"Without pain, how could we know joy?' This is an old argument in the field of thinking about suffering and its stupidity and lack of sophistication could be plumbed for centuries but suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not, in any way, affect the taste of chocolate."
"That’s part of what I like about the book in some ways. It portrays death truthfully. You die in the middle of your life, in the middle of a sentence"
"The marks humans leave are too often scars."
"I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is inprobably biased toward the consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed. And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it-or my observation of it-is temporary?"
"Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you."
"I didn't tell him that the diagnosis came three months after I got my first period. Like: Congratulations! You're a woman. Now die."