Quotes from Sarah Dessen

And while it is hard enough to take away something that makes a person happy it's even more difficult when it seems like it's the only thing.

The point,' Ms. Conyers continued, is that no word had one specific definition. Maybe in the dictionary, but not in real life.

Because it is so hard, in any life, to believe in what you can't fully understand.

Welcome to adulthood, she said. It sucks as much as high school.

You don't want the best of times to be just one thing, forever. You have to have a lot of bests of times, each one topping the last. You know?

But as i lay there, it only seemes like silence filling my ears. And the thing was, it was so freaking loud.

Can she be divorced? I asked. And famous for her commercials and ideas? She can be anything, Boo told me, and this is what I remember most, her freckled face so solemn, as if she knew she was the first to tell me. And so can you.

You can't just plan a moment when things get back on track, just as you can't plan the moment you lose your way in the first place. But standing there alone on the landing, I thought of Grandma Halley and how she'd held me close against her lap as we watched the sky together. I'd always thought I couldn't remember, but suddenly in that moment, I closed my eyes and saw the comet, finally, brilliant and impossible, stretching above me across the sky.

But for now, I just sat there on the bed and listened to my song. The one that had been written for me by a man who knew me not at all, now sung by the one who knew me best.

There was no short answer to this; like so much else, it was a long story. But what really makes any story real is knowing someone will hear it. And understand.

As I rolled over, stretching out, my only thought was to go back to the dream I'd been having, which I couldn't remember, other than that it had been good, in that distant, hopeful way unreal things can be.

But now, I was beginning to wonder if you didn't always have to choose between turning away for good or rushing in deeper. In the moments that it really counts, maybe it's enough- more than enough, even- just to be there. ~Ruby, pg 399

It's not always so simple, Haven. Sometimes there isn't a good guy and a bad guy. Sometimes even the ones you want to believe turn out to be liars.

That was just it. You never knew what lay ahead; the future was one thing that could never be broken, because it had not yet had the chance to be anything. One minute you're walking through a dark woods, alone, and then the landscape shifts, and you see it. Something wondrous and unexpected, almost magical, that you never would have found had you not kept going. Like a new friend who feels like an old one, or a memory you'll never forget. Maybe even a carousel.

This true difference in me now: I had these experiances, these tales, more of this life. So maybe it wasn't the fairy tale. But those stories weren't real anyway. Mine were.

Family isnt about blood relationships, its about the meaning behind them. I relize now that sharing chromosoms is not the only way to having a family, its about the friendship behind it.

I'd only met him once, at the mall. He was tall, with a big floppy shock of blond hair he was always getting out of his face by jerking his head suddenly to the side, whiplash-style. Rina found this incredibly sexy. It made me nervous. - Caitlin about Jeff

And all that pink. It's like a giant vagina in there

I just think that some things are meant to be broken, imperfect, chaotic. It's the universe's way of providing contrast, ya know? [...] If everything was always smooth and perfect, you'd get too used to that. You have to have a little bit of disorganization now and then, otherwise, you'll never really enjoy it when things go right.

Well, I said finally, knowing he was waiting, you make me laugh. He nodded. And? You're pretty good-looking. Pretty good-looking? I called you beautiful. You want to be beautiful? I asked him. Are you saying I'm not?

You're not a sucker. You're just nice. You give people the benefit of the doubt.

If he'd been any other boy, and this was any other world, I would have kissed him. Nothing could have stopped me.

Maybe we were all destined to just keep doing the same stupid things, over and over again, never really learning a single thing.

Just like that, with one phone call, she was a daughter again.