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David Levithan Quotes
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David Levithan is an American young adult fiction author and editor. His first book, Boy Meets Boy, was published by Knopf Books for Young Readers in 2003. He has written numerous works featuring strong male gay characters, most notably Boy Meets Boy and Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List.

At 19, Levithan received an internship at Scholastic Corporation where he began working on The Baby-sitters Club series. Levithan still works for Scholastic as an editorial director. Levithan is also the founding editor of PUSH, a young-adult imprint of Scholastic Press focusing on new voices and new authors. PUSH publishes edgier material for young adults and is where Patricia McCormick got her start with 2002's Cut.

In an interview with Barnes & Noble, Levithan claimed that he learned how to write books that were both funny and touching from Judith Viorst's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. He continues to work as both a writer and editor saying, "I love editing just as much, if not more than writing". Levithan's first collaboration with Rachel Cohn, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, was published in 2006 and adapted for the big screen in 2008. His novel Love is the Higher Law was published in August 2009 by Knopf Books for Young Readers.

Levithan has been a resident of Hoboken, New Jersey.

In 2016, Levithan won the Margaret A. Edwards Award for The Realm of Possibility, Boy Meets Boy, Love Is the Higher Law, How They Met and Other Stories, Wide Awake, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

✵ 7. September 1972  •  Other names דיוויד לויתן
David Levithan photo
David Levithan: 447 quotes17 likes

David Levithan Quotes

“We walk into a bar, and you're aware of all the eyes on you.
We walk into a bar, and I'm aware of all the eyes on you, too.
For you, this translate into confidence. But me?
All I can feel is doubt.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

“There is certainty in a ring.
The non-ending, the non-beginning.
The ongoing.
The way it holds on to you
not because it's fastened
or stretched or adhered.
It holds on
because it fits.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“It looks like Animal and Miss piggy had sex," I said. "And this was the spawn."
"My eyes!" Boomer cried. "My eyes! I can't stop seeing it now that you've said it!”

David Levithan

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“You wanna-I dunno-get coffee or something sometime?"

Justin smiled "Not coffee. But yes."

"Not Coffee it is, then."

"Yes, Not Coffee.”

David Levithan

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

“Once you experience enormity, it lingers everywhere you look, and want to be every word you say.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“I've lost track of where friendship ends and falling begins.
(this is the foolish refrain of the hopelessly devoted.)
there are times I want to kiss you midsentence.
undo the not-doing with one gesture.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“The words that matter always stay.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“All I get is tomorrow.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“Every relationship has a hard part at the beginning. This is our hard part. It's not like a puzzle piece where there's an instant fit. With relationships, you have to shape the pieces on each end before they go perfectly together.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“Every single answer starts with the phrase 'I don't know.' But most of the time she does know, if I give her the time and the space in which to answer.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“It was one of those moments when you feel the future so much that it humbles the present.”

David Levithan

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“Simple and complicated, as most true things are.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Variant: It’s as simple as that. Simple and complicated, as most true things are.
Source: Every Day

“We found out a long time ago that we weren’t meant to fall in love with each other. But a part of me still fell in hope with him.”

David Levithan

“Neophyte, n.

There are millions upon millions of people who have been through this before-- why is it that no one can give my good advice?”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

“It's not the easy things that let you get to know a person.”

David Levithan

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

“How amazing it is that friendships can become so full that you can't imagine what your life was like before them.”

David Levithan book Love Is the Higher Law

Source: Love Is the Higher Law

“Things rarely get fixed the way they need to be.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

“hurt tends to drown out sorry.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“As if when someone close to us dies, we momentarily trade places with them, in the moment right before. And as we get over it, we’re really living their life in reverse, from death to life, from sickness to health.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“Life tells you to take the elevator, but love tells you to take the stairs.”

David Levithan

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

“If goodness can't come from bad things, it makes bad things unbearable.”

David Levithan book Love Is the Higher Law

Source: Love Is the Higher Law

“and when he
catches me
off guard
and says
'i love you'
i catch him
off guard
and say 'i need your help.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“It's like you're a character in this book that everyone around you is writing, and suddenly you have to say, 'I'm sorry, but this role isn't right for me'. And you have to start writing your own life and doing your own thing.”

David Levithan

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

“The minute I knew I was in love was the minute when there was no question about it.”

David Levithan

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

“Someday your prince will come," I assure him.
"And the first thing I'm going to say to him is, 'What took you so long?”

David Levithan Boy Meets Boy

Source: Boy Meets Boy

“It wouldn't be fair to ask you to be around me when I'm so sick of being around me.”

David Levithan book Another Day

Source: Another Day

“.

In the end, we both want the right thing to happen, the right person to win, the right idea to prevail. We have no faith that it will, but still we want it. Neither of us has given up on anything.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

“In my experience, desire is desire, love is love. I have never fallen in love for a gender. I have fallen for individuals. I know this is hard for people to do, but I don’t understand why it’s so hard, when it’s so obvious.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“A guy can do far far worse than surrounding himself with people who restore his faith in humanity.”

David Levithan

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“I have become very good at clearing histories.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“I think they have compatible silences.”

David Levithan Boy Meets Boy

Source: Boy Meets Boy

“And it doesn’t even matter if it’s true or not. What matters is that I feel it, and believe it.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Variant: I feel the universe is telling me something. And it doesn't even matter if it's true or not. What matters is that I feel it, and believe it.
Source: Every Day

“Your life is inescapable. Unless you decide to escape it.”

David Levithan

Every You, Every Me

“I am breathing. In dreams, we never bother to breathe.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“tiny: did someone die?
me: yeah, i did.
he smiles again at that.
tiny: well, then… welcome to the afterlife.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“If you play your cards right, the next generation will have so much more than you did.”

David Levithan

Source: Two Boys Kissing

“Told her she was beautiful. Didn't give up when she didn't believe me.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“It felt good to be surrounded by books, by all this solid knowledge, by these objects that could be ripped page by page but couldn't be torn if the pages all held together.”

David Levithan book Wide Awake

Source: Wide Awake

“I say good-bye to hope, but I also say good-bye to hope's disappointment.”

David Levithan

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

“He was attractive. I knew that. And I knew that attractive people always got away with things.”

David Levithan book Every You, Every Me

Source: Every You, Every Me

“I try to be a careful person. Most of the time my carelessness is completely unintentional.”

David Levithan book Every You, Every Me

Source: Every You, Every Me

“But there was something about you that made me think of sparks and motion.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

“Hello, my name is ees Lebkuchen Spice, and I vant to show you my coooooookies…”

David Levithan

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“If I'm not telling you something, it's for a reason. Just because you trust me, it doesn't mean I have to automatically trust you. Trust doesn't work like that.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“She is my first and only love. Most people know that their first love will not be their only love. But for me, she is both.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“sup? i'm working. on what? my suicide note. i can't figure out how to end it. lol”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“me: you know what sucks about love?
o. w. g.: what?
me: that it's so tied to the truth.

I know it sucks, but in a way, it's good…. Love and truth being tied together, I mean. They make each other possible, you know?”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“I know I should just leave. Just go. Because there's a point where a mistake turns into a big mistake, and I should probably come to my senses before I get there.”

David Levithan

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List