Megan Hart

“Sometimes when you break things, you can hold them together for a while with string or glue or tape. Sometimes, nothing will hold what's broken, and the pieces fly all over, and though you think you might be able to find them all again, one or two will always be missing”

“So many of the blemished didn’t know what to do with silence. Sunny’d learned that well enough at the coffee shop, where people insisted on talking, talking. To be “social,” they said, but she thought it was because they didn’t really know what to do with themselves if they had to listen to what was in their heads instead of what came out from their mouths.”

“Peace, hands and mouth smeared with chocolate pudding, blinks and says nothing. Happy frowns. Bliss, firmly ensconced on Liesel’s hip, babbles something so cute and precious it would be nice to take a second to appreciate it, but Liesel is caught between her genuine and somewhat frightening fury and her shame at realizing that she’s turned into everything she swore she’d never be.”

“Sunny could think of lots of reasons about why the angel was crying, but the one that felt the best to her was that the angel wept so Sunny didn’t have to.”

“Sleeping.” The word came out with an adorable lack of anything resembling an L, closer to something you’d do with a broom than in a bed.”

“Navigating this new world made Sunny feel like Dorothy stepping out from her black-and-white house into a world of color so bright it didn't seem real. Everything in this world seems like a dream.”

“Whatever task you're set, find some way to love it. Sunny wondered if Josiah's words applied to standing with a face of stone so the person in front of her wouldn't know how much she wanted to scream.”

“It was not a happy ending of the sort in fairy tales, butit was the only one we had.”

“Perfection is too high a goal to strive for. Sometimes working hard bringsmore satisfaction in the end.”

“Still staring at the woman in the mirror, I hung up the phone. She looked as if she was going to cry. I felt bad for her, that woman with the dark hair, the one who only ever wore black and white. The one who might have been pretty if she'd only take care of herself, if only she weren't smarter, if only she didn't earn more money. I felt sorry for her but envied her, too, because she, at least, could cry and I could not.”

“I do not like that I allowed my past to close me off. I do not like that I let circumstances rob me of the ability to have a normal relationship with a man, to have friends, to be happy. I do not like it, but I had felt myself powerless against it.”

“I have suffered the touch of some and embraced it from others.”

“I didn't emerge from the cocoon of my past to become an uninhibited, emotionally healthy butterfly. Nothing is ever that easy. Sometimes grief is a comfort we grant ourselves because it's less terrifying than trying for joy. Nobody wants to admit it. We'd all declare we want to be happy, if we could. So why, then, is pain the one thing we most often hold on to? Why are slights and griefs the memories on which we choose to dwell? Is it because joy doesn't last but grief does?”

“Knowing what you need doesn't always mean you know how to get it, though. I'd spent a long time hiding in my cave. No matter how much I might want to come out into the light, I knew it would hurt my eyes. I was a fool. A fool, but nevertheless too smart not to know I was the architect of my own demise, that it was time to put my past behind me. It was time to stop allowing the white elephants to stand unspoken of in my living room.”

“Sex is not wrong. Sex is not dirty. Not even sex in a public place with a man you barely know. It's not. Sex is a gift, a built-in human pleasure, something to enjoy and cherish and utilize. Sex rejuvenates. Sex replenishes. Orgasms are just one more miraculous function our body provides, no more shameful than a sneeze or the beating of our hearts. Sex is not dirty, not even in public places with someone you barely know. Liking sex, like a man's hands on me, coming with him, letting him inside me...that doesn't make me dirty.”

“I never think of nothing. The closest I come to a blank mind is when I am counting, fucking, or drinking. The rest of the time, my thoughts are like a hamster on a wheel, running endlessly but getting nowhere.”

“I've been hit on plenty of times, mostly by men with little finesse who thought what was between their legs made up for what they lacked between their ears.”

“Do you think he would?""I think he'd give his left nut to get in your pants.""Very nice," I told him. "So elegantly put."Dan laughed and leaned forward to nuzzle my neck again. "Yes, Elle, I think Jack would love to fuck you.”

“You look gorgeous, Elle, and you don't act like a gorgeous woman does.""I don't? How do I act?""You act like an angel. But you fuck like a deomon. Don't you.”

“You've got the sexiest voice. You make everything you say sound like it tastes good coming out of your mouth.”

“You look like a goddess when you come, did you know that?""I'm not a goddess.""Not a goddess. Not an angel. Not a devil. Are you a ghost? Because you can't be real.""I'm real.”

“Tears disturb and confuse men, but women know the relief they can bring. I didn't cry because I couldn't deal with my life, but because I could.”

“But it was the man beside me who'd proven to me that love was worth everything. That my life, my heart, had room in it for more love that I ever thought possible. There were dozens of reasons to agree to have a child, but as far as I was concerned, just then, with his breath on my face and the warmth of his skin on mine, there was only one that mattered. Love. That was reason enough.”

“Sometimes the things we want to say the most are the things that should never be said.”

“The way I see it, Elle. Scars are proof we can survive.”

“I won't say it's okay, because it's not. If you want to break up with me, Elle, then do it. But I'm not going to make it easy for you.”

“Let him go. Let one of them go. Knowing it and doing it, two separateaccomplishments. Let one man go. The question had to be, which one?”

“Can I tell you honestly that I'd rather be in your life as your friend than nothing at all?”

“Be careful," he said.Bess looked at him. "I think it's too late for that."He smiled. Then he kissed her, right there on the porch where the whole world could see. Right on the mouth. Right where she wanted.”

“He was the loveliest sight she'd ever seen.”

“Bess hadn't ever been good with change. She'd never been good with taking leaps of faith, or risks or changes. When something worked, she tended to stick with it.Even when something didn't.”

“I just said it was romantic. Some people like that."Nick sat, too. "Like you?"She lifted her chin. "Maybe I do."Nick's laugh for once didn't urge her to join him. "Well then, you're fucking the wrong guy.”

“No. It was the best mistake I ever made.”

“Once upon a time the sun hadn’t risen without her thinking about Nick’s smile, and the wind hadn’t blown without it whispering his name.”

“PERMALINK · 169465 · 15 HOURS AGO"She tried to feel sad, or guilty, or even to be angry about the way things had happened, but there frankly wasn’t much room in either her head or her heart for wishing or moping.”

“We could just go naked. Set a trend." -Nick”

“Chill, sister golden hair." -Brian”

“You know what the best part of the stars is?""What's that?""They're the same no matter what sky you're standing under. I mean...yeah, they might move or look like they're in a different place, but they're the same stars.""Yeah? So?""So even if you're apart from someone you want to be with, you can look up at the stars and know they're looking at the same ones.”

“I know I shouldn't feel guilty for being angry sometimes, or bitter" "Knowing something is beans.”

“Yeah. That boy over there. He’s my friend.'My gaze followed his pointing finger toward a little boy wearing a stuffed steering wheel attached around his waist and running around a racetrack laid out on the floor. 'Oh, yeah? What’s his name?''I don’t know.' Simon shrugged, unconcerned, and headed back to the playground.I watched him leap right into the game with a friend whose name didn’t matter.”

“You don’t have to be sad to miss someone and wish they were still in your life.”

“She hadn't planned on having another beer, but then...when did she ever plan to drink another one? They usually just followed one after the other like stepping stones set into a stream, and she hopped along them one at a time until she lost her balance and fell into the drink.”

“No corrimos de la mano por prados llenos de flores, ni empezó a sonar una suave música de fondo cuando nos besábamos. A mi madre no le cayó ninguna casa encima. Yo no me liberé de todo de golpe, no me convertí en un ejemplo radiante que demostraba que sólo hacía falta que llegara un caballero de brillante armadura con un martillo para romper la torre de cristal. La vida no funciona así. Pero lo intentamos, seguimos intentando día a día que esto funcione, ser honestos el uno con el otro, sernos fieles, escuchar. Mirar hacia delante, hacia lo que nos espera, en vez de mirar hacia atrás, hacia lo que hemos dejado atrás.”

“He closed his hand around my wrist and pressed my hand flat against his chest. “The way I see it, Elle, scars are proof we can survive.”

“I didn’t fall in love with James. Falling sounds like an accident. Falling hurts. I’d fallen in love with Michael, fallen hard like slipping off a cliff and hitting the rocks below. Falling in love was something I’d vowed never to do again.I chose to love James.”

“If you want to know how someone really feels, you almost never have to ask.”

“Darkness reveals as much as it hides, sometimes.”

“You know what they say. Best revenge is looking good, right?”

“And you’re not afraid of it ending?”“Sure I am. But I’d rather have something this good for a little while than have nothing forever.”

“When you find someone who makes you smile andlaugh, when you find someone who makes you feel safe…you shouldn’t let that person go just because you’re afraid.”