Rainbow Rowell

“Have you ever seen The Goodbye Girl? Don’t watch it if you still want to enjoy romantic comedies. It makes every movie ever made starring Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock lash itself in shame.”

“Are the computers going to fail?” one of the artists asked him, licking ketchup off her thumb. She asked it like she was hoping he’d say yes. Lincoln couldn't remember her name, but she had all-over-the-place hair and big brown eyes. He didn't like thinking about her with an X-Acto knife.”

“He tried not to love that she could recite scenes from Ghostbusters, that she liked kung fu movies and could name all of the original X-Men— because those seemed like reasons a guy would fall for a girl in a Kevin Smith movie.”

“He likes to think he’s Paul McCartney. But Paul McCartney is a gentle soul. And a monogamist.”

“You act like getting pregnant is a disease you can catch from public toilets.”

“..I love your name. I don't want to cheat myself out of a single syllable.”

“She bent her neck back and kissed him like she never had before. Like she wasn't scared of doing it wrong.”

“Until this moment, she’d kept Park in a place in her head that she thought Richie couldn't get to. Completely separate from this house and everything that happened here. (It was a pretty awesome place. Like the only part of her head fit for praying.)”

“He looked exactly like a rat. Like the human being version of a rat. Like the villain in a Don Bluth movie.”

“Oh, fine, Eleanor thought. The children of hell shan’t go hungry on my watch.”

“Or maybe, he thought now, he just didn't recognize all those other girls. The way a computer drive will spit out a disk if it doesn't recognize the formatting.When he touched Eleanor's hand, he recognized her. He knew.”

“I think I missed my window," he said."What window?""My get-a-life window. I think I was supposed to figure all this stuff out somewhere between twenty-two and twenty-six, and now it's too late.""It's not too late," she said. "You're getting a life. You've got a job, you're saving up to move out. You're meeting people. You went to a bar...""And that was a disaster. Actually, everything has been a disaster since I quit school.""You didn't quit school," she said. He could hear her rolling her eyes. "You finished your master's degree. Another master's degree.""Everything has been a disaster since I decided my life as it was wasn't good enough.""It WASN'T good enough," she said."It was good enough for me.""Then why have you been trying so hard to change it?”

“This wedding is your parents’ fault. They named her Kiley. She was doomed from birth to marry a hunky, fratty premed major.”

“There’s no such thing as handsome princes, she told herself. There’s no such thing as happily ever after.”

“I just can’t believe that life would give us to each other,’ he said, ‘and then take it back.’‘I can,’ she said. ‘Life’s a bastard.”

“And because I’m so out of control, I can’t help myself. I’m not even mine anymore, I’m yours, and what if you decide that you don’t want me? How could you want me like I want you?”

“Don't bite his face, Eleanor told herself. It's disturbing and needy and never happens in situation comedies or movies that end with big kisses.”

“Because being assaulted with maxi pads is a great way to win friends and influence people.”

“She saw him after seventh hour in a place she'd never seen him before, carrying a microscope down the hall on the third floor. It was at least twice as nice as seeing him somewhere she expected him to be.”

“The first time he'd held her hand, it felt so good that it crowded out all the bad things. It felt better than anything had ever hurt.”

“But it’s up to us …’ he said softly. ‘It’s up to us not to lose this”

“Nothing was dirty. With Park.Nothing could be shameful.Because Park was the sun, and that was the only way Eleanor could think to explain it.”

“I don’t like you, Park. Sometimes I think I live for you”

“I miss you, Eleanor. I want to be with you all the time. You’re the smartest girl I’ve ever met, and the funniest, and everything you do surprises me. And I wish I could say that those are the reasons I like you, because that would make me sound like a really evolved human being …‘But I think it’s got as much to do with your hair being red and your hands being soft … and the fact that you smell like homemade birthday cake”

“He wound the scarf around his fingers until her hand was hanging in the space between them.Then he slid the silk and his fingers into her open palm.And Eleanor disintegrated.”

“He was a magnet and I was steel”

“I want someone whose heart is big enough to hold me.”

“I’m sort of… coming off a bad relationship”“When did it end?”“Slightly before it started.”

“Wasn’t hitting bottom the thing you had to do to knock some sense into yourself? Wasn’t hitting bottom the thing that showed you which way was up?”

“And there wasn’t anything he wanted to do that he couldn’t make time for. What did he have to mope about, really? What more did he want? Love, he could hear Eve saying. Purpose. Love. Purpose. Those are the things that you can’t plan for. Those are the things that just happen. And what if they don’t happen? Do you spend your whole life pining for them? Waiting to be happy?”

“I want him. And he wants to wait. And I still want him. So I can’t complain.”

“SHE’D DUMPED HIM. That’s all. It wasn’t that bad. It shouldn’t have been. It’s not like they were married. It’s not like she abandoned him at the altar, or made off with his best friend and their retirement savings.People get dumped all the time.”

“These things end,” she said. “They always end. Nobody marries their first love. First love is justthat. First. It’s implied that something else will follow.”

“You’re the only girl I’ve ever touched. And I feel like itwas supposed to be that way. I touch you and my whole body …rings. Like a bell or something. And Icould touch other girls, and maybe there would be something, you know, like maybe there would benoise. But not like with you.”

“He looked over at her, just for a second, sitting sideways in her bucket seat, and squeezed the steering wheel. “It would have to be. I already love you so much. I already feel like something in my chest is going to pop when I see you. I couldn’t love anyone more than I do you, it would kill me. And I couldn’t love anyone less because it would always feel like less. Even if I loved some other girl, that’s all I would ever think about, the difference between loving her and loving you.”

“Lincoln,” Sam had asked him on one of those nights, the summer before their senior year, “do you think we’ll get married some day?”“I hope so,” he’d whispered. He didn’t usually think about it like that, like “married.” He thought about how he never wanted to be without her. About how happy she made him and how he wanted to go on being that happy for the rest of his life. If a wedding could promise him that, he definitely wanted to get married.“Wouldn’t it be romantic,” she said, “to marry your high school sweetheart? When people ask us how we met I’ll say, ‘We met in high school. I saw him, and I just knew.’ And they’ll say, ‘Didn’t youever wonder what it would be like to be with someone else?”

“That’s because you ooze preemptive leave-me-alone death rays.”

“Maybe Park had paralyzed her with his ninja magic, his Vulcan handhold, and now he was going to eat her. That would be awesome.”

“Holding Eleanor's hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive.”

“What are the chances you’d ever meet someone like that? he wondered. Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back? And what did you do when that person was born half a world away? The math seemed impossible.”

“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”

“My girlfriend is sad and quiet and keeps me up all night worrying about her.”

“Can't you just like a girl who likes you back?''None of them likes me back. I may as well like the one I really want.”

“Looks like somebody's got jungle fever.''That's not even the right kind of racist.”

“Editors, huh? By golly... you're right. They're everywhere. What is this place? Heaven?”

“You don’t have to be the kind of beautiful that everyone can agree on. If the right person finds you beautiful, you win. You win forever.”

“Nothing before you counts," he said. "And I can't even imagine an after." She shook her head. "Don't.""What?""Don't talk about after.""I just meant that... I want to be the last person who ever kisses you, too.... That sounds bad, like a death threat or something. What I'm trying to say is, you're it. This is it for me.”

“What do you want to show me?""Nothing, really. I just want to be alone with you for a minute." He pulled her to the back of the driveway, where they were almost completely hidden by a line of trees and the RV and the garage."Seriously?" she said. "That was so lame.""I know," he said, turning to her. "Next time, I'll just say, 'Eleanor, follow me down this dark alley, I want to kiss you.'"She didn't roll her eyes. She took a breath, then closed her mouth. He was learning how to catch her off guard.She pushed her hands deeper in her pockets, so he put his hands on her elbows. "Next time," he said, "I'll just say, 'Eleanor, duck behind these bushes with me, I'm going to lose my mind if I don't kiss you.'"She didn't move, so he thought it was probably okay to touch her face. Her skin was as soft as it looked, white and smooth as freckled porcelain."I'll just say, 'Eleanor, follow me down this rabbit hole...'"He laid his thumb on her lips to see if she'd pull away. She didn't. He leaned closer. He wanted to close his eyes, but he didn't trust her not to leave him standing there.”

“Damn, damn, damn," she said. "I never said why I like you, and now I have to go.""That's okay," he said."It's because you're kind," she said. "And because you get all my jokes...""Okay." He laughed."And you're smarter than I am.""I am not.""And you look like a protagonist." She was talking as fast as she could think. "You look like the person who wins in the end. You're so pretty, and so good. You have magic eyes," she whispered. "And you make me feel like a cannibal.""You're crazy.""I have to go." She leaned over so the receiver was close to the base."Eleanor - wait," Park said. She could hear her dad in the kitchen and her heartbeat everywhere."Eleanor - wait - I love you.”

“I don't like you, Park," she said, sounding for a second like she actually meant it. "I..." - her voice nearly disappeared - "think I live for you."He closed his eyes and pressed his head back into his pillow."I don't think I even breathe when we're not together," she whispered. "Which means, when I see you on Monday morning, it's been like sixty hours since I've taken a breath. That's probably why I'm so crabby, and why I snap at you. All I do when we're apart is think about you, and all I do when we're together is panic. Because every second feels so important. And because I'm so out of control, I can't help myself. I'm not even mine anymore, I'm yours, and what if you decide that you don't want me? How could you want me like I want you?"He was quiet. He wanted everything she'd just said to be the last thing he heard. He wanted to fall asleep with 'I want you' in his ears.”