I had really great parents who always gave me lots of opportunity for choice, but I didnt always realize how rare that was for a girl for them to say, You can be a mom or have a career or do both or do something we havent thought of yet.
Ally CondieThis is a difficult balance, telling the truth: how much to share, how much to keep, which truths will wound but not ruin, which will cut too deep to heal.
Ally CondieI can trust in my parents' love. And it strikes me that is a big thing to trust, a big thing to have had, no matter what else happens.
Ally CondieWhen we read dystopia, we root for these people to break free because we are these people; hoping and fighting against things that are bigger than ourselves.
Ally CondieThe beauty of dystopia is that it lets us vicariously experience future worlds - but we still have the power to change our own.
Ally CondieSo much of life is in the smallness of moments...but they are harder to mark. So we need the grander celebrations and occasions. People like to feel significant.
Ally CondieEverything I dream is something simple and plain and everyday. Thatโs how I know they are dreams. Because the simple and plain and everyday things are the ones that we can never have
Ally CondieI realize now how much courage it takes to choose the life you want, whatever that might be.
Ally CondieI am trapped in glass and I want to break out and breath deep but Iยดm too afraid that it will hurt.
Ally CondieIsn't it funny how the memories you cherish before a breakup can become your worst enemies afterwards? The thoughts you loved to think about, the memories you wanted to hold up to the light and view from every angle-it suddenly seems a lot safer to lock them in a box, far from the light of day and throw away the key. It's not an act of bitterness. It's an act if self-preservation. It's not always a bad idea to stay behind the window and look out at life instead, is it?
Ally CondieI want to reach out and grab his hand and hold it to me, right over my heart, right where it aches the most. I don't know if doing that would heal me or make my heart break entirely, but either way this constant hungry waiting would be over.
Ally CondieIs falling in love with someone's story the same thing as falling in love with the person himself?
Ally CondieDoes loving someone mean you want them to be safe? Or that you want them to be able to choose?
Ally CondieTheres nothing like reading about a world that feels dead to throw your own beautiful, colorful life into sharp relief.
Ally CondieI'm falling in love. I am in love. And it's not with Xander, though I do love him. I'm sure of that, as sure as I am of the fact what I feel for Ky is something different.
Ally CondieBecause I feel no anger toward my mother. Only loss, and loss is a feeling you canโt fight your way out of as easily.
Ally CondieThere is ebb and flow. Leaving and coming. Flight and fall. Sing and silent. Reaching and reached.
Ally CondieI think of how perhaps the best way to fly would be with hands full of earth, so you always remember where you came from.
Ally CondieI'm just a butterfly, a mourning cloak, sealed inside a cocoon with blnd eyes and stiky wings. And suddenly I wonder if the cocoons sometimes do not open, if the butterfly inside is ever simply not strong enough to break through.
Ally CondieEvery minute you spend with someone gives them a part of your life and takes part of theirs.
Ally CondieI wonder if I will ever have the strength to hold onto something. Or if I will always be someone who destroys.
Ally CondieGrowing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I'm glad for that.
Ally CondieWriting, painting, singing -- it cannot stop everything. Cannot halt death in its tracks. But perhaps it can make the pause between death's footsteps sound and look and feel beautiful, can make the space of waiting a place where you can linger without as much fear. For we are all walking each other to our deaths, and the journey there between footsteps makes up our lives.
Ally CondieEveryone has something of beauty about them. But loving let's you look, and look, and look again. You notice the back of a hand, the turn of a head, the way of a walk. When you first love, you look blind and you see it all as the glorious, beloved whole, or a beautiful sum of beautiful parts. But when you see the one you love as pieces, as why's, you can love those parts too, and it's a love at once more complicated and more complete.
Ally Condie