Dear Emmie Blue Quotes

“Maybe home isn’t a place. It’s a feeling. Of being cared for and understood. Of being loved.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“Do you know why I like storms? They're a little reminder that we're not at all in charge, but Mother Nature is. And while the world might not look exactly how we'd prefer it to, it is enough, if we just stop and look. The whole sky lit up. The smell of the rain. Safe inside. What more could you need?”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“I know, deep down, I am made of strong stuff. Rebuilt with it, at least, the way we all are over the years, with age and experience. Skin thickening, heart softening, patched up double in the places prone to breaking. A sum of all the things that have hurt us, scared us, sheltered, and delighted us.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“What is it about someone asking if you're okay? Even if you think you're holding it together, all it takes is someone asking is if you're alright to completely melt away your resolve and bring that lump bobbing straight into your throat.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“The only sort of negative emotion I feel is slightly sad, but it isn’t a jealous sort of sad, it’s that end of era feeling; the sort of feeling you have when you’re leaving a job and you know so much that it’s for the best, but you’ll miss it. The familiarity. The routine of it.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“The dream, surely,’ I said. ‘Someone loving you despite and because of all the flaws and shit in your life.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“I look down at my wet jeans, the old, squelching sandals, the towel around me, and bring a knuckle to my eye, crusted with dry-again mascara. "God. Look at me," I say, voice cracking. "Just look at me."
Eliot stares at me. And softly, into the silence of the car, he says, "I am.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“I’m thirty years old, and it’s safe to say that at this precise moment I definitely do not know where I am going.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“Sorry. I know this is probably really boring for you."
"Boring?"
"Yes. Me, harping on about things that don't really matter, people you don't really know."
And Louise had looked at me every time, her wrinkled brow furrowing, and said, "That is called a conversation, is it not, Emmie? How relationships are made, slowly sharing pieces of yourself, in turn?”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“Happiness," she says. "What is that, to Emmie Blue?"
"Wow," I say with a smile, "that's a... big question."
[...] "I suppose when I was younger, a few years ago, I would have said... a family. A normal, safe family life."
[...]
"You know," I say, "a home, with flowers in the window, a relationship with my mum where maybe she pops in for lunch now and then. Children, one day, maybe. Someone..." I swallow, words becoming increasingly difficult to say. "Someone to love. Someone to love me."
"Love," says Louise. "So you think love is happiness?"
I hesitate, laugh, nerves turning it into a high-pitched giggle. "I—don't know. Yes. Yes, I suppose it is. For me.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“Because everyone is settled at thirty, aren’t they? You’re an adult at thirty – fully fledged – and everyone knows who they are. Or at least everyone knows exactly where they are going, even if they haven’t quite made it there yet.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“Bit shit growing up and being an adult, sometimes, isn’t it?”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“OK?’ Eliot simply asks. ‘Fine.’ ‘Good. Only thing for it,’ he says, ‘hold on and hope for the best.’ ‘And that’s dancing, is it?’ ‘Well, yeah,’ says Eliot, then he leans in and says into my ear, breath tickling my neck, ‘And everything else, too, Emmie Blue.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“It’s all just – life, isn’t it? Disordered and chaotic and out-of-nowhere, and we have to plan and navigate our way around it as best we can.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“I'm made of strong stuff," I say, and Lucas says, "Always have been.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“chance, meant-to-bes – they cannot be rushed or planned.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“I know, deep down, I am made of strong stuff. Rebuilt with it, at least, the way we all are, over the years, with age and experience, skin thickening, heart softening, patched up double in the places prone to breakage. A sum of all the things that have hurt us, scared us, sheltered and delighted us.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“I always wanted a grandmother, years of wisdom behind their eyes, gentle hugs, the magic of real stories that took place when I didn’t exist. And I feel like this is as close as I will ever get to one. And my heart fills with gratitude that I have met her.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“You think I'm mad, don't you?" I say. "Is this the part where you tell me I have my head up my arse for saying such a sugary, silly thing?"
"No," she says. lowering the mug to her lap. "Not even close, Emmie. Silly is something I would never use to describe you.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“I’ll get to it soon. One step at a time. Because that’s what I’m doing now. One small step forward at a time, until I gather enough distance, that when I look over my shoulder, I can barely see those things in the past that held me back for so long.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“A nice three-bed semi, a family, and someone to love you. You have all three now, if you just stop and look.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“I'm wide-awake," I say, and I look up at him, run a finger down his stubbly cheek and onto his soft lips. He kisses the tip of my finger. "You're really here," I whisper. "In front of me."
"I am, Emmie Blue," he says. "And I always have been.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“Even in the darkest of times, it is always important to focus, if you can, on the positives. No matter how small. No matter how few.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“and sitting here in the sunshine on the beach with the both”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“I think if Emmie and Eliot doesn’t happen, then there’s no hope for the rest of us.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“you’re enough, Emmie, without all that. Trust me.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“I’m thirty-three next week, Emmie,” he says. “My dad was thirty-three when he died, and from what people have told me, the dude spent every waking moment working his arse off to fit in. To pay off the mortgage. To get the next best car. Holidays. Loft extensions. Worked to the bone, to have everything he thought he should have. Probably because he was looking at people like you are, thinking they had it all compared to him.” I stare at Eliot, my heart thumping. “And at thirty-three, that was it. Heart gave out, all over. And nobody once talked about the money he’d saved, the car he had, the holidays he took. They just talked about him, Emmie. Missed him. For what he was. Because that was enough.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“I’m thirty-three next week, Emmie,” he says. “My dad was thirty-three when he died, and from what people have told me, the dude spent every waking moment working his arse off to fit in. To pay off the mortgage. To get the next best car. Holidays. Loft extensions. Worked to the bone, to have everything he thought he should have. Probably because he was looking at people like you are, thinking they had it all compared to him.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“But nobody, regardless of what they say, has a totally full and perfect, flawless life, Emmie.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue

“And that’s what a lot of it is. How it appears. They’re probably just as lost as everyone else is behind closed doors.”
― Lia Louis, Dear Emmie Blue