Quotes from David Levithan

Bad Girl! She chided. I'm pretty sure Boris is a boy, I said. Oh, I know, Mrs. Basil E. assured me. I just like to keep him confused, Then she and Boris headed off with my future.

Do you really exist? I blurt out. Not at all, he says with a smile, I've known that since I was four.

I have spent years of my life sitting in my room, creating defenses of cynicism, darkness, and bleakness. Jed's friendship is the skeleton key to my fortress. He disarms me every time.

My mind was getting away from reality again, and I reluctantly drew it back in. There is no getting away from reality.

It's up to you, not fate. True. But it was also up to Lily. That was the trickiest part.

So there I was, hovering above everything I knew. I had made it somewhere special, and I'd gotten there all on my own. Nobody had given it to me. Nobody had told me to do it. I'd climbed and climbed and climbed, and this was my reward. To watch over the world, and to be alone with myself. That, I found, was what I needed.

avant-garde , adj. This was after Alisa' show, the reverse-blackface rendition of Gone With the Wind , including songs from the Empire Records soundtrack and an interval of nineteenth-century German poetry, recited with a lisp. What does avant-garde mean, anyway? I asked. I believe it translates as favor to your friends , you replied.

I realize that two years is not a long time. I realize that even ten years is not a long time. But when it seems insurmountable, I need reminders like this that you can get used to it. That it can take on the comfort of the right choice. That lasting things do, in fact, last.

Slowly would be better than not at all.

I had a sense then of how if we truly understood how many of the unimportant things we do will end up outliving us, we'd never be able to go on.

These things do not matter except that they matter to us. We have given them meaning In the same way we have given each other a meaning.

If your beauty is unquestioned, so many other things can go unquestioned as well.

The boy I just kissed is talking to my father. The boy I want to kiss again is waiting for my mother to serve pancakes. I must fight the urge to freak.

But there's something about her—the cities on her shoes, the flash of bravery, the unnecessary sadness—that makes me want to know what the word will be when it stops being a sound. I have spent years meeting people without ever knowing them, and on this morning, in this place, with this girl, I feel the faintest pull of wanting to know. And in a moment of either weakness or bravery on my own part, I decide to follow it. I decide to find out more.

why is it upset? shouldn't it be downset?

Why are there so many people out here?' Boomer asked as we bobbed and weaved roughly forward. 'Christmas shopping.' I explained. 'Already? Isn't it early to returning things?' I really had no sense of how his mind worked.

He never wears a watch (his own rebellion against time, against watching).

We're librarians, sir. And we will not let you check out this future librarian unless your prove to us that you'll take good care of him when he's in your home.

It's just nice to see you out from his shadow. Because things don't grow in the shadows, you know? So it was frustrating to see you standing there...and really cool to see you step out of it. I don't know who this new guy is, but make sure when you're with him, you're not standing in his shadow. Stand where everyone can see you.

When I say, Be my lover, I don't mean, Let's have an affair. I don't mean Sleep with me. I don't mean, Be my secret. I want us to go back down to that root. I want you to be the one who loves me. I want to be the one who loves you.

You are not alone.

The older you get, the wiser you are - this is true. But you also question what use this wisdom is.y

As sisters, they probably have closer to 99 percent in common, but they're not about to recognize that. They'd rather fight over what kind of pet they're going to get … It's an argument for its own sake.

luckily, tiny texts me every five minutes or so. i don't know how he does it without getting caught in class. maybe he hides the phone in the folds of his stomach or something.