Quotes from Jennifer Niven

I wanted to write something tough, hard, sad, but funny.

Actually, standing next to you makes it feel as high as Everest.

I grew out of my clothes because, it turns out, growing fourteen inches in a summer is easy. It's growing out of a label that's hard.

One of them, at least. Look at it." I look. "That is one straight-up, upstanding, powerful word. Unique, original, and kind of stealthy because it doesn't really sound like what it is. It's a word that surprises you and makes you think, Oh. All right then. It commands respect, but it's also modest. Not like 'monument' or 'tower.' Ã¢â'¬Â He shakes his head. "Pretentious bastards.

I thought of the pieces of me I'd left behind, a piece here, a piece there, scattered like bread crumbs. How much of me was left?

Up close like this, I can see that her skin is smooth and clear except for two freckles on her right cheek,and her eyes are gray-green that makes me think of fall.It's the eyes that get me.They are large an arresting,as if she sees everything.As warm as they are,they are busy,no-bullshit eyes,the kind that can look right into you..

Besides,in that instant we went plowing through the guardrail, my words died too.

The bad moments always have a way of coming around again, way too soon.

But does forever have a built-in ending...?

It's the kind of smile you smile when you're thinking someone over and trying to decide how you feel about them.

In that moment, I'm thankful I'm not a parent and I wonder if I ever will be. What a terrible feeling to love someone and not be able to help them. Actually, I know exactly how that feels.

But the great thing about this life of ours is that you can be someone different to everybody.

Just like I will decide my life. No more waiting for other people to decide things for me. I'm writing it right now.

Which of my feelings are real? Which of the mes is me?

I remember her smile and her laugh when I was my best self and she looked at me like I could do no wrong and was whole. I remember how she looked at me the same way even when I wasn't.

I take a good long look at her. I know life well enough to know you can't count on things staying around or standing still, no matter how much you want them to. You can't stop people from dying. You can't stop them from going away. You can't stop yourself from going away either. I know myself well enough to know that no one else can keep you awake or keep you from sleeping. That's all on me too. But man, I like this girl.

As long as you live, there's always something waiting; and even if it's bad, what can you do? You can't stop living.

But I bring it up to let you know that this is the way I feel right now. Like Pluto and Jupiter are aligned with the earth and I'm floating." In a minute, she says, "You're so weird, Finch. But that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me.

But I can tell you what Libby's eyes look like. They are like lying in the grass under the sky on a summer day. You're blinded by the sun, but you can feel the ground beneath you, so as much as you think you could go flying off, you know you won't. You're warmed from the inside and from the outside, and you can still feel that warmth on your skin when you walk away.

And sometimes I say and do things without thinking. People don't like that.

But that isn't why. The why is that none of it matters. Not school, not cheerleading, not boyfriends or friends or parties or creative writing programs or... It's all just time filler until we die.

And then I go up to my room, climb onto a chair, and contemplate the mechanics of hanging.

There's no rush of having survived, only emptiness, and lungs that need air, and wet hair sticking to my face.

If there was one thing I hated in this world, it was folks who told you that you couldn't do something.