Top 87 Lisa Genova Quotes
#1. He left the room, unable to watch her standing there, naked with her underwear on her head, laughing at her own absurd madness.
Lisa Genova
#2. Every breath is a risk. Love is why we breathe
Lisa Genova
#3. Also want you to take vitamin E twice a day and vitamin C, baby aspirin, and a statin once a day. You
Lisa Genova
#4. If I don't take this, I could ruin my one shot at discovering something that truly matters." "This isn't your one shot. You're brilliant, and you don't have Alzheimer's. You're going to have plenty of shots." He
Lisa Genova
#5. I decide I'm not dead because I can hear the sound of the rain hitting the roof of the car. I'm alive because I'm listening to the rain, and the rain becomes the hand of God strumming his fingers on the roof, deciding what to do.
Lisa Genova
#6. Fenway seats just over thirty-seven thousand, about the same number of people as have Huntington's in the United States. Thirty-seven thousand. It's a faceless number,
Lisa Genova
#7. She'd been having a lot of trouble sleeping through the night lately, probably because she was napping a lot during the day. Or was she napping a lot during the day because she wasn't sleeping well at night?
Lisa Genova
#8. Everything she did and love, everything she was, required language.
Lisa Genova
#9. He used to tell her everything, and she used to listen in rapt attention. She wondered when that had changed and who'd lost interest first, he in the telling or she in the listening.
Lisa Genova
#10. Thank you for all your guidance and wisdom, for setting the bar so much higher than I thought I could reach, and for giving me plenty of room to run with my own ideas. You've been the best teacher I've ever had.
Lisa Genova
#11. She pictured her Alzheimer's as a demon in her head, tearing a reckless and illogical path of destruction, ripping apart the wiring from "Lydia now" to "Lydia then
Lisa Genova
#12. Be creative, be useful, be practical, be generous and finish big
Lisa Genova
#13. Every day, police officers see the hairy, smelly underbelly of humanity, the most depraved and evil shit human beings are capable of, shit civilians thankfully can't imagine.
Lisa Genova
#14. Have you lost your mind?"
"No," I say, insulted. Well, I actually have lost some of my right mind, but now's probably not the best time to be literal.
Lisa Genova
#16. To me, meditation sounds a whole lot like doing nothing. I don't do nothing. I pack every second of every day with something that can get done.
Lisa Genova
#17. Lotus flowers blossom while rooted in mud, a reminder that beauty and grace can rise above something ugly.
Lisa Genova
#18. But reading her journals has helped her to remember more than that morning. There was more to Anthony's life than his death. And there was more to Anthony than his autism. So much more. She can think about Anthony now and not be consumed by autism or grief.
Lisa Genova
#19. But I am not what I say or what I do or what I remember. I am fundamentally more than that.
Lisa Genova
#20. She still loves the feel of a new book. While she appreciates the convenience of those thin, slick e-readers, they don't give her the three-dimensional sensory experience that comes with a real book.
Lisa Genova
#21. This might not be her biggest or most prestigious audience, but of all the talks she'd given in her life, she hoped this one would have the most powerful impact.
Lisa Genova
#22. Buttoning the length of my shirt with Left Neglect and one right hand takes the same kind of singular, intricate, held-breath concentration that I imagine someone trying to dismantle a bomb would need to have.
Lisa Genova
#23. The ability to attach guilt firmly by the hand to any positive emotion is a skill cultivated by the Irish,
Lisa Genova
#24. How can you even consider spending the time we have left squirreled away in your fucking lab? I would never do this to you.
I'd never ask you to.
You wouldn't have to.
Lisa Genova
#25. And while a bald head and a looped ribbon were seen as badges of courage and hope, her reluctant vocabulary and vanishing memories advertised mental instability and impending insanity. Those with cancer could expect to be supported by their community. Alice expected to be an outcast.
Lisa Genova
#26. Pushing aside the overwhelming fears of every horrible thing that will and might be, making room for every magnificent thing that is and might be.
Lisa Genova
#27. At some point, there would simply be no point.
Lisa Genova
#28. Concern is a thin hair on the head of pity.
Lisa Genova
#29. Her parents' professional lives served as shining examples of what could be gained from setting lofty and individually unique goals and pursuing them with passion and hard work.
Lisa Genova
#30. He held her, and rocked her slightly side to side, soothing her as she'd seen him calm their children after innumerable physical injuries and social injustices.
Lisa Genova
#31. Just because [butterflies'] lives were short didn't mean they were tragic ... See, they have a beautiful life.
Lisa Genova
#32. Take what you've learned and love someone again.
Find someone to love and love without condition.
This is why we're all here.
Lisa Genova
#33. I don't know how much longer I have to know you.
Lisa Genova
#34. She hung up the phone and congratulated herself on still having editorial control over her raw emotions
Lisa Genova
#35. Don't aim for perfect. Aim for complete. Perfection is an unattainable illusion.
Lisa Genova
#36. And you, Mom. I loved you. You've asked if i felt and understood that you loved me. of course I did. And you know this. I loved your love because it kept me safe and happy and wanted, and it existed beyond words and hugs and eyes.
Lisa Genova
#37. I know what you're going through is terrifying and unfair and really hard. But you have to go through it. Right now, you're just standing still. You're sinking in it. Let me hold your hand and go through it with you.
Lisa Genova
#38. She looked him directly in the eye. A colleague of hers had once told her that eye contact with another person for more than six seconds without looking away or blinking revealed a desire for either sex or murder.
Lisa Genova
#39. In excellent physical condition for a woman her age, she imagined running strong well into her sixties.
Lisa Genova
#40. She wished that these kinds of advances in reproductive medicine had been available to her. But then the embryo that had developed into Anna would've been discarded.
Lisa Genova
#41. Reality depends on perspective, on what is paid attention to.
Lisa Genova
#42. I can't stand the thought of looking at you someday, this face I love, and not knowing who you are.
Lisa Genova
#43. I know this looks pathetic, but I'm wearing black elastic-waist pants just like my mother's, a hot-pink fleece hat, mismatched socks, and no makeup. I think it's safe to say that vanity is no longer my biggest concern.
Lisa Genova
#44. As they lurch down the hallway and finally make it to the kitchen, it occurs to Joe that this is the best anyone can hope for in life. Someone you love to stagger through the hard times with.
Lisa Genova
#45. We have pills for headaches. We have antidepressants for sadness. We had God for believers. We have nothing for autism.
Lisa Genova
#46. I can barely breathe when I think about it. But we have to think about it. I don't know how much longer I have to know you. We need to talk about what's going to happen. He
Lisa Genova
#47. I'd lose what little independence I still have. A new job. Your dad would be working all the time. I'd lose him, too.
Lisa Genova
#48. For a split second every morning, she forgets. And then the black heaviness is there, and she wonders what it is, and then she remembers.
Lisa Genova
#49. And she'd apologize for being so sensitive and moody lately. His warm hand on her hip brought her into the curve of his body. With his breath on her neck, she fell into a deep sleep, convinced that she was safe.
Lisa Genova
#50. I wish I could see you more, too, but I'd never let you stop living your life for me.
Lisa Genova
#51. It's the closest place to nowhere that she can think of. And nowhere is exactly where she wants to be today.
Lisa Genova
#52. She didn't have time for Alzheimer's today.
Lisa Genova
#53. Now wasn't the time or place. She'd get into it with him later. If she could remember.
Lisa Genova
#54. The thought is only terrifying if she chooses to be terrified. The quality of her experience depends entirely on the thoughts she chooses. Reality depends on what is paid attention to.
Lisa Genova
#55. In the ladies' room, Alice studied her image in the mirror. The reflected older woman's face didn't quite match the picture that she had of herself in her mind's eye.
Lisa Genova
#56. She almost thought she'd said the words aloud, but she hadn't. They remained trapped in her head, but not because they were barricaded by plaques and tangles. She just couldn't say them aloud
Lisa Genova
#57. Love is felt beyond words and touch. Love is energy.
Lisa Genova
#58. If her mental prowess became increasingly replaced with mental illness,
Lisa Genova
#59. The spectrum is long and wide, and we're all on it. Once you believe this, it becomes easy to see how we're all connected.
p306 Author's notes
Lisa Genova
#61. Prioritizing hurt, a reminder that the clock was ticking, that some things would be left undone.
Lisa Genova
#62. Time's a funny thing, bending, warping, stretching, and compressing, all depending on perspective.
Lisa Genova
#63. It's our job to pass on our wisdom about life to our kids. I'm really afraid she's missing out on something essential. The exposure to different subjects, different ways of thinking, the challenges, opportunities, the people you meet.
Lisa Genova
#64. She read it again. It was fascinating and surreal, like reading a diary that had been hers when she was a teenager, secret and heartfelt words written by a girl she only vaguely remembered. She wished she'd written more. Her words mad her feel sad and proud, powerful and relieved.
Lisa Genova
#65. There's no better school than real life.
Lisa Genova
#66. He said not to worry. But it's there. The worry. I can't help it. It's like telling me not to have brown eyes. I have brown eyes. I'm worried.
Lisa Genova
#67. Lacking stamina, it became a withering whimsy of a flirtation.
Lisa Genova
#68. It's the kind of concerned, mixed-with-a-spoon-ful-of-horror-and-a-dollop-of-dread look that anyone might have if forced to sit next to any patient in the neuro unit.
Lisa Genova
#69. The mother in her believed that the love she had for her daughter was safe from the mayhem of her mind, because it lived in her heart.
Lisa Genova
#70. Bob keeps insisting that I can do anything I put my mind to. But he's referring to my old mind. My new mind is broken and doesn't give a whack about the left or my old mind's reputation for success.
Lisa Genova
#71. She savored the relaxed intimacy of these morning walks with him, before the daily demands of their jobs and ambitions rendered them each stressed and exhausted.
Lisa Genova
#72. They talked about her as if she weren't sitting in the wing chair, a few feet away. They talked about her, in front of her, as if she were deaf. They talked about her, in front of her, without including her, as if she had Alzheimer's disease.
Lisa Genova
#73. Despite her self-reproach, she envied Anna, that she could do what Alice couldn't - keep her children safe from harm. Anna would never have to sit opposite her daughter, her firstborn, and watch her struggle to comprehend the news that she would someday develop Alzheimer's.
Lisa Genova
#74. Why? What's wrong with being emotional about this? why is that a negative thing? Why isn't the emotional decision the right decision? asked the woman who wasn't crying.
Lisa Genova
#75. Alice: I miss myself.
John: I miss you too, Ali, so much.
Lisa Genova
#76. And, like a lightning strike, there is his example. His mother before him. The lesson that she passed down for him to pass on to his children - the courage to face every breath with love and gratitude.
Lisa Genova
#77. I smile, loving him for changing with me, for going where my Neglect has taken us, for getting the new me.
Lisa Genova
#78. She felt almost spellbound by him, as if he were a magnet pulling her to him.
Lisa Genova
#79. She was brought up strict Irish Catholic ... Protestants were evil, monstrous people and somehow probably contagious, and Katie grew up fearing them, praying to God she'd never see one.
Lisa Genova
#80. The room does feel strange, oppressive even, with the TV off. In fact, Katie can't remember ever being in this room without it on. It's as if they're missing their fifth sibling, the one who never shuts up and demands all the attention.
Lisa Genova
#81. Her ability to use language, that thing that most separates humans from animals, was leaving her, and she was feeling less and less human as it departed. She's said a tearful good-bye to okay some time ago.
Lisa Genova
#82. You've had the power all along, girl. Go live your dreams.
Lisa Genova
#83. You can be in Downward Dog, hating every second of it. Or you can be in this pose, peaceful and nonreactive, breathing calmly. Either way, you're in this pose. You decide the quality of your experience. Be the thermostat, not the temperature.
Lisa Genova
#84. The blazing fire consumed all. No one got out alive. And
Lisa Genova
#85. Anyone could be seduced by research when the results poured in. The trick was to love it when the results weren't forthcoming, and the reasons why were elusive.
Lisa Genova
#86. Parked in the school lot, I grab their two backpacks, which I swear weigh more than they do, get out, and open the back door like a chauffeur. Who am I kidding? Not like a chauffeur. I am a chauffeur. No one moves.
Lisa Genova
#87. My yesterdays are disappearing, my tomorrows are uncertain, so what do I live for? I live for each day. I live in the moment.
Lisa Genova
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