Sarah Dessen

“So finally, I decided that the best response — the safest — was none at all.”

“It felt so weird, to be on the other side, where you were the one expected to offer condolences, not receive them. I wanted my "sorry" to sound genuine, because it was. That was the hard thing about grief, and the grieving. They spoke another language, and the words we knew always fell short of what we wanted to say.”

“And to know me, as you have discovered, is to love me.”

“In midair, dangling lost above the world.”

“In that distant, hopeful way unreal things can be.”

“Just remember: the heart! Start there, and you can't go wrong.”

“Timing clicking together, finally, pieces falling into place.”

“Are you crazy? Flirting with EliStock in front of Belissa Norwood, in Belissa Norwood’s house, while eating Belissa Norwood’scupcakes? ”

“Just because we don’t see eye to eye on everything doesn’t mean we can’t be close.”

“This isn’t ideal. Very few things are. Sometimes, you have to manufacture your own history. Give fate a push, so to speak. You know?”

“She started out of the kitchen, then stopped and put her hand on my shoulder, bending down to kiss me gently on the forehead. She smelled like vanilla and Joy perfume, and suddenly I felt like I might start crying again. "You really scared me, Caitlin," she said, smiling as she brushed her fingers through my hair. "I don't know what I would do if something happened to you." I could tell her, I told myself. I could tell her right now and fix this. I could say that he hits me and I hate cheerleading and I miss Cass but I know why she left and I wish I could make everything better but I can't, I can't, I can't even tell you where it hurts, not now. "Don't worry," I said instead, as she ruffled my hair and walked away, my mother, to do what she did best, to take care of me. "I'm fine.”

“She had made her choice, and this was it, where she felt safe, in a world she could, for the most part, control. Page 328”

“Because now, I didn't care what they thought. It wasn't new, this realization that I would never be like them. What was different now was that I was glad.Macy page 199”

“When she finally finished a few minutes later, it was hard to tell if she was even aware that the crowds had thinned... Watching them, I thought again of how we can't expect everybody to be there for us, all at once. So it's a lucky thing that really, all you need is someone.”

“And now she was found, no longer lost. Like a bag I'd given up for good suddenly reappearing in the middle of the night on my doorstep, packed for a journey I'd long ago forgotten. It was odd, considering I'd gotten accustomed to her being nowhere and anywhere, to finally know where my mother was. An exact location, pinpointed. Like she'd crossed over from my imagination, where I'd created a million different lives for her, back into this one.”

“...I'd been caught up in some wild cyclone, like Dorothy throw into Oz, with not a good witch in sight to save me.”

“Isabel had hated me on sight, and not because I was fat. Just because she could.”

“Meow,' Cat Norman said simply, parking his big butt by my foot and looking up at me. 'Meow.' 'I hate you,' I told him. He didn't even flinch.”

“She stroked my hair and told me I was beautiful, but I was old enough by then to know not to believe it anymore.”

“You're not the kind of person who smiles for nothing, Colie. I have to earn every one.”

“Norman was never one for exactness, exactly.”

“It's not always so simple, Haven. Sometimes there isn't a good guy and a bad guy. Sometimes even the ones you want to believe turn out to be liars.”

“Sometimes things don't turn out the way you want them to, Haven. Sometimes the people you choose to believe are wrong.”

“A united front announcing a split.”

“Hey, think fast!'I just looked at Fave as he chucked the basketball at me with possibly the worst overhand throw I'd ever seen. It landed to my far right, then bounced past me, banging against my dad's truck.'Do you have a vision problem of something?' I asked him.'Just keeping you on your toes,' he replied”

“Stop it. Seriously. This isn't funny.''You're right.' A pause. 'It's pathetic.”

“Which is this magical listening station, whereupon all musical worth is decided?”

“In the end, though, maybe it's not how you reach a place that matters. Just that you get there at all.”

“I would have thought this would make me feel better.. getting to be the one to leave and not the one left behind. But it didn't. Not at all.”

“You can't be together, which is exactly why you want to be.”

“I wondered what kind of girl she'd be, and if she'd ever see the comet that was her name, and Grandma Halley's, and mine. I knew I'd try, one day, to take her and show her the sky, hold her against my lap as I told her how the comet went overhead, how it was clear and beautiful, and special, just like her. I hoped that Grace would be a little bit of the best of all of us; Scarlett's spirit, and my mother's strength, Marion's determination, and Michael's sly humor. I wasn't sure what I could give, not just yet. But I knew when I told her about the comet, years from now, I would know. And I would lean close to her ear, saying the words no one else could hear, explaining it all. The language of solace, and comets, and the girls we all become, in the end.”

“I'd been running for years: there was nothing scarier, to me, than to just be still with someone. And yet, there on that dark road, going home, I was.”

“I thought of all the times we'd been together, how I kept coming closer, then retreating, while he stayed right where he was. A constant in a world where few, if any, really existed.”

“It was as familiar to me as a song I'd been hearing my whole life, covered by various people but the basic tune the same.”

“The end of a wedding reception is always so depressing. And only the bride and groom are spared, jetting off into the sunset while the rest of us wake up the next morning to just another day.”

“And don't change for a guy, ever," Leah added. "If they're worthy, they'll like you just the way you are.”

“Tantas veces vemos una oportunidad de detener las cosas antes de que empiecen. O incluso de pararlas a medio camino. Pero era incluso peor cuando sabías en ese preciso momento que todavía estabas a tiempo de salvarte, sin embargo eras incapaz de moverte”

“very quietly, I heard a voice in my ear.It said, in a weird, cheesy, right-out-of-one-of-my-mother’s-novels way, “Ah. Wemeet again.” I turned my head, just slightly, and right there, practically on top of me, was theguy from the car dealership. He was wearing a red Mountain Fresh Detergent T-shirt—not just fresh: mountain fresh!—it proclaimed, and was smiling at me. “Oh,God,” I said. “No, it’s Dexter,”

“If you’ll all just follow me over to our top sector here, I’ll start your guided tour.”Ellis got up, then followed Riley and Heather, who was dragging her feet, as they fell in behind Deb. “Are there going to be snacks?” heasked. “I do my best work with snacks.”

“I know what you’re thinking,” Ellis said, hitting the key remote in his hand. “It’s pretty much the most stunning example of vehicular perfectionever.”We all stood there, watching as the back door of the sky blue van slid open, revealing two rows of seats, the rear of which was stacked withsoccer balls and various pairs of cleats.“Don’t try to point out to him that it is just a minivan,” Heather said, climbing into the backseat and pushing a ball onto the floor. “We’ve tried.”

“Doesn't it seem sometimes that the whole world's uphill but at least we know the way back will be easy...”

“So this had been all I wanted, a boy who understood how I felt. Now, though, I sometimes wished for more.”

“Yo solo pense para mi mismo, asi subitamente, que nosotros teniamos algo en comun. Una quimica natural, si tu deseas. Y yo tenia un sentimiento que algo grande iba a pasar. A ambos. Que nosotros estabamos, de hecho, hecho para estar juntos.”

“Tu pasado siempre es tu pasado. Aun si lo olvidas, te recuerda.”

“Yo había pensado que no tenia una casa. Pero justo ahí, justo en ese momento, me di cuenta de que estaba equivocada. Hogar no era una casa, o un pueblo en un mapa. Era donde sea que estuviera la gente que amas, donde sea que estén juntos.No un lugar, sino un momento, y luego otro, construyéndose uno sobre otro como ladrillos para construir un sólido refugio que te gustaría conservar por el resto de tu vida, sin importar a donde vayas.”

“Life's too short to worry about the little things. Enjoy what you have today, not what you might get tomorrow”

“Quiet and incredible. I really envy that.”

“El amor es aguantar malas cualidades de alguien, por que de alguna manera, te completa. -Lissa”

“Pensé en todo lo que fue lavado una y otra vez. Hacemos este tipo de revoltijos en esta vida, tanto por accidente como a propósito. Pero limpiar la superficie realmente no hace que nada mejore. Solo enmascara lo que está por debajo. Es sólo cuando realmente cavas en lo profundo, que vas a lo subterráneo, que puedes ver quién eres realmente.”

“En Montford Falls, el primer lugar al que me mude cuando me fui, me llame Eliza. El vecindario donde vivíamos era donde vivían todas estas familias felices, como algo de un viejo show de televisión.En el siguiente lugar, Petree, todos eran ricos. Era Lizbet, y vivíamos en este elevado complejo de apartamentos, todo en oscura madera y aplicaciones de metal. Era como algo sacado de una revista: incluso el ascensor era silencioso.Cuando nos mudamos a Westcott, teníamos una casa en la playa, tan soleada y cálida, y podía llevar flip-flops todo el año si quería. El primer día me presente como Beth.En Lakeview, la casa tenía un aro de baloncesto. Yo iba a ser Liz Sweet.”