This is what happens: somebodyโgirl usuallyโgot a free spirit, doesn't get on too good with her parents. These kids, they're like tied-down helium balloons. They strain against the string and strain against it, and then something happens, and that string gets cut, and they just float away. And maybe you never see the balloon again . . . Or maybe three or four years from now, or three or four days from now, the prevailing winds take the balloon back home . . . But listen, kid, that string gets cut all the time.
John GreenHe liked the mere act of reading, the magic of turning scratches on a page into words inside his head.
John GreenNothing (at least that can be done by humans) immortalizes anyone. The Fault in Our Stars will hopefully have a long and wonderful life, but it will eventually go out of print, and eventually the last person ever to read it will die, and then the characters will no longer live in any consciousness.Also, that is okay. That is good, actually. That is how it should be. One of the things the characters in this novel have to grapple with is the reality of temporaryness. What Gus in particular must reconcile himself to is that being temporary does not mean being unimportant or meaningless.
John GreenโI thought we were in a church basement, but we are literally in the heart of Jesus.โ โSomeone should tell Jesus,โ I said. โI mean, it's gotta be dangerous, storing children with cancer in your heart.โ โI would tell Him myself.โ Augustus said, โbut unfortunately I am literally stuck inside of His heart, so He won't be able to hear me.โ
John Green