Quotes from E. Lockhart

On the other hand, it's like we're three years old. You don't want that scruffy old teddy bear until your friend takes it and starts having a good time with it. Then suddenly it's the cutest bear you've ever seen, and you want to get it away from her.

She confused being sick with being brave, and suffered agonies while imagining she merited praise for it.

I hate it when things are unfinished.

A giant wields a rusty saw. He gloats and hums as he works, slicing through my forehead and into the mind behind it.

So she did not replay, but played the strategist. She retained more power by withholding an answer.

No one here is a criminal. No one is an addict. No one is a failure.

Blood gushed rhythmically from my open wound, then from my eyes, my ears, my mouth. It tasted like salt and failure. The bright red shame of being unloved soaked the grass in front of our house, the bricks of the path, the steps to the porch. My heart spasmed among the peonies like a trout.

I lie in my darkened room. Scavenger birds peck at the oozing matter that leaks from my crushed skull.

You think Tide is better, or All?' 'Which has a prettier box?' I ask. 'I don't want a pretty box. I want a dude box.' Uh-huh,' I deadpan. 'You want a dude box of laundry detergent.' 'Yes, I do.' 'Good luck with that.

She made me act normal. Because I was. Because I could. She told me to breathe and sit up. And I did what she asked. Again.

I am the center of the story now, Jule said to herself. I don't have to weigh very little, wear very little, or have my teeth fixed. I am the center.

My little brother is in rehab. My little brother is in rehab. I feel like these words are written on my arms whenever I push up my sleeves, written on my cheeks whenever they relax out of my fake smile. They want to come out of my mouth, all the time. When I am called upon in class, or when someone says, "Hey, what's up?" - that's what I want to answer. "My little brother's in rehab." But I never do.

Most secret societies—at least those you can read about in books or on the Internet—are collegiate. Or adult... They are like fraternities, only they don't have houses or public identities. In colleges, their members are usually local, not national, but the adult ones tend to be more serious and on a larger scale. We don't actually know what they do. Because they're secret.

It didn't matter that in her heart Frankie knew she was smart and charming. What mattered was that feeling of being expendable. That to Porter, she was a nobody that could easily be replaced by a better model - and the better model wasn't even so great. Which meant Frankie herself was nearly worthless.

But maybe I could be the wacky, unpredictable girl; the kind who always fascinates more conservative men in the movies.

Don't cause distress, she said. Don't remind people of a loss. "Do you understand, Cady? Silence is a protective coating over pain.

She looked the same, looked just like anyone, but she saw the world differently after that. To be a physically powerful woman—it was something. You could go anywhere, do anything, if you were difficult to hurt.

In a profound, symbolic gesture, I am giving you this bar of Vosges I got when we went to Edgartown. You can eat it, or just sit next to it and feel superior.

I don't even have my real face anymore, I don't even know who I see in the mirror.

I wanted to touch him like he was a bunny, a kitten, something so special and soft your fingertips can't leave it alone. The universe was good because he was in it.

What a horrible death for those poor, dear, naughty dogs.

Half the time I hate myself for all the things I've done...But the thing that makes me really messed up is the contradiction: when I'm not hating myself, I feel righteous and victimized. Like the world is so unfair.

They can't beat when I'm unhappy. They try and fix it; they'd fix the whole world if they could, just to make me feel better-even when it's none of their business. It's one of the many hazards of being an only child.

The presentation of self in everyday life. This guy Goffman had the idea that in different situations, you perform yourself differently. Your character isn't static. It's an adaptation.