Ellen Hopkins

“Might as Well Laugh...remember...when...Life...made...sense”

“Once...Why...lie?...when...truth is...the easier path”

“Have to Find...life...is...a—...gamble...after ...all.”

“Don't Stop...down,...Down there...down where...monsters,...Run!”

“Possibilities...in the closet...itching...to break out...but afraid of...the fallout”

“Faces...I...don't...know...the real...me”

“Sometimes loving someone means letting them go”

“The universe is a big place. If I was lost up there, how would you ever find me”

“Some people never find the right kind of love.You know, the kind that steals your breath away, like diving into snowmelt”

“So you want to know all about me. WhoI am.What chance meeting of brush and canvas paintedthe faceyou see? What made me despise the girlin the mirrorenough to transform her,turn her to into a stranger,only not. So you want to hear the whole story. WhyI swervedoff the high road,hard left to nowhere,recklesslyindifferent to those coughing my dust,picked up speed no limits,no top end,just a high velocity rush to madness.”

“Life was goodbefore I met the monster.After,life was greatAt least for a little while”

“And now life has become the future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future-you go to high school so you can go to college so you can get a good job so you can get nice house.”

“I am different. And I don't understand exactly how. And I don't understand just why.”

“I want to know what it means to be in love. But in my dictionary 'in love' is indefinable.”

“I want to open myself, let him inside. But how do I give what has already been taken?”

“Evil is not intrinsic. It's fashioned.”

“All I can do is lie here, brain turning somersaults. It's nights like these when memories stir, whipping themselves into stiff peaks of pain.”

“I want to know living love. And I don't want to wait for it.”

“Happily ever after is a concept I'll never believe in.”

“I'm in love. And I like how that feels. And I hate how that feels. Because love is an invention of fiction writers.”

“Despite whoever created it, it's my world, & the only one I've got. Might as well make the best of it, right? Might as well have a little fun while I'm here. Or a lot of fun. Might be dead tomorrow.”

“Ask me, it's a sin to pervert faith with religion. Despite every church, mosque, & synagogue in it, this is not the world any God worth his salt would have created.”

“How odd, to suddenly glimpse a facet of me I didn't know existed. I guess it really isn't all that unusual to surprise oneself with an ugly bit of ego.”

“School used to be an escape. Now it's just another place with too much pressure, too much confrontation, & so not enough joy.”

“Must be nice to have that kind of unshakable belief in a merciful higher power.”

“Maybe Life is random. No fate. No God. Just Time.”

“Was I saved, or was fate simply too damn busy killing other people that day to catch up to me, too?”

“Sometimes I'm not so sure just who I am either.”

“The more I think about it, the more I believe there has to be a subtle yet satisfying method of revenge.”

“I don't love him, & he definitely doesn't love me. Still, he semi-fills a gaping black hole inside me. That place wants love, maybe even needs love, but love is something I"m pretty sure doesn't exist.”

“Yesterday influences today, thus creates tomorrow.”

“I don't think we'll get caught, but the very possibility is half the fun.”

“I want the part of you that you refuse to give.”

“The problem with resolutions is they're only as solid as the person making them.”

“We kissed for aboutthe thousandth time,No promises,no demands,Just solid rebuildingof shattered trust.”

“Six months since we met upagain we are inseparable,an intricate weave.No longer do I believethis is a temporary fling.More like total commitment.More like I have walkeddown the aisle, holding hands with the monster.”

“imperfections create character...”

“I know he wants to get serious. He's definitely not a player, not a poser, not a loser, not a user.”

“I do have friends, but they don't know me, only someone I've created to take my place. Someone sculpted from ice. I keep the melted me bottled up inside. Where no one can touch her, until, unbidden, she comes pouring out.”

“They think old people are lame. But they're not. They're awesome, & I know exactly why I think so. It's because they've lived entire lifetimes. Loved. Laughed. Surrendered. Stumbled. Weathered, beaten, still they don't crumble, not even as they inch toward death.”

“BEAUTIFUL is stark, disquieting and, quite simply, riveting. Amy Reed is an author to keep on your radar.”

“Clear.Cold.Empty.Like how I feelright now. Loveis strange. Oneminute you’rejungle fever.The nextyou’reArticwinter.”

“Innocence eroded into nightmare.All because of very bad touch.Love, corrupted.”

“Forgiveness isn’t my best thing.Easier staying pissed. But I’mtired of being pissed all the time.Tired of feeling hurt by stuff thatcan never be fixed because it isan indelible part of the past.”

“Holy effing moly.”

“Falling in love with someone is the surest highway to hurt that I know. When the door to love opens, the window to control closes.”

“Girls get screwed.Not that kind of screwed, what I mean is, they're always on the short end of things.The way things work, how guys feel great, but make girls feelcheap for doingexactly what they beg for.The way they get to play you, all the while claiming they love you and making you believe it's true.The way it's okay to gift their heart one day, a backhand the next, to move on to the apricotwhen the peach blushes and bruises.These things make me believe God's a man after all.”

“i expected demands. he gifted me with tenderness. i expected ego. he let me experiment. i expected disrespect. he called me beautiful. i expected him to expect perfection. he taught me all i needed to know.”

“Funny how when your life is mostly bullshit, you turn off feeling.Sometimes it's hard to turn it back on again.”

“I'd sleep outside naked in the blizzard,for you.”