The Year I Met You Quotes
"I was five years old when I learned that I was going to die."
"So it was a great disturbance to learn that death would find me too."
"You reap what you sow, even in death. And so I got about sowing."
"I was terminated from employment, I was fired, six weeks before Christmas – which in my opinion is a highly undignified time to let somebody go."
"Without a job, I have to face things, think about things, question things, find a way to actually deal with things that I have been avoiding for a long time."
"I hear a car on the road and I know it’s action time."
"I am not a stalker but you make it difficult for me not to watch you."
"Initially I felt shocked, my whole system felt shocked, and then I believe I went through a grieving process as I mourned for a life that I’d lost."
"I feel worthless, as though a very important part of my self-esteem has been utterly diminished."
"I’m on what is called ‘gardening leave’. It feels like a prison sentence."
"You try to forget such things, but such things I couldn’t."
"It was my granddad’s love of gardening that led me to be named Jasmine."
"I took a lot home with me from our meeting on the grass that evening, and not just the daisies that dangled from my wrists and ankles and that were weaved into my hair."
"Knowing that I would die instilled something in me that I carry to this day: the awareness that, despite time being infinite, my time was limited."
"My life began at five years old. Knowing that I would die instilled something in me that I carry to this day."
I’m sorry about the noise this morning," I say, genuinely meaning it. "I should have warned you in advance.
"You’re a difficult woman to find," he says, with a smile, which is a beautiful thing to behold.
"I’m flattered that you think I’d be right for the position, but I can’t accept."
"It’s not so much like shaking hands with the devil as I thought."
"I can’t sleep. Not just because I’ve arranged to meet with my cousin Kevin in a few days, but because I’m trying to run through all the possible scenarios that could happen later when you return."
"I feel nothing but guilt and dread, and a slight grudge that the universe has conspired against me."
"I haven’t practised for ten years now," he says absent-mindedly.
"I don’t know you, and I don’t owe you, but I do know that we all have a self-destruct button and I can’t let you do that. Not on my watch."
"And what happens when she sees that they’re impressed by her? Like all of us, she flourishes."
"But hear me loud and clear, Jasmine: I. Will. Not. Drop. The. Gardening. Leave. Clause."
"It was nice not to be alone out here for once."
"I think most people who say that they believe in signs actually mean that they believe in symbols."
"I may have walked into my garden all tensed up, but as soon as I started to work, the tension disappeared all by itself."
"Heather is really spreading her wings now – she always has."
"Your mother never wrote anyone off, Jasmine – because that was the very thing she was afraid of people doing to Heather."
"Every row, misunderstanding, failed relationship, or possible relationship that was never given a chance can without exception be traced back to a reaction, a comment, remark, or something relating to Heather."
"I have always known that I didn’t want children. Ever since I was a child, I’ve known."
"Maybe it’s the genes I inherited from my granddad, or maybe it’s the fact that I’m Irish, have sprung from the land and this compulsion to dig, and the digging itself, breathes life back into me."
"Learning to cycle was a prolonged effort, while I just took off. She always worked harder for everything."
"You cannot define a person by any one thing at any time; we are all unique."
"Realising that I’m about to break my code of ethics, I stop."
"I am having an epiphany. In my garden. Standing knee-deep in a hole that I have dug."
"Heather knows more than I the cruelty of the world."
"I watch you explaining something to her, your soft expression, your hands gesturing gently to shape the points."
"I’m a Heather-pleaser. There are very few other people I try to please; everything revolves around her."
"My first thought when I was fired was I can’t tell Heather."
"What I realise now is that I’m a Heather-pleaser."
"I might sugar-coat things occasionally, but that’s my worst offence."
"I realise that this does not make me a caring person. In fact, it makes me rather selfish."
"I’ve never felt lonely in your company, not for a second."
"For years I have told myself that Heather looks to me to fix everything. But does she?"
"You’re not an alcoholic. You’re a pisshead – there’s a difference."
"So much of gardening is about preparing for what is about to come next, what season, what elements, and I must now start doing that in my life."
"In order to fly one must first clear the shit off one's wings. First step is to identify the shit. Done."
"We all have stand-out moments in our lives, periods which influenced small or profound changes in us."
"Roses planted in soil that has grown roses for a number of years are prone to a disease known as rose sickness."
"It is better to move, uproot ourselves and start afresh; then we will flourish."
"The year I met you, I met myself. You should do the same, because I think you'll find a good man."
"I have heard your voice every day, listened to the unsavoury words that formulate your tasteless thoughts and made a judgement on you. I did not like you."
"Society is built around industry, you say, only children and retired people relax into not working and the percentage of retired people who die of heart attacks soon after retirement is a worry to you."
"What I have learned is that you are more, more than what you pretend to be, more than what you believe yourself to be."
"My dad used to hit my mum and me. The day we finally got rid of him, the day I finally faced up to him, me and Mum turned 'Paradise City' as high as it could go and we danced around the kitchen together. I've never seen her so happy."