Ellen Hopkins

“I can see why she feels left behind. Maybe even discarded. Is that why she refuses to accept my love and return it? Afraid that love doesn't last? Doesn't really exist? Afraid if her own father can withdraw his love (or at least the manifestation of his love), that maybe she somehow isn't worthy of the emotion?”

“Death Is only the easy way out if you are the one who dies.”

“A Problem Is really just a solution in need of a reason to exist.”

“I don't need more pain in my life. Why did I invite it in? Do I have to feel pain to believe I feel anything at all?”

“The only thing about myself I know for sure is that I don't know anything.”

“‎Perfect? How can you define a word without concrete meaning?”

“No one teaches you how to walk away from someone who you know loves you. NO one teaches you how to say good-bye.”

“Commitment means losing yourself to gain something temporary. Nothing lasts. Not looks. Not love.”

“I think if love is real, and headed toward the altar, the sex part-within reason-can wait.”

“PerfectionI've lived with the pretenseof perfection for seventeenyears. Give my room a cursoryinspection, you'd think I have OCD.But it's only habit and notobsession that keeps it all orderly.Of course, I don't want to givethe impression that it's all up to me.”

“Perfect?How do you define a word withoutconcrete meaning? To each his own, the saying goes, sowhy push to attain an ideal state of being that no two random people will agree iswhereyou want to be? Faultless.Finished. Incomparable. Peoplecan never be these, and anyway,whendid creating a flawless facadebecome a more vital goalthan learning to love the person wholives inside your skin?The outside belongs to others.Only you should decide for you---whatis perfect”

“As I thoughtabout that, I hadto wonder: What will weknow better about tomorrow?Who cares? Hindsight is useless.”

“Was thefun in the fall?”

“I mean, who wants to trudge through life, doingeverything just right? Taking no chances meanswasting your dreams.”

“crawling up into daddy's lapwhen dad was stillDADDYnodding my head against his chest soaking in the comfort of his heartLISTENINGto the thump...thumpsomewhere beneath muscleand breastbone I remember his armstheir sublimeENCIRCLINGand the shawdow of his voice"I love you, little girl.Put away your bad dreams.Daddy's here"I put them away, Until Daddy became my nightmare that one that cameHOMEfrom work everyday and insteadof picking me up, chased me farfaraway”

“Eyes Tell StoriesBut do they know howto craft fiction? Dothey know how to spinlies?His eyes swear forever,flatter with vows of onlyme. But are they emptypromises?I stare into his eyes, asinto a crystal ball, butI cannot find forever,onlymovies of yesterday,a sketchbook of today,dreams of a sharedtomorrow.His eyes whisper secrets.But are they truths or fairy tales?I wonder if even heknows.”

“Being In LoveMeans hard questions. Will I? Won't I? Should I? Could I?Yes? No? You?Me? There is no mewithout you.Is there a you without me?And if were truly one.how will I breathewhen circomstance pries us apart?You are my oxygen.my substance,the blood inside my veins.When wetouch, you are my skin.hold all my joy inside of you.When you go, I wither.”

“SmokeYou stand infront of me,pretending to be solid,but you are nothing morethan smoke and mirors. You said you'd never leave,that you would care for us forever,but now you claim youcannot stay?That you've been called away.When you go,who will i turn to when it allcrashes down?Tell me who.Then tell me,how I can believeanone again, if all your promises have been lies.”

“Losing ItSome days I thinkI'm losing my mind.What seems so clearmost of the timebecomes a big question mark.Am I really the wayI percieve myself, oris the person others seethe truth of me? I wait foranswers, but inside I know I have to go outand find them. And answerslike knowledge, are not always where wefirst look for them.”

“Don't make me laugh, I'd much rather cry.”

“So you try to thinkof someone else you'remad at, and the unavoidableanswer pops into yourwarped little brain: everyone.”

“Some peopleNever find the right kind of loveyou know, the kind that stealsyour breath away.Like diving into a snowmelt.The kind that jolts your heart,sets it beating apace.An anxious hiccuping of hummingbirds wings.The kind that makes every terrible minute apart feel like hours.Days.Years.Some people flit from one insane possibility to the next.Never experincing the connection of two people.rocked by destiny.Never knowing what it means to love someone else,more than themselves.More than life itself, or the promise of something better.Beyond this world,More even (forgive me!) than god.Lucky me, I found the right kind of love.With the wrong person.”

“God is love," she said. "And he respects love, whether it's between a parents, and child, a man and woman, or friends. I don't think he cares about religion one little bit. Live your life right. Love with all your heart. Don't hurt others, and help those in need. That is all you need to know. And don't worry about heaven. If it exists, you'll be welcome.”

“Happiness, you see, its just an illusion of Fate, a heavenly sleight of hand designed to make you believe in fairy tales. But there's no happily ever after. You'll only find happy endings in books. Some books.”

“A word to the unwise.Torch every book.Char every page.Burn every word to ash.Ideas are incombustible.And therein lies your real fear.”

“Your life doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the people that love you”

“Do you know how beautiful you are?' I shook my head 'I'm not. But you make me fell like I am.' I wanted to be beautiful. To him. For him. I didn't care how anybody else saw me. Only Ethan.”

“I haven't cried since Mom died. I mean, after something like that, what's left to cry about, right? But I let myself cry now. Loss is loss. Doesn't take death to create it. (266)”

“My happiest memories have no place in the past; they are those I have yet to create.”

“You believe this is a game, and you may be right. But if you think you can play it better than me, think again.”

“Every high has an equal, measurable low.”

“Sometimes the little things in life mean the most.”

“Crank, You See isn't any ordinary monster. It's like a giant octopus, weaving its tentacles not just around you, but through you, squeezing not hard enough to kill you, but enough to keep you from reeling until you try to get away. Try, and you hunger for it grasping clutch, the way its tendrils prop you up, your need intensifying exponentially every minute you refuse to admit its being (p.469)”

“Life is full of choices. We don't always make good ones. It seems to Kristina you gotta be crazy to open your windows, invite the demons in. Bree throws rocks at the feeble glass, laughs”

“A breeze blows up, touching my cheek like a little child's kiss. It flutters a piece of paper. "Trash, out there? Must belong to one of us." We move closer, and when I reached for it, I find...... a perfect paper airplane.”

“Sad, that lives can be shattered, into so many pieces that they can never be put back together, the the relentless force of love. Irreparable.”

“In a woman's womb another chance to makethe world a better place.”

“So You Want to KnowAll about her. Who shereally is. (Was?) Whyshe swerved off the high road. Hard leftto nowhere,recklessly indifferent to me.Hunter Seth Haskins,her firstbornson. I've been chockingthat down fornineteen years.Why did she go onher mindless way,leaving me spinning in a whirlwind of her dust?”

“....a perfect paper airplane.”

“It was the exact oppositefor me. At first all Iwanted was sex with her,but soon I wanted more.More sex, yes, in unusualplaces, and all different kinds.But that wasn’t all. I wantedher to fill the empty spacesleft by a father who neveronce praised me, ‘friends’ whoused me, an ice princess momwho raised me with glass kisses.”

“I feel like a goddess, jailed in her Olympus. Little wonder how the gods toyed with humans. Toyed with women, to watch them squirm, pollinate the seeds of despair; toyed with men, to satiate their Seven Deadly Sins.”

“Would I ever find forever love? Do I really want to, when forever was a word without meaning?”

“Some people never find love at all, count yourself blessed if it ever happens your way”

“That's what I'll be. A silhouette, rarely seen, and yet believed in. Kaeleigh wants to believe in me. I am her twin, forever alive inside her. And when she needs me, I am always here.”

“Afraid to Die LovelessBecause I think if you die without knowing love in this life, that's how you'll spend eternity. Alone.Frozen.”

“But hey,I'm not exactly sold on the idea that love is, in fact, real. Will it find me one day, overtake me, infiltrate my life like sunlight snakes through the cold of morning? Can love thaw me? will it ever?”

“You are a gift to all who know you, whether or not they realize it. If they don't, they are blind. You have a special place in this world. All you have to do is find it. Do not give up on yourself, or the truths you have realized. Do not give in to those who could crush your dreams like nutshells. And never turn away from forever love.”

“When You Weren't Looking...why....Can't you...care...more...about...me.”

“Home...Home....the word,...has...no...meaning”

“I'll Stay...leave...me....I'll...follow...you.”