Willow Quotes

“It's hard to keep a secret when it's written all over your body... ”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“...if this is not a happy ending, it is perhaps a happy beginning.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“Well, sometimes I worry that my whole life will be based about what's comfortable and easy. I'll care too much about what makes me feel good to ever really reach for anything. And then I worry that even if I do, I won't succeed.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“If you go, then I'll miss you.. terribly”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“If she let herself, she’d drown in a world of pain”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“I just figured out why someone would want to make the first mirror... I think some lover wanted his beloved to see how she appeared to him. He wanted her to be able to see herself the way that he did.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“I guess what scares me the most now is the thought that I won't be able to protect you”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“...her hand closes on smooth metal. Her fingers test the sharpness of the edge. Perfect. It's a fresh blade.
The girls' voices rustle in her head. Their clamoring pushes out all rational thought. She rolls up her sleeve.
The bite of the blade kills the noise. It wipes out the memory of those staring faces. Willow looks at her arm, at the life springing from her. Tiny pinpricks of red that blossom into giant peonies.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“Willow sees her before any of the others. A walking skeleton, the victim of some terrible wasting disease, like something out of the history books, a death camp survivor. It takes Willow a moment to realize that the girl is none of those things. She's just a girl, a girl like Willow, who's chosen to inflict terrible pain on herself. Only this girl's weapon isn't a razor, it's starvation.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“I need a Kleenex.” She sniffs.
Guy disengages his hands from hers, takes the hem of his
sweatshirt, and wipes her nose with it.
“That’s romantic,” she says, embarrassed.
“Well, it is sort of, because I wouldn’t do it for anybody else
in the world.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“If it all looks good on the surface, I'll know I've failed at life”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“Every lineament of the girl's wasted body is a testament to her inner turmoil. Willow can only imagine what kind of pain she must be in to destroy herself that way. She knows there's something ironic in her compassion for the other girl, but she can't help feeling that this utter mortification of the flesh is far worse than anything that she herself has done.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“We'd already talked in the stacks, and I knew you were different from any other girl I'd met. And you told me that your parents were dead, and I thought that you were so . . . lost and vulnerable. So when I saw you in the physics lab . . . and I saw you try and take care of someone that you thought who had been through what you'd been through; could be that . . . well, generous, and thoughtfull . . ." Guy said.
"But you hardly knew me." said Willow
"I know . . . I didn't know that we'd even talk again, or that if we did, if we'd get along, or maybe you were seeing someone else . . . I just knew that the way you tried to protect someone's life that, especially given your situation . . . I just . . . I though that you had to be the most special girl I would ever meet . . .”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“I bought you something" Willows blurts out.
"You bought...What?"
Willow closes her eyes for a second. She's a little surprised she's going to give it to him after all, but there's no going back now. She has to.

"At the bookstore." She reaches into her bag again, and pushes the package across the table towards him.
Guy takes the book out of the bag slowly, Willow waits for him to look disappointed, to look confused that she would buy him such a battered, old-

"I love it when used books have notes in the margins, it's the best," Guy says as he flips through the pages. "I always imagine who read it before me." He pauses and looks at one of Prospero's speeches. "I have way too much homework to read this now, but you know what? Screw it. I want to know why it's your favorite Shakespeare. Thank you, that was really nice of you. I mean, you really didn't have to."

"But I did anyway," Willow says so quietly she's not even sure hears her.

Hey," Guy frowns for a second. "You didn't write anything in here."

"Oh, I didn't even think...I, well, I wouldn't even know what to write," Willow says shyly.

"Well, maybe you'll think of something later," he says.

Willow watches Guy read the opening. There's no mistaking it. His smile is genuine, and she can't help thinking that if she can't make David look like this, at least she can do it for someone.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“oh brave new world that has such a person in it.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“You couldn't really say that something that hurts so badly feels good exactly. It's more that it just feels right. And something that feels so right just couldn't be bad. It has to be good.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“It's hard to keep something a secret when it's written all over you body.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“And she realized that this is true. Pain has somehow transformed into pleasure, and that pleasure is better than any pain could ever be.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“How can she explain to him that every tear takes her further and further away from the box of razors that lies between them. How can she explain that she is terrified of such a thing happening. That although she thought she wanted freedom from her implements, she doesn't know if she can handle what she's experiencing now. That she wants to know that she is still in charge of her grief. That her blades have always done her bidding.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“And she knows then that she was right about her brother, that it takes an unbelievable strength to feel this kind of grief, and she doesn't know if she can handle it, because it really hurts, hurts her more than the razor ever could.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“She watches as the blood springs from the cut she's making, but it doesn't change anything. Not this time. She swipes again, deeper. Now she feels pain, but will it be enough?”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“If someone were to look carefully, the angry red marks underneath the fine cotton of her blouse would be clearly visible. But nobody ever does look carefully.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“Es difícil guardar un secreto cuando lo llevas escrito por todo el cuerpo”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“-Acabo de comprender por qué alguien quiso hacer el primer espejo,

- Porque?

- Imagino que un hombre enamorado deseaba que su amada supiera cómo era ella para él. Quería que ella fuera capaz de verse tal y como él la veía.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“—Acabo de comprender por qué alguien quiso hacer el primer espejo.
Willow parpadea sorprendida. Eso no era en absoluto lo que estaba esperando.
—¿Por qué?
—Imagino que un hombre enamorado deseaba que su amante supiera como era ella para él. Quería que ella fuera capaz de verse tal y como él la veía.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“And yet, as she sits there with him on the window seat, with his strong arms around her, she knows that if she can survive crying, then there are other things she can survive too. And that if some things are lost to her forever, there are others that she has not yet begun to experience. She knows too that what she wants is not because passion is the natural antidote to grief, but because it is the most natural, most perfect, most complete expression of what she feels for him.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“But with you, well, the things you say ... You do get it, and that does make me feel ... better." Willow can feel herself starting to blush.

"You blush a lot," Guy says after a moment.

"I can't help it."

"Well, don't help it. I mean, blushing. I think that's sweet."

"Oh."

"And I'm really happy if anything I do makes you feel any better.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow

“Well, sometimes I worry that my whole life will be based around what’s comfortable and easy. I’ll care too much about what makes me feel good to ever really reach for anything. And then I worry that even if I do, I won’t succeed.”
― Julia Hoban, Willow