Colleen Hoover

“This thing about you that you think is your flaw - it's the reason I'm falling in love with you.”

“The fact that you just said The Jerk is your favorite movie ever is incredibly fucking hot and I'm pretty sure we need to make out now.”

“I brush her hair out of her eyes and run my finger along the edge of her face. "I love you, Lake.""Say it again," she says.I kiss her forehead and repeat what I said. "I love you, Lake.""One more time.""I." I kiss her lips. "And love." I kiss them again. "And you.""I love you, too.”

“...in the midst of the worst day of my life, I find the strength to smile. "Thank you, Holder. So much. I couldn't do this without you." ... "Yes, babe. You could.”

“Let's not let this be your life tonight," he says. "Let's get back in the car and pretend we're driving away because we want to... not because we need to. We can pretend I'm taking you somewhere amazing... somewhere you've always wanted to go. You can snuggle up to me and we can talk about how excited we are and we'll talk about everything we'll do when we get there. We can talk about the important stuff later. But tonight... let's not let this be your life.”

“Thank you for loving me like you love me. Thank you for showing me that we don't always have to be strong to be there for each other--that it's okay to be weak, so long as we're there.”

“There will be days that I don't think we'll know how to survive. But we will, because we have each other.”

“I've lost a lot in my long life. Yes, I've seen pain and I've seen strife. But I'll never give up; I'll never let go. Because I'll always have my ray of hope.”

“His fingers have been slowly lacing through my hair.”

“I'm kissing you because sometimes I can't not kiss you.”

“If God's the type of guy that would damn you to Hell just for loving someone, then I wouldn't want to spend eternity with Him, anyway.”

“I live you, Sky”

“I want him to lock his arms around me and throw away the key, because this is where he belongs and I'm scared he'll just let me go again.”

“I'm pretty sure my addiction to reading has just reached a whole new level.”

“I didn't mean to scare you. I'm not suicidal if that's what's freaking you out. I'm not fucked up in the head. I'm not deranged. I'm not suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. I'm just a brother who loved his sister more than life itself, so I get a little intense when I think about her.”

“You need a hair cut, I blurt out. Really bad. It gets in your eyes and you squint and you're constantly moving it out of the way like you're Justin Bieber and it's really distracting.”

“We'll either come to a mutual understanding of one another, or he's going to kill me and chop me up into tiny pieces and bake me into cookie.”

“I absolutely, positively hate this beautiful, magical feeling.”

“It's a shame when a body like that doesn't come with any brains.”

“If you aren't on Goodreads, you should be. I've said it before, it's like Facebook for readers on crack.”

“To my babies, Merry Christmas. I'm sorry if these letters have caught you both by surprise. There is just so much more I have to say. I know you thought I was done giving advice, but I couldn't leave without reiterating a few things in writing. You may not relate to these things now, but someday you will. I wasn't able to be around forever, but I hope that my words can be. -Don't stop making basagna. Basagna is good. Wait until a day when there is no bad news, and bake a damn basagna. -Find a balance between head and heart. Hopefully you've found that Lake, and you can help Kel sort it out when he gets to that point. -Push your boundaries, that's what they're there for. -I'm stealing this snippet from your favorite band, Lake. "Always remember there is nothing worth sharing, like the love that let us share our name." -Don't take life too seriously. Punch it in the face when it needs a good hit. Laugh at it. -And Laugh a lot. Never go a day without laughing at least once. -Never judge others. You both know good and well how unexpected events can change who a person is. Always keep that in mind. You never know what someone else is experiencing within their own life. -Question everything. Your love, your religion, your passions. If you don't have questions, you'll never find answers. -Be accepting. Of everything. People's differences, their similarities, their choices, their personalities. Sometimes it takes a variety to make a good collection. The same goes for people. -Choose your battles, but don't choose very many. -Keep an open mind; it's the only way new things can get in. -And last but not least, not the tiniest bit least. Never regret. Thank you both for giving me the best years of my life. Especially the last one. Love, Mom”

“Never judge others. You both know good and well how unexpected events can change who a person is. Always keep that in mind. You never know what someone else is experiencing within their own life.”

“I've never regretted it. Questioned it? Sure. But never regretted." "Is there a difference?" I ask. "Absolutely. Regret is counterproductive. It's looking back on a past that you can't change. Questioning things as they occur can prevent regret in the future. I questioned a lot about my relationship with your father. People make spontaneous decisions based off of their hearts all the time. There's so much more to relationships than just love.”

“According to the thesaurus... and according to me... there are over thirty different meanings and substitutions forthe wordmean.(I quickly yell the following words; the entire class flinches- including Will)Jackass, jerk, cruel, dickhead, unkind, harsh, wicked,hateful, heartless, vicious, virulent, unrelenting, tyrannical, malevolent, atrocious, bastard, barbarous, bitter, brutal, callous, degenerate, brutish, depraved, evil, fierce, hard, implacable, rancorous, pernicious, inhumane, monstrous, merciless, inexorable.And my personal favorite—asshole.”

“So you keep your ocean, I'll take the Lake.”

“Does he really expect me to vocalize a response while his fingers are touching my face? It's pretty hard to speak and hold your breath at the same time.”

“I know why people write poetry," Javi says. "Because they're a bunch of emotional saps with nothin' better to do than whine about ex-girlfriends and dead dogs.""You're wrong, Javi," I say. "That's called country music.”

“Tonight, Let's just carve pumpkins.”

“Holder: "You live over on Conroe, that's over two miles away."Sky: "You know what street I live on?"Holder: "Yeah. Linden Sky Davis, born September 29th. 1455 Conroe Street. Five feet three inches. Donor."Sky: [take a step backward and confused]Holder: "Your ID. You showed me your ID earlier. At the store."Sky: "You look at it for two seconds."Holder: "I have a good memory."Sky: "You stalk."Holder: "I stalk? You're the one standing in front of my house.”

“Holder: "Why'd you stop talking?"Sky: "Talking? Holder, I'm reading. There's a difference. And from the looks of it, you haven't been paying a lick of attention."Holder: "Oh, I've been paying attention. To your mouth. Maybe not to the words coming out of it, but definitely to your mouth.”

“I could literally stare at your lips for days and never get bored.”

“I’ve never been swept off my feet. I don’t get butterflies. In fact the whole idea of being swooned by anyone is foreign to me. Somehow, in the course of sixty seconds, this guy has managed to swoon me, then terrify the hell out of me.”

“For once in my life, I was here and nowhere else.”

“Butterfly.What a beautiful wordWhat a delicate creature.Delicate like the cruel words that flow right out of your mouths and the food that flies right out of your hands…Does it make you feel better?Does it make you feel good ?Does picking on a girl make you more of a man?Well, I’m standing up for myselfLike I should have done beforeI’m not putting up with your Butterfly anymore."(Kiersten slides the sack off her wrist and opens it, pulling out a handful of hand-made butterflies. She takes the microphone out of the stand and begins walking down the stairs as she continues speaking.)“I’d like to extend to others what others have extended to me.”(She walks up to Mrs. Brill first and holds out a butterfly)“Butterfly you, Mrs. Brill.”(Mrs. Brill smiles at her and takes the butterfly out of her hands. Lake laughs out loud and I have to nudge her to get her to be quiet. Kiersten walks around the room, passing out butterflies to several of the students, including the three from the lunchroom.)“Butterfly you, Mark.Butterfly you, Brendan.Butterfly you, Colby.”(When she finishes passing out the butterflies, she walks back onto the stage and places the microphone back into the stand.)“I have one thing to say to youAnd I’m not referring to the bulliesOr the ones they pursue.I’m referring to those of you that just stand byThe ones who don’t take up for those of us that cryThose of you who just…turn a blind eye.After all it’s not you it’s happening toYou aren’t the one being bulliedAnd you aren’t the one being rudeIt isn’t your hand that’s throwing the foodBut…it is your mouth not speaking upIt is your feet not taking a standIt is your arm not lending a handIt is your heartNot giving a damn.So take up for yourselfTake up for your friendsI challenge you to be someoneWho doesn’t give in.Don’t give in.Don’t let them win.”

“Death. The only thing inevitable in life.”

“Despite my objections I realize, almost pathetically, that I have just experienced the most passionate kiss I've ever received from a guy - and it was on the freaking forehead!”

“Push your boundaries, that's what they're there for.”

“Find a balance between head and heart.”

“Does he treat you with respect at all times? That's the first question. The second question is, if he is the exact same person twenty years from now that he is today, would you still want to marry him? And finally, does he inspire to be a better person? You find someone you can answer yes to all three, then you've found a good man.”

“Regret is counterproductive. It's looking back on a past that you can't change. Questioning things as they occur can prevent regret in the future.”

“You’re incredibly brave. And you’re going to make it through this because you have a very strong heart. A heart that is capable of loving so much about life and people in a way you never dreamt a heart could love. And you’re beautiful in here. Your heart is so beautiful and someday someone is going to love that heart like it deserves to be loved.”

“Whatever he goes through, I feel. Whatever I go through, he feels. It’s what happens when two people become one: they no longer only share love. They also share all of the pain, heartache, sorrow, and grief.”

“I wanted to cry because I needed you there with me so bad. I knew in that moment that I was in love with you. I was in love with the way you loved me. When you wrapped your arms around me and held me, I knew that no matter what happened with my life, you were my home. You stole the biggest piece of my heart that night.”

“The way he’s watching me makes me feel needed like no one’s ever been able to make me feel. In a way, he makes me feel necessary. Like my existence alone is necessary for his survival.”

“Life can’t be divided into chapters...only minutes. The events of your life are all crammed together one minute right after the other without any time lapses or blank pages or chapter breaks because no matter what happens life just keeps going and moving forward and words keep flowing and truths keep spewing whether you like it or not and life never lets you pause and just catch your fucking breath.I need one of those chapter breaks. I just want to catch my breath, but I have no idea how.”

“It’s killing me, baby,” he says, his voice much more calm and quiet. “It’s killing me because I don’t want you to go another day without knowing how I feel about you. And I’m not ready to tell you I’m in love with you, because I’m not. Not yet. But whatever this is I’m feeling—it’s so much more than just like. It’s so much more. And for the past few weeks I’ve been trying to figure it out. I’ve been trying to figure out why there isn’t some other word to describe it. I want to tell you exactly how I feel but there isn’t a single goddamned word in the entire dictionary that can describe this point between liking you and loving you, but I need that word. I need it because I need you to hear me say it.”

“I am mad at you, Holder,” I say with an unsteady, but sure voice. “But no matter how mad I’ve been, I never for one second stopped wanting you here with me.”

“My stomach is tied up in so many knots it could make a boy scout envious.”

“I'll never forget that, because you were right. And I know you weren't trying to teach me a lesson, but you did. Not everything is going to go my way and not everyone gets a happily ever after. Life is real and sometimes it’s ugly and you just have to learn how to cope. I’m going to accept it with a dose of your indifference, and move on.”

“I'm so acutely aware of everything about him in this moment that I'm almost positive I could pick his thumbprint out of a lineup.”