Quotes from Sarah Dessen

Too many locks, not enough keys.

Look, the point is there's no way to be a hundred percent sure about anyone or anything. So you're left with a choice. Either hope for the best or just expect the worst.

I think my mother characters have changed a lot since Sasha was born, just because I understand what a hard job it is now, and I'm coming at it from another angle - like you just love and care about this person so much, and just want to protect them from everything.

You're not supposed to have it all figured out in high school. If you knew it all, and it was the best, it's all downhill from there.

Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that's what makes you strong.

Behind the camera, I was invisible. When I lifted it up to my eye it was like I crawled into the lens, losing myself there. and everything else fell away.

There comes a time in every life when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your heart.

But it was okay not to fit in everywhere, as long as you did somewhere.

Look. We both know life is short, Macy. Too short to waste a single second with anyone who doesn't appreciate and value you.

I can say I made a lot of mistakes, but I don't regret things. Because at least I didn't spend a life standing outside, wondering what living would be like.

I just started to put texting and phones in my books. I want my books to be read 20 years from now; I don't want them to be dated.

It was just one of those things, I said, You know, that just happen. You don't think or plan. You just do it.

No matter how much time has passed, these things still affect us and the world we live in. If you don't pay attention to the past, you'll never understand the future. It's all linked together.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda. It's so easy in the past tense.

I don't believe in failure, because simply by saying you've failed, you've admitted you attempted. And anyone who attempts is not a failure. Those who truly fail in my eyes are the ones who never try at all. The ones who sit on the couch and whine and moan and wait for the world to change for them.

The fate of your heart is your choice and no one else gets a vote

But I'd long ago learned not to be picky in farewells. They weren't guaranteed or promised. You were lucky, more than blessed, if you got a good-bye at all.

Wherever you will go, I will let you down, But this lullaby goes on.

Life is full of screwups. You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existance.

What did it feel like, I wondered, to love someone that much? So much that you couldn't even control yourself when they came close, as if you might just break free of whatever was holding you and throw yourself at them with enough force to easily overwhelm you both.

There are some things in this world you rely on, like a sure bet. And when they let you down, shifting from where you've carefully placed them, it shakes your faith, right where you stand.

What you have to decide... is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, would this be how you'd want to have spent it? Listen, the truth is, nothing is guaranteed. You know that more than anybody. So dont be afraid. Be alive.

We can't expect everybody to be there for us, all at once. So it's a lucky thing that really, all you need is someone.

I wondered which was harder, in the end. The act of telling, or who you told it to. Or maybe if, when you finally got it out, the story was really all that mattered.