Quotes from David Levithan

I can tell there are lots of thoughts she's considering, but I have no idea what they are. Falling in love with someone doesn't mean you know any better how they feel. It only means you know how you feel.

It's only in the finer points that it gets complicated and contentious, the inability to realize that no matter what our religion or gender or race or geographic background, we all have about 98 percent in common with each other.

There is a part of childhood that is childish, and a part that is sacred.

We do not start as dust. We do not end as dust. We make more than dust. That's all we ask of you. Make more than dust

He smiles, and I feel better. I hate that his smile makes me feel better, because that implies I'm weak, that I need the approval of others to feel okay about myself.

You were the sun, and I wasn't even the moon.

We are who we are, I said. And we'll be who we'll be. A book can make us feel that, but it can't invent that. It's already inside us.

I found the strength to see her, to cheer her, to not look away. It was taking a toll, but it was a toll I willingly paid.

Waking is hard, and waking is glorious. We watch as you stir, then as you stumble out of your beds. We know that gratitude is the last thing on your mind. But you should be grateful.

One of the protestor's signs catches my eye. HOMOSEXUALITY IS THE DEVIL'S WORK, it says. And once again, I think about how people use the devil as an alias for the things they fear. The cause and effect is backward. The devil doesn't make anyone do anything. People just do things and blame the devil after.

I know the odds are all against us and I know you feel this way too So I know I would rather die trying to know if I could mean something to you

So finally, as a pair of twentysomething men passed by holding hands, Austin said, Hey, that could be us in ten years. And Hugo said, Or ten months. And Austin said, Or ten days. And Hugo said, Or ten minutes. And Austin said, Or ten seconds. Then they each counted to ten, and held hands for the rest of the day.

I feel as much belief in her as I do in God—I find faith in human perseverance, even as the universe throws challenge after challenge our way.

She is always there for him, and he must like that. His friends like her, and he must like that, too. But that's not the same as love. She has been hanging on to the hope of him for so long that she doesn't realize there isn't anything left to hope for. They don't have silences together; they have noise. -A

Soon we are singing at the top of our lungs. A pop song that's as substantial as a balloon, but lifts us in the same way when we sing it.

A lot of the time, love feels like it's about figuring out what the other person wants and giving it over. Sometimes that's impossible. But sometimes it's pretty simple.

We come to a corner where there are a few people protesting the festivities. I don't understand this at all. It's like a protesting the fact that some people are red-haired. In my experience, desire is desire, love is love. I have never fallen in love with a gender. I have fallen for individuals. I know this is hard for people to do, but I don't understand why it's so hard, when it's so obvious.

And as we drift into sleep, I feel something I've never felt before. A closeness that isn't merely physical. A connection that defies the fact that we've only just met. A sensation that can only come from the most euphoric of feelings: belonging -A

Here were shadows on the window blinds of guests assembling, and there a group of pretty girls, hooded and Ugg-booted and all chattering at once, tripping off lightly to some near neighbor's house where woe would befall the single guy who saw them enter—they were artful witches, and they knew it.

Rhiannon finds me like that, in the selfless reading space that the mind loans out.

It had never occurred to me that a person could know all the right things to say and deploy them to get what she wanted, without having to mean any of it.

Once you experience enormity, it lingers everywhere you look, and wants to be every word you say -A

Nothing ever happens on this globe for good without some people having their fill of laughter at first.

We fall asleep in my bed, a tangle of three. It is the sweetest feeling, to be nestled between the two of them, their smiles fading into sleep, their arms enfolding me and each other. This is the antidote.