Quotes from E. Lockhart

Noel shook his head. "You think better of this scene than I do, Ruby. Don't you see how fake those girls are? Let it go. Have a laugh about it when you're older. Forget that junk." I wanted to believe him, to skip off to some punk-rock hangout and develop ironic distance and start over in a universe where it didn't matter what any of these people thought about me. But I couldn't. I just loved them.

By now, you know everything about Jackson Clarke, probably way more than anyone on earth wants to hear. This is all I have to add: I still think about him every day. When I see him, my heart jumps up in my chest. I long for him to talk to me, and whenever he even says hello, I feel a thousand times worse than I did before. I wish he was dead. I wish he still liked me.

the way you speak is often more important than anything you have to say.

It's not objective. It's subjective." Katya hooks her bra behind her back. "It's just what you think, not the truth.

I just-I don't want to get involved with you Jackson," I said, the words tumbling out. "You're a nice guy, but then, when it comes down to it-you're not, really.

See?" I said. "That's exactly the person I don't want to be with. And he's always there, underneath all your charm.

And now he was mine and I said we should not let our love be threatened. We should not let the family fall apart. We should not accept an evil we can change. We would stand up against it, would we not? Yes. We should. We would be heroes, even.

F]riendship is a method of castration that doesn't use a sharp object.

Who killed the girls? The dragon? Or their father?

If only she could go back in time, Jule felt, she would be a better person. Or a different person. She would be more herself. Or maybe less herself.

we need you' means my sisters love me, they rely on me, the admire me.

I am so angry. And so happy to see him.

Sex Ed - when I finally got to take it - was all about biology and birth control and nothing about anything that actually goes on between people.

What fun we had, how beautiful we were.

I think I want a guy who eats vegetables. And who isn't so normal. He was just a muffin, you know?

She makes the world seem shiny and sunlit. -Noel

We tossed stones into the water. We just existed.

The white realtor lady asks if I'm adopted—like that's some legitimate, socially appropriate question to ask—and is halfway through a gushy story about her friend's new baby from Korea when I say, "Haven't you ever heard of interracial marriage? It's all the rage in civilized countries," and she shuts up and purses her lips.

Sometimes things are fragile. That's why they're valuable.

I can't even say sorry," she tells me. "There is not even a Scrabble word for how bad I feel.

He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee. All that was there, in the lids of his brown eyes, his smooth skin, his lower lip pushed out. There was coiled energy inside.

Men still walk around like the US of A is a big cake store and all the cake is for them.

The bright red shame of being unloved soaked the grass in front of our house,

She didn't know if she could love her own mangled, strange heart. She wanted someone else to do it for her, to see it beating behind her ribs and to say, I can see your true self. It is there, and it is rare and worthy. I love you.