, of the six feet between us.”

— Rachael Lippincott

13. “I know in that moment, even though it could not be more ridiculous, that if I die in there, I won’t die without falling in love.”

— Rachael Lippincott

14. “It’s just life, Will. It’ll be over before we know it.”

— Rachael Lippincott

15. “Human touch, we need that touch from the one we love almost as much as we need air to breathe. I never understood that until I couldn’t have it. This is my life with cystic fibrosis.”

— Rachael Lippincott

16. “I bite on my lower lip to hide my smile.”

— Rachael Lippincott

17. “Wanting something that I could’t have. But now what I want isn’t outside. It’s right here, close enough to touch. But I can’t. I didn’t know it was possible to want something so bad you could feel it in your arms and your legs and in every breath you take.”

— Rachael Lippincott

18. “How long will I live my life afraid of what-ifs?”

— Rachael Lippincott

19. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

— Rachael Lippincott

20. “We smile at each other, and even though there are a million reasons why I shouldn’t, looking at her now, I can’t help feeling like I’m falling in love with her.”

— Rachael Lippincott

21. “She’s fighting for her life,” she finally says, meeting my eyes in the glass. “She doesn’t know what’s ahead of her or why she’s fighting. It’s just... instinct, Will. Her instinct is to fight. To live.”

— Rachael Lippincott

22. “I’m tired of living without really living. I’m tired of wanting things.”

— Rachael Lippincott

23. “Everyone in this world is breathing borrowed air.”

— Rachael Lippincott

24. “One step at a time,” he says, holding my gaze. “This is your chance. And that is what we both want. Don’t think about what you’ve lost. Think of how much you have to gain. Live, Stella.”

— Rachael Lippincott

25. “I think about that very last breath... sucking for air, pulling and pulling and getting nothing. I think about my chest muscles ripping and burning, absolutely useless. No air – no nothing, just black.”

— Rachael Lippincott

26. “I want to stay. I want to stay in the doorway, and right by her side. Even if it’s always five feet apart, six feet even, but for exactly that reason, I exhale, and with everything in me, I turn and walk away.”

— Rachael Lippincott

27. “I look at the holiday lights in the distance, twinkling like stars, calling out to me. This time I respond.”

— Rachael Lippincott

28. “I need to be willing to play the game. I need to be willing to put myself out there, and be vulnerable, and take chances, even though I might lose.”

— Rachael Lippincott

29. “His voice is deep. Soft. I know in that moment, even though it could not be more ridiculous, that if I die in there, I won’t die without falling in love. “Promise?” I ask. He nods and stretches his arm out, holding up a gloved pinky across the distance. I take it and we pinky promise. The smallest contact, but the first time we’ve ever touched. And right now that doesn’t scare me.”

— Rachael Lippincott

30. “Some things have to fall apart because they don’t belong together, but some things belong so much they could never break.”

— Rachael Lippincott

31. “Secretly, I think the one thing I do want is to get out of here. To go to a big city somewhere, away from all the sympathetic, knowing smiles. Away from everybody knowing everything about everyone else. Where I’m able to figure out who I am and what I’m like, without an entire town of people thinking they already know.”

— Rachael Lippincott

32. “If this is all we get, then let’s take it. I want to be fearless and free,” she says, giving me a look, daring me. “It’s just life, Will. It’ll be over before we know it.”

— Rachael Lippincott

33. “Alex Blackwood does not get frazzled. Definitely not over Molly Parker.”

— Rachael Lippincott

34. “You scare me Stella.” I looked at him, frowning. “What? Why?” He looks into my eyes his voice serious. “You make me want a life I cant have.” I know exactly what he means. He shakes his head his face somber. “That’s the scariest thing I’ve ever felt.”

— Rachael Lippincott

35. “Getting my hopes up when a hospital is involved doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.”

— Rachael Lippincott

36. “Se proprio devo morire, prima vorrei vivere.”

— Rachael Lippincott

37. “I didn’t know it was possible for a person to make old things become new again.”

— Rachael Lippincott

38. “I think a well-drawn cartoon can say more than words ever could, you know? It could change minds.”

— Rachael Lippincott

39. “Maybe death is the same. Maybe it’s just the next life. An inch away.”

— Rachael Lippincott

40. “Whatever the trouble is, don’t run from it. Don’t end up old and alone like me.”

— Rachael Lippincott

41. “I lie back, putting my hands behind my head, the room seeming uncomfortably quiet even though it’s still just me in here. But as I roll over and turn out the light, I realize for the first time in a long time, I don’t really feel alone.”

— Rachael Lippincott

42. “Because I’m pretty sure keeping me alive is the only thing keeping my parents going.”

— Rachael Lippincott

43. “Sistine Chapel with Abby.” No line through it.”

— Rachael Lippincott

44. “Pretty old school for someone who builds apps.”

— Rachael Lippincott

45. “My insides turn cold.”

— Rachael Lippincott

46. “Let’s get an Uber, at least?”

— Rachael Lippincott

47. “Yeah, I went with my dad when I was little, before he left.” I’m too caught up in the memory to process what I’m saying, but the word “dad” feels weird on my tongue.”

— Rachael Lippincott

48. “Nah, unless, of course, a hospital there is claiming to have some new magical stem-cell therapy to cure B. cepacia.”

— Rachael Lippincott

49. “Study all the works of William Shakespeare.”

— Rachael Lippincott

50. “God, I love you.” The way he says it is so soft and real and the most wonderful thing.”

— Rachael Lippincott