Quotes from Rachel Cohn

In the future, I decided I would tackle the solitude thing more enthusiastically, so long as solitude meant I could also walk in the park and pet a few dogs and pass them treats.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat animals.

The scene is very Sopranos meets Rent.

I inspect the notebook of CDs laying on the floor. There's the usual suspects in there, Green Day and The Clash and The Smiths, yeah, but there's also Ella and Frank, even Dino, some Curtis Mayfield and Minor Threat and Dusty Springfield and Belle & Sebastian

love is love, attraction is what it is, and why should the arbitrary assignment of genital parts determine whether or not you want to be with a person?

I haven't been able to reach her. And if I can't reach her, there's no way to keep her from being lost.

Well, I've been corresponding with a complete stranger in a notebook, telling him my innermost feelings and thoughts and then blindly going to mystery places where he dares me to go….

What an idiot Santa is for flying around alone. Because who would want to travel the world without another person's heartbeat beside him?

I always hoped that after the prince found Cinderella and they rode away in their magnificent carriage, after a few miles she turned to him and said, Could you drop me off down the road please? Now that I've finally escaped my life of horrific abuse, I'd like to see something of the world, you know?... I'll catch back up with you later, Prince, once I've found my own way.

I hope I never love someone so much that they could hurt me the way Langston was hurt, so wounded all he could do was cry and mope around the house and ask me to make him peanut butter and banana sandwiches with the crusts cut off, then play Boggle with him, which of course I always did, because I usually do whatever Langston wants me to do.

I've never kissed anyone for real, in a romantic way, before. I hadn't lied to the drag-on lady. I don't think my pillow counts. (Should I confess this to Snarl in the notebook? Full disclosure, so he had a fair chance to run? (Nah.)

Why do girls always fall for guys with the attention span of drosophila?

While my mind plays through the information I've compiled about him so far on this night, my mouth is talking stupid fucking Marshalls because my head is still getting around Nick's words about tikkun olam: Maybe it isn't that we're supposed to find the pieces and put them back together. Maybe we're the pieces.

But, you see, that's the luxury of being a lout—you get to be selective about when you care and when you don't. The rest of us get stuck when your care goes shallow.

Wearing a hijab is exactly what makes me a feminist. It's freedom of choice. My choice. It's a modesty that expresses humility and respect. It's a reminder of my community. It's a reminder to believe in myself and what I stand for. What's more feminist than that?

I know there was no God waiting for her, because no God could have let her find Him this soon.

Two Boots makes weird Cajun-flavored pizzas. Not for me and my sensitive digestive system.

She told me if I clean all the ashes out of the grate, then I'll be able to help my sisters get ready for the ball.

People who want things to be perfect are always impossible to please. But

It's definitely worth something," I said. "A lot. We still don't know each other, right? And I'll admit—I thought it might be best if we kept it all to the page, passed that notebook back and forth until we were ninety. But clearly that wasn't meant to be. And who am I to blow against the wind?

My family lives in that building now, along with Grandpa in the fourth-floor "penthouse" apartment, as he calls the converted space that was once an attic studio.

all for the love of a gerbil.

Mrs. Basil E.

That's funny. I've always liked Naomi's version of me the best. I'm always much more interesting when she talks about me.