I don't know what it is about death that makes it so hard. I suppose it's the one-sided communication; the fact that we never get to ask our loved one if she suffered, if she is happy wherever she is now… if she is somewhere. It's the question mark that comes with death that we can't face, not the period.

About Jodi Picoult

Jodi Lynn Picoult ( PEE-koh; born 1966) is an American writer. As of 2026, Picoult has published 30 novels, several short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide and have been translated into 34 languages. In...

More quotations from Jodi Picoult

I believe that having something to hope for—even if it's just a better tomorrow—is the most powerful drug on this planet.

—Jodi Picoult in The Storyteller

power hope better

The first person you fell in love with stole your heart. The first person you made love with stole your soul. And if these were one and the same, you were doomed.

—Jodi Picoult in Mercy

love soul heart theft

What could it be like to find out, in a matter of minutes, that the person you believed the sun rose and set on was not the person you'd thought?

—Jodi Picoult in The Pact

Beware of getting what you want. It’s bound to disappoint you.

—Jodi Picoult in Sing You Home

disappointment desire

You can’t keep yourself from falling in love, but you can steer yourself away from the wrong people.

—Jodi Picoult in Songs of the Humpback Whale

love people fate

More quotations tagged with “death”

If you're condemned to death they have to give you one last meal of your choice. What is that all about? A group of people plans to kill you, so they want you to eat something you like? Do they think the food part will take your mind off the dying part? Or do they prefer to kill you when you're just coming off a peak experience and full of positive energy?

—George Carlin

mind death food energy

If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.

—Rudyard Kipling

death lying

War would end if the dead could return.

—Stanley Baldwin

war death

I'd rather be dead than singing "Satisfaction" when I'm forty-five.

—From a 1975 interview with Mick Jagger, who still performs the song at age sixty-seven

satisfaction death old age

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

—Plato

war death

History

8 Dec 2014 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

I don't know what it is about death that makes it so hard. I suppose it's the one-sided communication; the fact that we never get to ask our loved one if she suffered, if she is happy wherever she is now…if she is somewhere. It's the question mark that comes with death that we can't face, not the period.