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I Knew Her Well Enough To Understand That When Delia Pushed You Away, It Was Her Way Of Making Sure She Didn't Get Shoved First.
-Jodi Picoult
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I Knew Her Well

Jodi Picoult
...
I Knew Her Well Enough To Understand That When Delia Pushed You Away, It Was Her Way Of Making Sure She Didn't Get Shoved First.

Understanding the Quote: "i knew her well enough to understand that when delia pushed you..."

This quote by Jodi Picoult reflects deeply on the theme of way. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Way, Firsts, Enough, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Jodi Picoult interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is celebrated for insightful thoughts on way and firsts. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Way
Firsts
Enough
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Waiting
Forever
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Play
Stronger
Even Though I Don't Write About Things That Come From My Life Because I'm Lucky, And I Live In A Great Place With Great Kids And, You Know, A Great Husband, I Think You Can Find Threads Of Me In The Characters, So That's Really What Being A Writer Is, Probably.
Husband
Writing
Character
The Ideas Choose Me, Not The Other Way Around.
Ideas
Way
Choose Me
Each Memory Is Like A Paper Flower Stowed Up A Magician's Sleeve: Invisible One Moment And Then So Substantial And Florid The Next I Cannot Imagine How It Stayed Hidden All This Time. And Like Those Paper Flowers, Once They've Been Let Loose In The World, The Memories Are Impossible To Tuck Away Again.
Memories
Flower
World
There Are Some Things, I Think, You're Btter Off Not Remembering.
Thinking
Remember
What Is Right, In The End, Is Not Always What It Seems To Be, And Some Rules Are Better Broken.
Broken
Ends
Seems
It Makes Faith Think Of A Hammock In Their Yard, A Web Of Rope That She Thought Would Unravel The First Time She Leaned Back On It, But That Managed To Support Her All The Same.
Thinking
Support
Yards
Most People In America Want An Easy Read. I Call It Mcfiction - Books Which Pass Right Through You Without You Even Digesting Them. I Don't Mean A Book That Has Two-syllable Words. I Mean Chapters You Can Read In A Toilet Break. Happy Endings. We Are More Of A Tv Culture.
Book
Mean
Two
Life Is Not A Plot; It's In The Details.
Details
Plot
Life Is
In My Previous Life I Was A Civil Attorney. At One Point I Truly Believed That Was What I Wanted To Be- But That Was Before I'd Been Handed A Fistful Of Crushed Violets From A Toddler. Before I Understood That The Smile Of A Child Is A Tattoo: Indelible Art.
Tattoo
Art
Children
Shelby Believed That Love Was Like A Solar Eclipse - Breathtakingly Beautiful, Absorbing, And Capable Of Rendering You Blind. She Had Not Necessarily Gone Out Of Her Way To Avoid A Relationship, But She Hadn't Wanted On Either. It Was Called Falling In Love For A Reason - Because, Inevitably, You Crashed At The Bottom.
Beautiful
Falling In Love
Gone
It Seems To Me That No Matter What Religion You Subscribe To, Acts Of Kindness Are The Stepping-stones To Making The World A Better Place--because We Become Better People In It.
Inspirational
Kindness
People
There Are Legions Of Us, I Realized. The Mothers Who Have Broken Babies, And Spend The Rest Of Our Lives Wondering If We Should Have Spared Them. And The Mothers Who Have Let Their Broken Babies Go, Who Look At Our Children And See Instead The Faces Of The Ones They Never Met.
Mother
Baby
Children
In Nineteen Minutes, You Can Mow The Front Lawn; Color Your Hair; Watch A Third Of A Hockey Game. In Nineteen Minutes, You Can Bake Scones Or Get A Tooth Filled By A Dentist; You Can Fold Laundry For A Family Of Five. In Nineteen Minutes, You Can Stop The World; Or You Can Just Jump Off It.
Hockey
Hair
Color
I Have Always Envied People Who Believe Strongly In Religion, People Who Could Face A Tragedy By Praying And Know That It Would Be All Right. As Unscientific As It Seems, Well, It Would Be Nice To Lay The Responsibilities And Pain On Someone Else's Larger Shoulders.
Pain
Nice
Believe
Remember That Every Fire Will Burn Itself Out, Even Without Your Help.
Fire
Helping
Remember
I'm Not Saying You Did The Wrong Thing. I'm Not Even Saying It Wasn't Something I'd Thought Of Doing, Myself. But Even If It Was The Just Thing To Do, Or The Fitting Thing, It Still Wasn't The Right Thing.
Fitting
Things To Do
Stills
You Might Not Write Well Every Day, But You Can Always Edit A Bad Page. You Can't Edit A Blank Page.
Writing
Might
Pages
I’d Much Rather Pretend I’m Somewhere Else, And Any Time I Open The Pages Of A Book, That Happens.
Book
Somewhere Else
Pages
Since It Had Gotten So Quiet In The Room That You Could Hear The Sound Of Your Own Doubts.
Doubt
Sound
Rooms
It Feels Like A Punch. Tears Fill My Eyes, And I Wonder How I Could Be Upset Over Losing Something I Never Had.
Eye
Upset
Tears
I Think You're The Only Person Who Gets Me. When I'm With You, The World Doesn't Feel Like A Problem I Can't Figure Out. Please Come To The Dance, Because You're My Music.
Thinking
World
Problem
After All, How Many Of Us Had Tried To Forget Something Traumatic...only To Find It Printed On The Back Of Our Eyelids, Tattooed On Our Tongues?
Tongue
Forget
Tattooed
You Can Tell Yourself That You Would Be Willing To Lose Everything You Have In Order To Get Something You Want. But It's A Catch-22: All Of Those Things You're Willing To Lose Are What Make You Recognizable. Lose Them, And You've Lost Yourself.
Order
Would Be
Want
We'd Sit With A Big Bowl Of Popcorn, Wrapped Together In A Queen-size Blanket, And Would Escape To A Place Where Magic Was Ours For The Taking, Where Men Rescued The People They Loved Instead Of Abandoning Them. A Place Where, No Matter How Bad Things Looked At That Moment, There Would Always Be A Happy Ending.
Queens
Men
People
At Home I Was Raped By A Guy I Thought I Loved' Trixie Said, Because Thats What It Was To Her And Always Would Be.
Home
Guy
Would Be
She Felt A Cage Coming Down Around Her; Too Late She Realized That He Had Her Trapped By The Heart. And Like Any Unwilling Animal That Was Well And Truly Caught, She Could Escape Only By Leaving A Piece Of Herself Behind.
Heart
Animal
Leaving
I Think That When You Live In A World With Limits... When You've Met Everyone And Seem Everything You're Going To See - You Lose The Hope That Something Extraordinary Will Happen In Your Life
Thinking
World
Limits
This Was Something She Would Keep Hidden Within Herself, Maybe In Place Of The Knot Of Pain And Anger She Had Been Carrying Under Her Breastbone...a Security Blanket, An Ace Up Her Sleeve. She Might Never Use It, But She Would Always Feel Its Presence Like A Swelling Secret Stone, And That Way When She Let Go Of The Rage, She Would Not Feel Nearly As Empty.
Heartbreak
Letting Go
Pain
I Wonder If You've Got A Minute." I Have Many Minutes, All Of Them Used Toward A Common Purpose.
Common Purpose
Wonder
Used
When Was The Last Time Someone Read Aloud To You? Probably When You Were A Child, And If You Think Back, You'll Remember How Safe You Felt, Tucked Under The Covers, Or Curled In Someone's Arms, As A Story Was Spun Around You Like A Web.
Children
Thinking
Stories
No One Gets To Start Where They Left Off; It Just Doesn't Work That Way.
Way
Left
My Mother Used To Tell Me That When Push Comes To Shove, You Always Know Who To Turn To. That Being A Family Isn't A Social Construct But An Instinct.
Family
Mother
Instinct
Peter Was, Simply, What A Person Would Look Like If You Boiled Down The Most Raw Emotions And Filtered Them Of Any Social Contract. If You Hurt, Cry. If You Rage, Strike Out. If You Hope, Get Ready For A Disappointment.
Hurt
Disappointment
Looks
If You Want To Know Someone's Story, They Have To Tell It Aloud. But Every Time, The Telling Is A Little But Different. It's New, Even To Me.
Littles
Different
Stories
Kids Think With Their Brains Cracked Wide Open; Becoming An Adult, I've Decided, Is Only A Slow Sewing Shut.
Growing Up
Kids
Thinking
Like Connor, Alex Protected Me -and He Was The Only Person I Let Close Enough To Do It. Like Connor, Alex Could Finish My Sentences Before I Did. But Unlike Connor, For Whom I Had Ultimately Come Too Late, I Was Just In Time To Take Care Of Alex.
Too Late
Alex
Care
You Can Make It Dark, But I Can't Make It Light.
Dark
Light
I Can
If You End Your Story, It's A Static Work Of Art, A Finite Circle. But If You Don't, It Belongs To Anyone's Imagination. It Stays Alive Forever.
Art
Circles
Imagination
A Fire Can't Burn Forever. Eventually, It Consumes Itself.
Fire
Forever
My Sisters Keeper
Asking Me To Describe My Son Is Like Asking Me To Hold The Ocean In A Paper Cup
Ocean
Son
Asking
I Never Lose Sight Of The Fact That Before I Was A Writer, I Was A Teacher. I Still Am. My Classroom's Just Gotten A Little Bigger.
Teacher
Sight
Littles
But It Was Like Wearing A Size Five Sneakers When Your Foot Is A Seven- You Can Get By For A Few Steps, And Then You Set Down And Pull Off The Shoes Because It Just Plain Much
Sneakers
Shoes
Feet
I Write Adult Fiction, But A Good 40 To 50 Per Cent Of My Readers Are Teenagers. I Love That If They Have To Grow Up And Move Past Jk Rowling They Can Move To Me. From Jo To Jodi!
Growing Up
Teenager
Moving
I Know You Love Me. The Question Is, How Much?
I Know You Love Me
Knows
A Woman Isn't All That Different From A Bonfire. A Fire's A Beautiful Thing, Right? Something You Can't Take Your Eyes Off, When It's Burning. If You Can Keep It Contained, It'll Throw Light And Heat For You. It's Only When It Gets Out Of Control That You Have To Go On The Offensive.
Beautiful
Eye
Fire
Campbell" Julia Says "don't Do This To Me" "do What?" "push Me Off The Same Cliff Twice
Cliffs
Julia
I'm Too Much Of A Coward To Kill Myself. And Too Much Of A Coward To Live
Coward
Too Much
When I Think About Writers Who Use Fiction As Social Commentary And To Raise Social Awareness But Who Are Also Very Popular, I Think Of Dickens.
Thinking
Fiction
Use
When We're Awake, We See What We Need To See. When We're Asleep, We See What Is Really There.
Needs
Awake
A Real Friend Isn't Capable Of Feeling Sorry For You.
Friendship
Sorry
Real
No Child Really Chooses His Religion; It Is Just The Luck Of The Draw Which Blanket Of Beliefs You Are Wrapped In.
Children
Luck
Belief
Stem Cell Research Has Become Such A Polarizing Issue In America... And I Wanted To Bring It Down To The Personal Level, Instead Of The Political.
Issues
Cells
America
To Me, A Good Event Is Governed By The Audience.
Events
Audience
I've Always Been Able To See You," I Say. "it's A Rather Lovely View.
Views
Lovely
Able
You Can’t Keep Yourself From Falling In Love, But You Can Steer Yourself Away From The Wrong People.
Falling In Love
Fall
People
Fiction Allows For Moral Questioning, But Through The Back Door. Personally, I Like Books That Make You Think - Books You're Still Wondering About Three Days After You Finish Them; Books You Hand To A Friend And Say "read This, So We Can Talk About It."
Book
Thinking
Doors
You Know How Hind-sight Is 20/20? Love Is When You Look Back And Wouldn't Change Anything.
Love Is
Sight
Looks
She Understood What It Was Like To Stand Right In Front Of People You Loved, Even Though They Could Not See You.
People
Understood
Fronts
Time Is An Optical Illusion- Never Quite As Soild Or Strong As We Think It Is
Strong
Thinking
Optical Illusions
Polar North Can't Get Away From A Magnet; The Magnet Finds It, No Matter What.
Matter
No Matter What
Get Away
There's A Problem With Wounded Birds, Cassie," Connor Said. "either They Fly Away From You One Day, Or Else They Never Get Better. They Stay Hurt No Matter What You Do.
Hurt
Bird
Get Better
We're [parents]) Always Bluffing, Pretending We Know Best, When Most Of The Time We're Just Praying We Won't Screw Up Too Badly.
Inspirational
Funny
Parenting
I Am An Activist. I Have A Really Big Pulpit With My Fiction And I Love Knowing That I Can Make People Think.
Thinking
Knowing
People
I Think There Are Two Different Oceans - The One That Plays With You In The Summer, And The One That Gets So Mad In The Winter.
Summer
Ocean
Winter
It's About A Girl Who Is On The Cusp Of Becoming Someone.. A Girl Who May Not Know What She Wants Right Now, And She May Not Know Who She Is Right Now, But Who Deserves The Chance To Find Out.
Girl
May
Want
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