Quotes from Sarah Dessen

Attention from a cute boy-you could power the world with it.

Family isn't something that's supposed to be static or set. People marry in, divorce out. They're born, they die. It's always evolving, turning into something else.

I hope so. But that's just the thing, right? Family isn't something that's supposed to be static or set. People marry in, divorce out. They're born, they die. It's always evolving, turning into something else.

Suddenly, I had a flash of him in the car that day, drawing in his breath. Plus the staring at lunch in the green, and the weird way he'd acted at the Vista 10. Oh, God, I thought, finally getting it. Nate was right. He liked me. This was just what I needed.

Look, everyone mourns at their own pace. Maybe you're just a little bit ahead of her, but she'll get to you eventually. The important thing is that you keep trying to talk to each other, even if it's difficult at first. It gets easier. I promise.

But I was sure of something, too: it's a lot easier to be lost than found. It's the reason we're always searching, and rarely discovered—so many locks, not enough keys.

But sometimes, we just have to be happy with what people can offer us. Even if it's not what we want, at least it's something.

My mother had always been the point that I calibrated myself against. In knowing where she was, I could always locate myself, as well.

In a marriage, it's not just whether you see the glass as half-full or half-empty. It's whether you see it those two ways, or any of the other endless fractions that are possible.

If you'd asked me, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. But of course, nobody had asked me.

But I knew what it said. That I could be imperfect, but only so much. Human, but only within limits. And honest, to her or to myself, never.

Life was going on. I didn't even have a scar, this time, to remind me of what happened. But sometimes, when I glanced sideways at Rogerson in the car, or right before I fell asleep at night, I would have a sudden flash of his face again, how it had literally changed right before my eyes. And even as life settled back to normal, and we never discussed it, there was a part of me waiting, always braced and ready for him to do it again.

It was easier to just float along as if sleeping that whole first part of the year, going through the motions and staring like one of those ghostly dolls, waiting for something to wake me up.

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 befire 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

Oh, ye of little faith," he said cheerfully. "I'm just getting started.

accepting help doesn't have to mean giving up control

But being nice wasn't as easy as it seemed, especially when the rest of the world could be so mean.

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.

Truth: I was having trouble keeping up. Not just with this conversation, but the people actually having it. I'd spent so much time alone lately that I'd forgotten what it was like to be relaxed in another person's company. I liked it.

Embrace the messy and when things do come together just right, you'll always be pleasantly surprised.

But that was the problem with having the answers. It was only after you gave them that you realized they sometimes weren't what people wanted to hear.

It's never something huge that changes everything, but instead the tiniest of details, irrevocably tweaking the balance of the universe while you're busy focusing on the big picture.

I closed my eyes and saw not the flat black of the dark but something else. Something brighter, closer to light, shining small but ever steady. More than enough to go on as a part of me pushed up and out, finally, to meet it there.

girl with blonde hair wearing heavy dark eyeliner