A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is a deep exploration of friendship, suffering, and the human condition.
The novel’s quotes dig deep into the lives of its characters, revealing the layers of their experiences with incredible emotional intensity.
These quotes shed light on themes that range from the struggles of trauma and the pursuit of identity to the power of lifelong friendships and the intricacies of love and loyalty.
Top A Little Life Quotes
Navigating through “A Little Life,” we uncover profound emotions and experiences, encapsulated in quotes that mirror the complexities of human existence and the resilience needed to face them.
“If I could have him like this in my dreams every night of my life, I’d stake my entire life on dreams and be done with the rest.” – Jude St. Francis
“The things I would have done for you. Oh, God. Everything I would have done for you.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“You won’t understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“Wasn’t friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely?” – Willem Ragnarsson
“He had looked at Jude, then, and had felt that same sensation: that he would never be lonely again.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“And so I try to be kind to everything I see, and in everything I see, I see him.” – Jude St. Francis
“I can survive this. That’s the thing I know now. I was wrong about many things, but I was right about this.” – Jude St. Francis
“Sometimes I think I can see right through myself.” – Jude St. Francis
“I don’t believe my happiness should depend on someone else’s suffering.” – Jude St. Francis
“What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.” – Jude St. Francis
Also Read: Wind Quotes (with Commentary)
A Little Life Quotes on Friendship and Loyalty
Friendship forms the cornerstone of our identities in “A Little Life,” offering a sanctuary of support and understanding that stands resolute amidst life’s tumultuous waves.
“Why was it so easy to forgive, but so hard to ask others for forgiveness?” – Jude St. Francis
“But these were days of self-fulfillment, where settling for something that was not quite your heart’s desire was no longer acceptable.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“His heart was breaking because what he wanted was not just more time, but more.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“I’m so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything.” – Jude St. Francis
“You could love somebody without it being like that. You could keep some distance. Distance didn’t mean you couldn’t love.” – Jude St. Francis
“A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“Some things you may never understand, and some things you can only do your best to forget.” – Jude St. Francis
“The trick of friendship, I think, is to find people better than you are.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“We experience life as a continuity, and only after it falls away, after it becomes the past, do we see its discontinuities.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“Friendship was witnessing another’s slow drip of miseries, the long revelations of joy, the sting of betrayal, the disappointment of misapprehension.” – Willem Ragnarsson
A Little Life Quotes on Trauma and Healing
In “A Little Life,” the journey through trauma towards healing is depicted with heartrending clarity, reflecting the slow, often painful steps toward recovery and self-acceptance.
“To be careful with people and with words was a rare and beautiful thing.” – Jude St. Francis
“What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.” – Jude St. Francis
“I can survive this. That’s the thing I know now. I was wrong about many things, but I was right about this.” – Jude St. Francis
“Sometimes I think I can see right through myself.” – Jude St. Francis
“He had hoped that success would obliterate what he had been before, but it did not.” – Jude St. Francis
“The scars were what made you a real person. Without them, you were just a ghost.” – Jude St. Francis
“There are some memories that are closer to the truth, that have a greater impact than others.” – Jude St. Francis
“He had always thought it a little unfair that trauma was so like acid; it took with it what was soft and left behind what was hard.” – Jude St. Francis
“Pain is not something you imagine; it’s something you learn.” – Jude St. Francis
“Maybe he was no one’s definition of a hero, but he was the definition of his.” – Jude St. Francis
A Little Life Quotes on Love and Relationships
“Love and relationships within ‘A Little Life’ are explored with a raw intensity that captures both the exaltation and the agony of deep connections, illustrating the complex dance of closeness and distance.”
“You can’t control who you want.” – Jude St. Francis
“Why wasn’t love something that could be learned, the way wrestling could, or the 12-bar blues?” – Jude St. Francis
“It was the intimacy, more than the sex, which unnerved him.” – Jude St. Francis
“But love was always something heavy for me, something I had to carry.” – Jude St. Francis
“A piece of me is made of you, and I will carry it forever.” – Jude St. Francis
“His heart was breaking because what he wanted was not just more time, but more.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“That’s the thing about pain,” it demands to be felt.” – Jude St. Francis
“I’m so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything.” – Jude St. Francis
“The most permanent relationships in my life were with people who always understood that there was something broken about me.” – Jude St. Francis
“If happiness could be brought, few of us would spend money on anything else.” – Jude St. Francis
A Little Life Quotes on Pain and Suffering
In “A Little Life,” pain and suffering are not merely endured but deeply woven into the fabric of existence, offering both despair and a poignant depth to human resilience.
“Everything I love has always had a condition attached to it.” – Jude St. Francis
“He had hoped that success would obliterate what he had been before, but it did not.” – Jude St. Francis
“Being seen too closely by someone you trust is the same as being hurt.” – Jude St. Francis
“You don’t get to ignore pain just because it’s an inconvenience.” – Jude St. Francis
“I was made to be looked at but not seen.” – Jude St. Francis
“There are times when the kindness of strangers only makes things worse because you realize how badly you’re hurting.” – Jude St. Francis
“I can’t tell you what it is to be loved because I don’t know. But I can tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t being hurt; it isn’t being left.” – Jude St. Francis
“If you can’t tell anyone about something, you start to think about it all the time.” – Jude St. Francis
“It’s the living alone that I can’t stand; it’s the not being seen.” – Jude St. Francis
“Sometimes the pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.” – Jude St. Francis
A Little Life Quotes on Hope and Despair
Through the lens of “A Little Life,” hope and despair are intertwined, each giving depth to the other, revealing how closely joy and sorrow reside within the human spirit.
“The trick is to keep breathing through the fear, until you don’t need to think about the fear to breathe.” – Jude St. Francis
“Hope was a dangerous, disquieting thing, but he thought perhaps he liked it.” – Jude St. Francis
“Sometimes happiness was just too much pressure to bear, and despair was actually more comforting.” – Jude St. Francis
“What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.” – Jude St. Francis
“I look for you in everyone.” – Jude St. Francis
“Even when I’m happy, there’s a thin layer of not being happy underneath.” – Jude St. Francis
“It’s always been too late for me—except when it comes to you.” – Jude St. Francis
“You endure what is unbearable, and you bear it. That is all.” – Jude St. Francis
“I suppose that’s what I wanted: another version of myself, to lift off, so I could see it from a distance.” – Jude St. Francis
“Despair could be endured because it was fleeting; it was the hope that always hurt.” – Jude St. Francis
A Little Life Quotes on Identity and Self-Acceptance
“Identity and self-acceptance in ‘A Little Life’ offer a mirror into the soul’s journey towards embracing its complexities, fostering a narrative that champions the raw truths of personal evolution.”
“I was made to be looked at but not seen.” – Jude St. Francis
“It was never the act itself but the acknowledgment of it that had mattered.” – Jude St. Francis
“What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.” – Jude St. Francis
“Sometimes I think I can see right through myself.” – Jude St. Francis
“I don’t understand it any more than you do, but one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to understand things for them to be.” – Jude St. Francis
“Who was I, if not somebody’s son? Somebody’s friend?” – Jude St. Francis
“I suppose that’s what I wanted: another version of myself, to lift off, so I could see it from a distance.” – Jude St. Francis
“You can’t control who you are, but you can always control who you wish to become.” – Jude St. Francis
“Being seen too closely by someone you trust is the same as being hurt.” – Jude St. Francis
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.” – Jude St. Francis
A Little Life Quotes on Vulnerability and Trust
“Vulnerability and trust within ‘A Little Life’ are portrayed as courageous acts of surrender, weaving the threads of deep connections and heartfelt moments of human intimacy.”
“To be looked after by someone who will look after you as if you are precious to them, so precious that they want to keep you from harm, what else can you want?” – Jude St. Francis
“You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, but you do have some say in who hurts you.” – Jude St. Francis
“Friendship was witnessing another’s slow drip of miseries, the long revelations of joy, the sting of betrayal, the disappointment of misapprehension.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“Sometimes you need to allow others to be sad, not just be there to fix it.” – Jude St. Francis
“Trust him, because it will make him better. He will stand taller, walk more confidently; he will be proud of himself.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“I’m so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything.” – Jude St. Francis
“Vulnerability was the only thing he had left to give.” – Jude St. Francis
“Why was it so easy to forgive, but so hard to ask others for forgiveness?” – Jude St. Francis
“His heart was breaking because what he wanted was not just more time, but more.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“The real violence, the violence I realized was unforgivable, is the violence that we do to ourselves, when we’re too afraid to be who we really are.” – Jude St. Francis
A Little Life Quotes on Loneliness and Isolation
“Loneliness and isolation in ‘A Little Life’ echo the quiet spaces of the soul, where solitude wraps its cold arms around the fragile moments of our existence, speaking to a universal truth about human disconnection.”
“It’s the living alone that I can’t stand; it’s the not being seen.” – Jude St. Francis
“I’m like a country that only issues visas to the heartbroken.” – Jude St. Francis
“Sometimes you need to be alone, not to be lonely, but to enjoy your free time being yourself.” – Jude St. Francis
“Loneliness can be a prison, a place from which nothing escapes and nothing enters.” – Jude St. Francis
“I was not made for the world I was too soft, too gentle.” – Jude St. Francis
“There are times when the kindness of strangers only makes things worse because you realize how badly you’re hurting.” – Jude St. Francis
“Isolation offered its own form of companionship.” – Jude St. Francis
“The snow had the sound of loneliness, it settled in spaces where voices should have been.” – Jude St. Francis
“I suppose everyone feels alone at some point in their life, but to be so chronically, fundamentally alone is different.” – Jude St. Francis
“To be isolated is to be broken in a way that is meant to be permanent.” – Jude St. Francis
Topic 2: A Little Life Quotes on Resilience and Strength
“Resilience and strength in ‘A Little Life’ are not merely responses to hardship but core aspects of the characters’ beings, molded by pain yet defiant in the face of life’s relentless trials.”
“You endure what is unbearable, and you bear it. That is all.” – Jude St. Francis
“I can survive this. That’s the thing I know now. I was wrong about many things, but I was right about this.” – Jude St. Francis
“Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is to keep going when you really feel like giving up.” – Jude St. Francis
“I suppose that’s what bravery is: the belief that something is more important than fear.” – Jude St. Francis
“If I could have him like this in my dreams every night of my life, I’d stake my entire life on dreams and be done with the rest.” – Jude St. Francis
“Pain is not something you imagine; it’s something you learn.” – Jude St. Francis
“He had always thought it a little unfair that trauma was so like acid; it took with it what was soft and left behind what was hard.” – Jude St. Francis
“What you must understand about me is that I’m a deeply unhappy person.” – Jude St. Francis
“There are some memories that are closer to the truth, that have a greater impact than others.” – Jude St. Francis
“To have endured horrors and remain sane, allows us to understand the complexities of the human spirit.” – Jude St. Francis
A Little Life Quotes on Forgiveness and Redemption
“Forgiveness and redemption are woven throughout ‘A Little Life’ with a delicacy that captures the difficulty and beauty of forgiving ourselves and others, underscoring the transformative power of grace in the human condition.”
“Forgiving isn’t something you do for someone else. It’s something you do for yourself. It’s saying, you’re not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.” – Jude St. Francis
“The most you can ever do is forgive too much.” – Jude St. Francis
“Why was it so easy to forgive, but so hard to ask others for forgiveness?” – Jude St. Francis
“You can’t change what’s done. You can only sit with it, acknowledge what happened, and move on.” – Jude St. Francis
“I look at you, and I forgive you. Not because you apologize, or because you acknowledged the pain that you caused me, but because my soul deserves peace.” – Jude St. Francis
“Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.” – Jude St. Francis
“What he wanted was to be forgiven… but he couldn’t imagine who would do the job.” – Jude St. Francis
“There is no forgiveness without love, and there is no love without forgiveness.” – Jude St. Francis
“The act of forgiveness is the act of returning to present time. And that’s why when one has become a forgiving person, and has managed to let go of the past, what they’ve really done is they’ve shifted their relationship with time.” – Jude St. Francis
“In the end, forgiving is the only act that matters. Forgiving is healing.” – Jude St. Francis
A Little Life Quotes on Life and Mortality
“Life and mortality are central themes in ‘A Little Life,’ beautifully illustrating the fleeting nature of existence and the poignant beauty found in each moment, even amidst suffering.”
“Life is a series of choices between bad and worse.” – Jude St. Francis
“What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier than they are.” – Jude St. Francis
“It’s the small habits that saved us, even if it was just something as simple as well-cooked food or a clean living space.” – Jude St. Francis
“But these were days of self-fulfillment, where settling for something that was not quite your heart’s desire was no longer acceptable.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“Our lives are bodies thrown into the time stream, swimming against the inevitable to make sense of our existence.” – Jude St. Francis
“To live without hope is to cease to live.” – Jude St. Francis
“Sometimes I think that not having to worry about your happiness is a great happiness.” – Willem Ragnarsson
“I’m not afraid of death; I’m afraid of time.” – Jude St. Francis
“Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything.” – Jude St. Francis
“We don’t get to choose our endings. They happen the way they happen, and we just get to cope.” – Jude St. Francis
Also Read: Meet the Robinsons Quotes (with Commentary)
Final Thoughts
The quotes from A Little Life resonate with a raw truthfulness that captures the nature of the characters’ journeys via great challenges and their interactions with love, pain, and redemption.
These powerful quotes not just reflect the depths of personal struggle and strength but also provide deep insights into the ways you relate to each other and yourself.
As you contemplate these quotes, you are invited to reflect on your own life, the importance of your relationships, and the lasting impact of your choices and experiences.