Frasi di John Green
John Green
Data di nascita: 24. Agosto 1977
John Michael Green è uno scrittore e youtuber statunitense, vincitore nel 2006 del Pritz Award per il suo primo romanzo Cercando Alaska e primo classificato nella New York Times bestseller list del gennaio 2012 grazie al suo penultimo, Colpa delle stelle.
Lavori
Frasi John Green
„Sembrava passata un'eternità, un'eternità che sembrava breve ma allo stesso tempo infinita. Alcuni infiniti sono più grandi di altri infiniti.“
— John Green, libro Colpa delle stelle
Origine: Colpa delle stelle, p. 261
„Chip non credeva nella necessità di avere un cassetto per i calzini e uno per le magliette. Era fermamente convinto che tutti i cassetti erano stati creati uguali, e li riempiva come capitava.“
— John Green, libro Cercando Alaska
Centoventotto giorni prima, p. 21
Cercando Alaska
„Augustus: Forse "Okay" sarà il nostro sempre.
Hazel: Okay.“
— John Green, libro Colpa delle stelle
Colpa delle stelle
„Odiavo lo sport, odiavo quelli che facevano sport, odiavo quelli a cui piaceva guardarlo, e odiavo chi non odiava quelli che lo facevano o cui piaceva guardarlo.“
— John Green, libro Cercando Alaska
Centonove giorni prima, p. 69
Cercando Alaska
„Immaginare il futuro sa di rimpianto. Passi la vita inchiodato nel labirinto, pensando al modo in cui un giorno ne uscirai, e a come sarà fantastico, e immagini che il futuro ti trascinerà pian piano fuori di lì, ma non succede. È solo usare il futuro per sfuggire al presente.“
— John Green, libro Cercando Alaska
Cento giorni prima, p. 83
Cercando Alaska
„Forse è più come hai detto prima, che dentro di noi si sono aperte delle crepe. Ognuno all'inizio è una nave inaffondabile.
Poi ci succedono alcune cose: persone che ci lasciano, che non ci amano, che non capiscono o che noi non capiamo, e ci perdiamo, sbagliamo, ci facciamo male, gli uni con gli altri. E lo scafo comincia a creparsi. E quando si rompe non c'è niente da fare, la fine è inevitabile. […] Però c'è un sacco di tempo tra quando le crepe cominciano a formarsi e quando andiamo a pezzi.
Ed è solo in quel momento che possiamo vederci, perché vediamo fuori di noi dalle nostre fessure e dentro gli altri attraverso le loro.“
— John Green, libro Città di carta
Città di carta
„L'uomo vuole avere delle certezze. Non riesce a sopportare l'idea che la morte sia un nero e immenso nulla, il pensiero che i suoi cari non esistano più, e tanto meno può immaginare sé stesso come non esistente. […] l'uomo crede nell'aldilà perché non ha la forza di non crederci.“
— John Green, libro Cercando Alaska
Quattro giorni prima, p. 140
Cercando Alaska
„Certe cose non puoi prolungarle all'infinito. Viene il momento in cui devi strappar via il cerotto. Fa male, ma poi passa e ti senti meglio.“
— John Green, libro Cercando Alaska
Centoventotto giorni prima, p. 14
Cercando Alaska
„When I was little, my dad used to tell me, "Will, you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose."“
— John Green, libro Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Will Grayson, p. 1 (opening words)
Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010)
„I’m a good person but a shitty writer. You’re a shitty person but a good writer. We’d make a good team. I don’t want to ask you any favors, but if you have time – and from what I saw, you have plenty – I was wondering if you could write a eulogy for Hazel. I’ve got notes and everything, but if you could just make it into a coherent whole or whatever? Or even just tell me what I should say differently. Here’s the thing about Hazel: Almost everyone is obsessed with leaving a mark upon the world. Bequeathing a legacy. Outlasting death. We all want to be remembered. I do, too. That’s what bothers me most, is being another unremembered casualty in the ancient and inglorious war against disease. I want to leave a mark. But Van Houten: The marks humans leave are too often scars. You build a hideous minimall or start a coup or try to become a rock star and you think, “They’ll remember me now,” but (a) they don’t remember you, and (b) all you leave behind are more scars. Your coup becomes a dictatorship. Your minimall becomes a lesion. (Okay, maybe I’m not such a shitty writer. But I can’t pull my ideas together, Van Houten. My thoughts are stars I can’t fathom into constellations.) We are like a bunch of dogs squirting on fire hydrants. We poison the groundwater with our toxic piss, marking everything MINE in a ridiculous attempt to survive our deaths. I can’t stop pissing on fire hydrants. I know it’s silly and useless – epically useless in my current state – but I am an animal like any other. Hazel is different. She walks lightly, old man. She walks lightly upon the earth. Hazel knows the truth: We’re as likely to hurt the universe as we are to help it, and we’re not likely to do either. People will say it’s sad that she leaves a lesser scar, that fewer remember her, that she was loved deeply but not widely. But it’s not sad, Van Houten. It’s triumphant. It’s heroic. Isn’t that the real heroism? Like the doctors say: First, do no harm. The real heroes anyway aren’t the people doing things; the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention. The guy who invented the smallpox vaccine didn’t actually invent anything. He just noticed that people with cowpox didn’t get smallpox. After my PET scan lit up, I snuck into the ICU and saw her while she was unconscious. I just walked in behind a nurse with a badge and I got to sit next to her for like ten minutes before I got caught. I really thought she was going to die, too. It was brutal: the incessant mechanized haranguing of intensive care. She had this dark cancer water dripping out of her chest. Eyes closed. Intubated. But her hand was still her hand, still warm and the nails painted this almost black dark almost blue color, and I just held her hand and tried to imagine the world without us and for about one second I was a good enough person to hope she died so she would never know that I was going, too. But then I wanted more time so we could fall in love. I got my wish, I suppose. I left my scar. A nurse guy came in and told me I had to leave, that visitors weren’t allowed, and I asked if she was doing okay, and the guy said, “She’s still taking on water.”“
— John Green, libro Colpa delle stelle
A desert blessing, an ocean curse. What else? She is so beautiful. You don’t get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she is smarter than you: You know she is. She is funny without ever being mean. I love her. I am so lucky to love her, Van Houten. You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers."
Augustus "Gus" Waters, p. 310-313
The Fault in Our Stars (2012)
„The moment Colin sat down, Hollis asked Hassan, "Would you like to say grace?"
"Sure thing." Hassan cleared his throat. "Bismallah." Then he picked up his fork.
"That's it?" Hollis wondered.
"That's it. We are a terse people. Terse, and also hungry."“
— John Green, libro An Abundance of Katherines
Hollis Wells and Hassan Harbish, p. 62
An Abundance of Katherines (2006)
„As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep; Slowly, and then all at once.“
— John Green, libro Colpa delle stelle
Hazel Grace Lancaster, p. 125
Compare Ernest Hemingway, speaking about the process of going bankrupt: "'Gradually and then suddenly.'"
The Fault in Our Stars (2012)
„That's the thing about pain," Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. "It demands to be felt.“
— John Green, libro Colpa delle stelle
Augustus "Gus" Waters, p. 63
The Fault in Our Stars (2012)
