Jodi Picoult Quotes

No matter how happy anyone is with their choices, I believe it's human nature to wonder about the path not taken.

I don't want to make the wrong mistake.

I don't believe in mistakes. Never have. I believe that there are a multitude of paths before us and it's just a matter of which way we walk home. I don't believe in regret. If you regret things about your life, than I'll bet that you're not paying attention. Regret is just imagining that you know what would have happened if you took that job in California or married your high-school sweetheart or just looked one more time before you stepped out into the street ... or didn't. But you don't know; you can't possibly know.

I think it's a big mistake to decide too soon what you're going to do with your life.

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Why have I had this life? If I knew, I wouldn't have done it.

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both.

Sometimes I think I'm real predictable to myself and other times... you always wonder, Is this really what I wanted to do? Did I make a mistake? Should I be doing something else?

I don't always trust my own instincts. It would be nice if someone else would tell me what I should do with my life!

Some of our important choices have a time line. If we delay a decision, the opportunity is gone forever. Sometimes our doubts keep us from making a choice that involves change. Thus an opportunity may be missed.

When in life do you get a black and white printout that says this is what you should do? It just doesn't happen.

I missed a lot of decisions. At the time of making such a decision, there was no doubt in my mind as to its correctness. However, a second or two later I felt that I erred and wished I could change my original ruling.

When I got to 40 or so... I had the sense when I looked back over my life I would actually see a mess of decisions, a few of which I had thought about, some of which I had sort of stumbled on, and many that I had no control over whatsoever.

How many crossroads are you allowed to have in life? I seem to have a lot of crossroads. I think maybe I crossed back across the same road too often.

I'm plagued with indecision in my life. I can't figure out what to order in a restaurant.

As you get older, you start to really ask questions like, 'Is this the road I should be walking down?,' because every decision seems more final, as you get older.

I always thought it better to allow myself to doubt before I decided, than to expose myself to the misery, after I had decided, of doubting whether I had decided rightly and justly.

I'm not a big believer in second-guessing decisions.

I think when you are young and you don't really know what you want in life, you can commit to something and think at the time it is right.

In the space between yes and no, there's a lifetime. It's the difference between the path you walk and the one you leave behind; it's the gap between who you thought you could be and who you really are; its the legroom for the lies you'll tell yourself in the future.

I had two thoughts about it. One was I could do that, and the next one was I'll never get to do that.

Who's to say what would have happened if I had trusted my instincts and moved to New York like I thought I would.

Why did I come here? I thought. Why is it always only a matter of choosing between something bad and something worse?

I hesitated for all the right reasons. And I accepted for all the wrong ones.

Doubt is a very important trait. Out of doubt comes thinking, decisions, choices. We learn stuff. We learn to make mistakes. Or not to.