“God gave us crying so other folks could see when we needed help, and help us.”
―
Joshilyn Jackson,
Gods in Alabama
“There are gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel's, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama
“I had been born and mostly raised in the South, so I ought to have been able to find a way to reach him. Southern girls are trained from birth up that the way to a man's heart is never through the front door. They may leave a basket of cookies there, and while he's busy picking them up, they're squirming in through a back window.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama
“It's a thing I am, not a thing I do. I can't stop being it.” ― Joshilyn Jackson
“This is what Liza knows: People go under. They fall off the world, they go beneath and drown and die. Sometimes, nothing saves you…Liza knows how black the world is, how fast it spins, and how you have to take the taste of apples and the smell of your little girl’s orange zest shampoo where you find them. You have to hold these things and strive, always, for one more word and one more step. You push forward and you fight, for as long as ever you can, until the black world spins and the moon pulls the tide and the water rises up and takes you.” ― Joshilyn Jackson
“You can’t go around holding the worst thing you ever did in your hand, staring at it. You gotta cook supper, put gas in the car. You gotta plant more zinnias.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Almost Sisters
“The things that happen to me just make me more me.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama
“Sometimes karma takes years to pay a person back, but that day, it had a fast backhand return...” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Someone Else's Love Story
“oh that's right, you never lie unless your mouth is open and words are coming out of it” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama
“The wold was full of us, the leftovers and the leavers, the bereaved and the broken.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Opposite of Everyone
“Saying it it loud, she felt every inch of distance between them.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
“He knows me so well. I don’t have to say it. Not any of it. Not yet. There will be time for it later. For now, it is enough. It is enough and it is easy. Easy to walk the last few steps between us. Easy and so beautiful to step into his arms.He kisses me. He kisses me.I kiss him back.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Someone Else's Love Story
“I had spent my whole life hungry for forgiveness. It had not come, so I didn’t know firsthand what he was feeling. But I had imagined it, over and over. I’d wanted it so bad. I’d wanted Kai—or anyone, anyone who knew the worst in me—to say that I was still dear, and good, and worthy.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Opposite of Everyone
“she hadn’t known that no one grew up without collecting dings and broken edges.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Almost Sisters
“I would take today's joy, and tomorrow's. I would take it with both hands, anywhere it came.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty
“I was looking for my ex-lover to break the Sixth Commandment.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Backseat Saints
“Hail to thee, Alabama, thou verdant trollop!” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama
“I want to thank you, first, Person Who Bought This Book. Because of you, I have a job I love. Because of you, the people in my head get to live outside of it. When I meet you, you talk about my characters as if they are old friends (or enemies) we have in common; I cannot explain how miraculous this feels. If you are one of those people who have put my books into the hands of other readers—either professionally as a god-called lunatic who loves books so much you hand-sell them or as a reader who picked one for book club or gave it to your best friend for a birthday—well. This book exists because of you. I hope you are happy about this. I am—happy and grateful and a little bit in love with you.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Opposite of Everyone
“He was treating me like something breakable, which is different from how you treat something you yourself have broken.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Backseat Saints
“There are gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel's, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama
“I had been born and mostly raised in the South, so I ought to have been able to find a way to reach him. Southern girls are trained from birth up that the way to a man's heart is never through the front door. They may leave a basket of cookies there, and while he's busy picking them up, they're squirming in through a back window.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama
“It's a thing I am, not a thing I do. I can't stop being it.” ― Joshilyn Jackson
“This is what Liza knows: People go under. They fall off the world, they go beneath and drown and die. Sometimes, nothing saves you…Liza knows how black the world is, how fast it spins, and how you have to take the taste of apples and the smell of your little girl’s orange zest shampoo where you find them. You have to hold these things and strive, always, for one more word and one more step. You push forward and you fight, for as long as ever you can, until the black world spins and the moon pulls the tide and the water rises up and takes you.” ― Joshilyn Jackson
“You can’t go around holding the worst thing you ever did in your hand, staring at it. You gotta cook supper, put gas in the car. You gotta plant more zinnias.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Almost Sisters
“The things that happen to me just make me more me.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama
“Sometimes karma takes years to pay a person back, but that day, it had a fast backhand return...” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Someone Else's Love Story
“oh that's right, you never lie unless your mouth is open and words are coming out of it” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama
“The wold was full of us, the leftovers and the leavers, the bereaved and the broken.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Opposite of Everyone
“Saying it it loud, she felt every inch of distance between them.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
“He knows me so well. I don’t have to say it. Not any of it. Not yet. There will be time for it later. For now, it is enough. It is enough and it is easy. Easy to walk the last few steps between us. Easy and so beautiful to step into his arms.He kisses me. He kisses me.I kiss him back.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Someone Else's Love Story
“I had spent my whole life hungry for forgiveness. It had not come, so I didn’t know firsthand what he was feeling. But I had imagined it, over and over. I’d wanted it so bad. I’d wanted Kai—or anyone, anyone who knew the worst in me—to say that I was still dear, and good, and worthy.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Opposite of Everyone
“she hadn’t known that no one grew up without collecting dings and broken edges.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Almost Sisters
“I would take today's joy, and tomorrow's. I would take it with both hands, anywhere it came.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty
“I was looking for my ex-lover to break the Sixth Commandment.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Backseat Saints
“Hail to thee, Alabama, thou verdant trollop!” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama
“I want to thank you, first, Person Who Bought This Book. Because of you, I have a job I love. Because of you, the people in my head get to live outside of it. When I meet you, you talk about my characters as if they are old friends (or enemies) we have in common; I cannot explain how miraculous this feels. If you are one of those people who have put my books into the hands of other readers—either professionally as a god-called lunatic who loves books so much you hand-sell them or as a reader who picked one for book club or gave it to your best friend for a birthday—well. This book exists because of you. I hope you are happy about this. I am—happy and grateful and a little bit in love with you.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, The Opposite of Everyone
“He was treating me like something breakable, which is different from how you treat something you yourself have broken.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Backseat Saints
