Quotes from Dorothy Koomson

Whe you're so infatuated with someone like I was with Drew,it's very difficult to see them for what they really are

It;s all gone. My life is all gone and I can't work out why. I keep looking back over my life...and I can't work out where it all went so wrong. What I did to make this happen.

Putting everything on hold to achieve the one thing you think will make you happy will actually mean that you're miserable along the way to getting there, and when you get there, you might find that the thing wanted doesn't make you as happy as you thought it would. Or worse, you've completely forgotten how to be happy.

If I had a girl, I'd want her to know that she can be anything she wants and that she doesn't have to rely on her looks or clothes or hair or make-up to define who she is or to get respect from other people. I'd want her to know she has a right to be respected or noticed because she was born. I'm not talking about all the girl power nonsense, I'm talking about my girl growing up knowing she has the right to be treated decently simply because she was born.

Se ouviram, sabem que só me resta fazer uma coisa: deitar-me aqui à beira-mar, na minha praia coberta de pétalas de rosa e entregar-me ao meu sono interminável.

É o que faz a mente humana, descobre provas para apoiar aquilo em que acreditamos.

She fizzed when she smiled.

I'd taken a deep breath before asking about his relationship history. It was the start of this new part of our relationship, and the end of the fun we'd been having. Reality had just entered our world.

Sometimes living with him is like being told to hold my breath as a matter of life and death - but never being told when to let that breath out. So I don't know what to do for the best. To let out that breath and suffer the consequences or to keep holding on no matter what it does to me.

I had no illusions at all that I was beautiful, pretty or even able to attract the right sort of attention from men

For the first time ever we are bound together instead of miles apart in the same place.

There is something I want to do. But it's something to work towards, not something that should be handed to me on a plate. What's the point of doing something if you know you've got someone to rescue you if you fail? I like to work hard at something and then to reap the rewards. I take pride in what I do. What's the point if I know my rich husband will bail me out if I mess up?

But" doesn't make an apology, it makes an excuse of your behaviour

We all have choices. Every single one of us. Some of us are too blind to see them. Some of us don't make use of them. Some of us don't use them correctly. And some of us are completely robbed of them because we are trapped in a situation we can't escape. We still have choices, though.

That's what came from having romance in your soul, I suppose. You believed in things like love at first sight and perfect presents.

You can't stay here any more. My fears have been irrational and they've forced me to make unwise decisions and accept the unacceptable.

Men like Jack didn't want to go out with a real woman - they wanted the idea they had of what a woman was. That was probably why I intrigued Jack: I wasn't cute and cuddly, and every time there'd been an opportunity to be a 'lady' I hadn't taken it - I'd been nothing like the idea he probably had of womanliness in his head. That presented a challenge. And if there was anything men like Jack craved more than a demure woman, it was a challenging woman to tame.

Are you always this honest?" "Almost never

Crying was an acceptable outlet, even if it made you feel raw and empty inside, it was still better than that build up of resentment that grew from not letting your emotions out.

I want to tell her that this isn't 'love'. that 'love' doesn't stay the same, it changes like we do, it is shaped by our experiences, by what we do, who we meet, what we learn. I'd like to explain that falling in love now is not how it'll be forever, and even if you stay with the same boy for the rest of your life, this incarnation of love won't stay the same, it never does.

Preciso desta calma, preciso do nada no caos de tudo.

In the years of my life, nothing extraordinary had happened to me. Not until Jack. Not until this man, this man who could have anyone - who by all accounts had had lots of anyones - had begun to peruse me. His interest in me was so unexpected, and yet felt so right. I did not know why, but unlike anyone before him, he made me feel special, he made me feel like I stood out from all the women in the world. And he made me want to do lots of wild and crazy and extraordinary things.

so are you going to marry me or what?" He smiled that smile that had been making me feel something like drunk these past few months, and I felt all my sensibility and reason start to beat their wings as they prepared to fly away. Again.

I did not know that when you drop a stone of a stupid choice in the pool of your life, it can cause a tidal wave to surge outwards, destroying everyone and everything in its path.