Quotes from Sarah Dessen

You can't measure love by time put in, but the weight of those moments.

Events conspired to bring you back to where you'd been. It was what you did then that made all the difference: it was all about potential.

It's pretty rare to find someone you actually like to be with in this world. There are a lot of annoying people out there.

When faced with the scariest of things, all you want is to turn away, hide in your own invisible place. But you can't. That's why it's not only important for us to be seen, but to have someone to look for us, as well.

please God I'm begging you.

So don't be afraid. Be alive.

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

Dreams, and plans, and a stark desire to change your life, all on your own. I wanted that too, but I didn't want to have to run away to do it.

Hearing this, I had that feeling again, like the conversation was a pack of wild horses pounding out ahead of me, leaving nothing but dust behind. Trifecta?

feeling and action are always linked

Everyone had a forever, but given a choice, this would be mine.

That was the thing. You just never knew. Forever was so many different things. It was always changing, it was what everything was really all about. It was twenty minutes, or a hundred years, or just this instant, or any instant I wished would last and last. But there was only one truth about forever that really mattered, and that was this: it was happening.

Needing was so easy: it came naturally, like breathing. Being needed by someone else, though, that was the hard part. But as with giving help and accepting it, we had to do both to be made complete - like links overlapping to form a chain, or a lock finding the right key.

Everyone's life shapes them in their own unique way.

Because anyone that can make you feel that bad about yourself is toxic, you know?" "He doesn't make me feel bad about myself," I said, knowing even as my lips formed the words this was exactly what he did. Or what I let him do. It was hard to say. "What you need," Kristy said, "what you deserve, is a guy who adores you for what you are. Who doesn't see you as a project, but a prize. You know?

But mostly, I cried because my life had been going full speed for so long and now it had just stopped, like running right into a big brick wall, knocking the wind and the fight right out of me. And I didn't know if I ever even wanted to get up and start breathing again.

It was as if I was attached to her with a tether, her every movement yanking at me, my own hands reaching to shield her from the dangers of her waving arms.

My point is, Jamie continued, not everything's perfect, especially at the beginning. And it's all right to have a little bit of regret every once in a while. It's when you feel it all the time and can't do anything about it...that's when you get into trouble.

Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder - if not impossible - to lose. (299)

you should never be surprised when people treat you with respect. You should expect it.

Once you love something, you always love it in some way. You have to. It's like, part of you for good

As I crossed the lobby to the boardwalk, all I could think was that regardless of the performance I'd just witnessed, it didn't make you noble to step away from something that wasn't working, even if you thought you were the reason for the malfunction. Especially then. It just made you a quitter. Because if you were the problem, chances were you could also be the solution. The only way to find out was to take another shot. (302)

Everyone can make scrambled eggs, Remy. It's programmed into you at birth, the default setting. Like being able to swim and knowing not to mix pickles with oatmeal. You just know." "My mother," I told him, pushing the cart farther up the aisle as he lagged along beside, taking long, loping steps, "doesn't even like scrambled eggs. She only eats eggs Benedict.

There's a certain sound that can only be made by a group of women. It's not just chatter, or even conversation, but almost a melody of words and exhalations. (315)