“
Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
I'll fight it. I'll fight it for you. Don't you worry about me, Hazel Grace. I'm okay. I'll find a way to hang around and annoy you for a long time.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Tell me my copy is missing the last twenty pages or something.
Hazel Grace, tell me I have not reached the end of this book.
OH MY GOD DO THEY GET MARRIED OR NOT OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS?!
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Thank you for explaining that my eye cancer isn't going to make me deaf. I feel so fortunate that an intellectual giant like yourself would deign to operate on me.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up," he said.
"And it is my privilege and my responsibility to ride all the way up with you," I said.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Augustus, perhaps you’d like to share your fears with the group.”
“My fears?”
“Yes.”
“I fear oblivion,” he said without a moment’s pause. “I fear it like the proverbial blind man who’s afraid of the dark.”
“Too soon,” Isaac said, cracking a smile.
“Was that insensitive?” Augustus asked. “I can be pretty blind to other people’s feelings.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
I fell in love like you would fall asleep: slowly and then all at once.
”
”
John Green
“
You should see it. V for Vendetta I mean.
"I'll look it up."
No. With Me. At my house. Now
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
the world wasn't made for us, we were made for the world
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Maybe 'Okay' will be our 'always'...
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
its a metephor, see: you put the killing thing right between your teeth but you dont give it the power to do its killing.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Do you have a Wish?' he asked, referring to this organization, The Genie Foundation, which is in the business of granting sick kids one wish.
'No' I said. 'I used my Wish pre-Miracle.'
'What'd you do?'
I sighed loudly. 'I was thirteen,' I said.
'Not Disney,' he said.
I said nothing.
'You did not go to Disney World.'
I said nothing.
'HAZEL GRACE!' he shouted. 'You did not use your one dying Wish to go to Disney World with your parents.'
'Also Epcot Center,' I mumbled.
'Oh, my God,' Augustus said. 'I can't believe I had a crush on a girl with such cliché wishes.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
The food was so good that with each passing course, our conversation devolved further into fragmented celebrations of its deliciousness:
'I want this dragon carrot risotto to become a person so I can take it to Las Vegas and marry it.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
He specialized in the murder of dreams, Hazel Grace...
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
He flipped himself onto his side and kissed me. "You're so hot," I said, my hand still on his leg.
"I'm starting to think you have an amputee fetish," he answered, still kissing me. I laughed.
"I have an Augustus Waters fetish," I explained.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
He shook his head, just looking at me.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing," he said.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Augustus half smiled. "Because you're beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence.
”
”
John Green
“
I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
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.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
The thought of you being removed from the rotation is not funny to me.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Lonley, Vaguely pedophilic swing set seeks the butts of children.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Nothing,” I said. “I’m just…” I couldn’t finish the sentence, didn’t know how to. “I’m just very, very fond of you.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
As I recall, you promised to CALL when you finished the book, not text.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Hi, I’m at the Speedway at Eighty-sixth and Ditch, and I need an ambulance. The great love of my life has a malfunctioning G-tube.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Omnia Cellula e Cellula
”
”
John Green
“
There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities... I cannot tell you how grateful I am for our little infinity. You gave me forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Augustus Waters was sitting on the front step as we pulled into the driveway. He was holding a bouquet of bright orange tulips just beginning to bloom.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Sure, anyone can name fourteen dead people. But we're disorganized mourners, so a lot of people end up remembering Shakespeare, and no one ends up remembering the person he wrote Sonnet Fifty-five about.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
I can only hope,” Julie said, turning back to Gus, “they grow into the kind of thoughtful, intelligent young men you’ve become.”
I resisted the urge to audibly gag. “He’s not that smart,” I said to Julie.
“She’s right. It’s just that most really good-looking people are stupid, so I exceed expectations.”
“Right, it’s primarily his hotness,” I said.
“It can be sort of blinding,” he said.
“It actually did blind our friend Isaac,” I said.
“Terrible tragedy, that. But can I help my own deadly beauty?”
“You cannot.”
“It is my burden, this beautiful face.”
“Not to mention your body.”
“Seriously, don’t even get me started on my hot bod. You don’t want to see me naked, Dave. Seeing me naked actually took Hazel Grace’s breath away,” he said, nodding toward the oxygen tank.
“Okay, enough,” Gus’s dad said.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Idiotically, it occurred to me that my pink underwear didn’t match my purple bra, as if boys even notice such things.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
When was the last good kiss you had?
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
so if the inevitability of oblivion worries you, than I suggest you ignore it. God knows that's what the rest of the world does.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
I want more numbers that I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I can not tell you thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Thank you for letting me hijack your wish', I said.
'Thank you for wearing that dress which is like whoa," he said.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Van Houten,
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 invented 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 blue 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.” 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.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
I'm starting to think you have an amputee fetish" he answered, still kissing me. I laughed.
"I have an Augustus Waters fetish" I explained.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Algunos infinitos son más grandes que otros infinitos.
”
”
Bajo la Misma Estrella
“
I nodded. I liked Augustus Waters. I really, really, really liked him. I liked the way his story ended with someone else. I liked his voice. I liked that he took existentially fraught free throws. I liked that he was a tenured professor in the Department of Slightly Crooked Smiles with a dual appointment in the Department of Having a Voice That Made My Skin Feel More Like Skin. And I liked that he had two names. I’ve always liked people with two names, because you get to make up your mind what you call them: Gus or Augustus? Me, I was always just Hazel, univalent Hazel.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
If I could just stay alive for a week, I’d know the unwritten secrets of Anna’s mom and the Dutch Tulip Guy.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
And then I crawled into his unmade bed, wrapping myself in his comforter like a cocoon, surrounding myself with his smell. I took out my cannula so I could smell better, breathing him and out, the scent fading even as I lay there, my chest burning until I couldn't distinguish among the pains.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
I can't go to Amsterdam. One of my doctors thinks it's a bad idea."
He was quiet for a second. "God," he said. "I should've just paid for it myself. Should've just taken you straight from the Funky Bones to Amsterdam."
"But then I would've had a probably fatal episode of deoxygenation in Amsterdam, and my body would have been shipped home in the cargo hold of an airplane," I said.
"Well, yeah," he said. "But before that, my grand romantic gesture would have totally gotten me laid."
I laughed pretty hard, hard enought that I felt where the chest tube had been.
"You laugh because it's true," he said.
I laughed again.
"It's true, isn't it!"
"Probably not," I said, and then after a moment added, "although you never know.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Abraham Maslow, I present to you Augustus Waters, whose existential curiosity dwarfed that of his well-fed, well-loved, healthy brethren.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
My name is Hazel. Augustus Waters was the great star-crossed love of my life. Ours was an epic love story, and I won't be able to get more than a sentence into it without disappearing into a puddle of tears. Gus knew. Gus knows. I will not tell you our love story, because-like all real love stories-it will die with us, as it should. I'd hoped that he'd be eulogizing me, because there's no one I'd rather have..." I started crying. "Okay, how not to cry. How am I-okay. Okay."
I took a few deep breaths and went back to the page. "I can't talk about our love story, so I will talk about math. I am not a mathematician, but I know this: There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a Bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
What a slut time is. She screws with everybody.
”
”
John Green
“
The walk felt long, but I kept telling my lungs to shut up, that they were strong, that they could do this. I could see him as I approached: His hair was parted neatly on the left side in a way that he would have found absolutely horrifying, and his face was plasticized. But he was still Gus. My lanky, beautiful Gus.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Gus, mi amor, no puedo decirte lo agradecida que estoy por nuestro pequeño infinito.Yo no lo cambiaría por nada del mundo. Me diste un para siempre dentro de los días contados, y te lo agradezco.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Cover me!' Augustus said as he jumped out from behind the wall and raced toward the school. Isaac fumbled for his controller and then
started firing while the bullets rained down on Augustus, who was shot once and then twice but still ran, Augustus shouting,'YOU CAN’T KILL MAX MAYHEM!' and with a final flurry of button combinations, he dove onto the grenade, which detonated beneath him. His dismembered body exploded like a geyser and the screen went red. A throaty voice said, 'MISSION FAILURE,' but Augustus seemed to think otherwise as he smiled at his remnants on the screen. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a cigarette, and shoved it between his teeth.
'Saved the kids' he said.
'Temporarily' I pointed out.
'All salvation is temporary' Augustus shot back. 'I bought them a minute. Maybe that’s the minute that buys them an hour, which is the hour that buys them a year. No one’s gonna buy them forever, Hazel Grace, but my life bought them a minute. And that’s not nothing.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
It's all good, Hazel Grace. But just be clear, when I thought I saw Caroline Mathers' ghost in support group, I was not entirely happy. I was staring, but I wasn't yearning, if you know what I mean.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Augustus Waters-style, I read him the letter of lieu of saying hello.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Oh, I wouldn't mind, hazel grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.
”
”
Augustus Waters The Fault in Our Stars
“
when the scientists of the future show up at my house with robot eyes and tell me to try them on, I will tell them to screw off, because I don't want to see a world without him.
”
”
John Green
“
Lidewij,
I believe Agustus Waters sent a few pages from a notebok to Peter Van Houten shortly before he (Augustus) died. It is very important to me that someone reads these pages. I want to read them, of course, but maybe they weren't written for me. Regardless, they must be read. They must be. Can you help?
Your friend,
Hazel Grace Lancaster
"She responded late that afternoon."
Dear Hazel,
I did not know that Augustus had died. I am very sad to hear this news. He was such a very charismatic young man. I am so sorry, and so sad.
I have not spoken to Peter since I resigned that day we met.
It is very late at night here, but I am going over to his house first thing in the morning to find this letter and force him to read it.
Mornings were his best time,
usually.
Your friend,
Lidewij Vliegenthart
p.s. I am bringing my boyfriend in case we have to physically retsrain Peter.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Augustus: It's a metaphor
Hazel: You choose your behaviours based on their metaphorical resonances...
Augustus: Oh yes, I'm a big believer in metaphor, Hazel Grace
*taps car window*
Hazel: I'm going to a movie with Augustus Waters, please record the next episodes of the ANTM marathon for me
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Dear Mr. Peter Van Houten
(c/o Lidewij Vliegenthart),
My name is Hazel Grace Lancaster. My friend Augustus Waters, who read An Imperial Affliction at my recommendationtion, just received an email from you at this address. I hope you will not mind that Augustus shared that email with me.
Mr. Van Houten, I understand from your email to Augustus that you are not planning to publish any more books. In a way, I am disappointed, but I'm also relieved: I never have to worry whether your next book will live up to the magnificent perfection of the original. As a three-year survivor of Stage IV cancer, I can tell you that you got everything right in An Imperial Affliction. Or at least you got me right. Your book has a way of telling me what I'm feeling before I even feel it, and I've reread it dozens of times.
I wonder, though, if you would mind answering a couple questions I have about what happens after the end of the novel. I understand the book ends because Anna dies or becomes too ill to continue writing it, but I would really like to mom-wether she married the Dutch Tulip Man, whether she ever has another child, and whether she stays at 917 W. Temple etc. Also, is the Dutch Tulip Man a fraud or does he really love them? What happens to Anna's friends-particularly Claire and Jake? Do they stay that this is the kind of deep and thoughtful question you always hoped your readers would ask-what becomes of Sisyphus the Hamster? These questions have haunted me for years-and I don't know long I have left to get answers to them.
I know these are not important literary questions and that your book is full of important literally questions, but I would just really like to know.
And of course, if you ever do decide to write anything else, even if you don't want to publish it. I'd love to read it. Frankly, I'd read your grocery lists.
Yours with great admiration,
Hazel Grace Lancaster (age 16)
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
I used to think that it would be fun to live in a cloud
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Okay.'
'Okay.'
"Maybe 'Okay' will be our 'Always'."
"Okay.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Patience, grasshopper
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
I'm in love with you," he said quietly.
"Augustus," I said.
"I am," he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you.
”
”
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
“
Augustus Waters–style, I read him the letter in lieu of saying hello. “Wow,” he said. “I know, right?” I said. “How am I going to get to Amsterdam?” “Do you have a Wish?” he asked, referring to this organization, The Genie Foundation, which is in the business of granting sick kids one wish. “No,” I said. “I used my Wish pre-Miracle.” “What’d you do?” I sighed loudly. “I was thirteen,” I said. “Not Disney,” he said. I said nothing. “You did not go to Disney World.” I said nothing. “Hazel GRACE!” he shouted. “You did not use your one dying Wish to go to Disney World with your parents.” “Also Epcot Center,” I mumbled.
”
”
Anonymous