Sarah Dessen Quotes

“Look. We both know life is short, Macy. Too short to waste a single second with anyone who doesn't appreciate and value you.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“It's a big deal when you finally get the chance to do the one thing you want to do -need to do- more than anything. It can kind of scare the crap out of you.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that's what makes you strong.”

Source: Just Listen

“Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go.”

“I mean, it's impossible to fake anything if you've already seen the other person in a way they'd never choose for you to. You can't go back from that.”

What Happened To Goodbye (2011)
Source: What Happened to Goodbye

“No matter how much time has passed, these things still affect us and the world we live in. If you don't pay attention to the past, you'll never understand the future. It's all linked together.”

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

Sarah Dessen Quotes about time

“And for one second, it was like I could feel the timing clicking together, finally pieces falling into place.”

Source: Just Listen

“It was so risky and so scary, and yet at the same time, so beautiful. Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth.”

Source: This Lullaby

“He'd always had that fearless optimism that made cynics like me squirm. I wondered if it was enough for both of us. I would never know from here, though. And time was passing. Crucial minutes and seconds, each one capable of changing everything.”

Source: Along for the Ride

“If something doesn't work exactly right, or maybe needs some special treatment, you don't just throw it away. Everything can't be fully operational all the time. Sometimes, we need to have the patience to give something the little nudge it needs.”

Source: This Lullaby

Sarah Dessen book Keeping the Moon

Source: Keeping the Moon

“What defines you isn’t how many times you
crash, but the number of times you get back.”

“But all the love in the world won't save a sinking ship. You have to either bail or jump overboard.”

Variant: What defines you isn't how many times you crash but the number of times you get back.
Source: Along for the Ride

Sarah Dessen: Trending quotes

“It was like when you ripped a piece of paper into two: no matter how you tried, the seams never fit exactly right again.”

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

“one word could change the whole world”

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

“Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you.”

Sarah Dessen Quotes

“I mean, it's not surprising, really. Once you love something, you always love it in some way. You have to. It's, like, part of you for good.”

What Happened To Goodbye (2011)
Source: What Happened to Goodbye

“When you can't save yourself or your heart, it helps to be able to save face.”

What Happened To Goodbye (2011)
Source: What Happened to Goodbye

“Don't be a fool. Don't give up something important to hold onto someone who can't even say they love you.”

What Happened To Goodbye (2011)
Source: What Happened to Goodbye

“It wasn't about being happy or unhappy. I just didn't want to be me anymore.”

Source: Someone Like You

“There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.”

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

“Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you.”

Variant: This world is an awful/ugly place not to have a best friend.
Source: Someone Like You (1998)

“Don't think or judge, just listen.”

Source: This Lullaby

“There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you'd better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you'll never understand what it's saying.”

Source: Just Listen

“I am coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and that a soft landing is never guaranteed.”

Source: Just Listen

“It's just that… I just think that some things are meant to be broken. Imperfect. Chaotic. It's the universe's way of providing contrast, you know? There have to be a few holes in the road. It's how life is.”

Source: This Lullaby

“Sometimes it seems safer to hold it all in, where the only person who can judge is yourself.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“That was the thing. You never got used to it, the idea of someone being gone. Just when you think it's reconciled, accepted, someone points it out to you, and it just hits you all over again, that shocking.”

Variant: It seemed safer to hold it in, where the only one who could judge was me.
Source: Just Listen

“It's a lot easier to be lost than found. It's the reason we're always searching and rarely discovered--so many locks not enough keys.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

“It's all in the view. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count.”

“You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

Sarah Dessen book Keeping the Moon

Source: Keeping the Moon

“I like flaws. I think they make things interesting.”

“Holding people away from you, and denying yourself love, that doesn't make you strong. if anything, it makes you weaker. Because you're doing it out of fear.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“Silence is so freaking loud”

Source: This Lullaby

“Because this is what happens when you try to run from the past. It just doesn’t catch up, it overtakes … blotting out the future.”

Source: Just Listen

“There comes a time in every life when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your heart.”

Source: Just Listen

“Everyone has their weak spot. The one thing that, despite your best efforts, will always bring you to your knees, regardless of how strong you are otherwise.”

Source: Just Listen

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

“All I'd ever wanted was to forget. but even when I thought I had, pieces had kept emerging, like bits of wood floating up to the surface that only hint at the shipwreck below.”

“You can't always get the perfect moment. Sometimes, you just have to do the best you can under the circumstances.”

Source: Just Listen

“What you need, what you deserve, is a guy who adores you for what you are. Who doesn't see you as a project, but a prize. you know?”

“It was just one of those things," I said, "You know, that just happen. You don't think or plan. You just do it.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“Shoulda, coulda, woulda. It's so easy in the past tense.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“Relationships dont always make sense. Especially from the outside”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“The fate of your heart is your choice and no one else gets a vote”

Source: Along for the Ride

“Wherever you will go,
I will let you down,
But this lullaby goes on.”

Source: This Lullaby

“Life is full of screwups. You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existance.”

Source: This Lullaby

“There are some things in this world you rely on, like a sure bet. And when they let you down, shifting from where you've carefully placed them, it shakes your faith, right where you stand.”

Variant: You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existence
-Eli
Source: Along for the Ride

“What you have to decide… is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, would this be how you'd want to have spent it? Listen, the truth is, nothing is guaranteed. You know that more than anybody. So dont be afraid. Be alive.”

Source: Someone Like You (1998)

“I wondered which was harder, in the end. The act of telling, or who you told it to. Or maybe if, when you finally got it out, the story was really all that mattered.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“There has to be a middle. Without it, nothing can ever truly be whole. Because it is not just the space between, but also what holds everything together.”

Source: Just Listen

“I had no illusions about love anymore. It came, it went, it left casualties or it didn't. People weren't meant to be together forever, regardless of what the songs say.”

Source: Just Listen

“I was beginning to see, though, that the unknown wasn't always the greatest thing to fear. The people who know you best can be risker, because the words they say and things they think have the potential to be not only scary but true, as well.”

“Grief can be a burden, but also an anchor. You get used to the weight, how it holds you in place.”

Source: Just Listen

“Sometimes, we just have to be happy with what people can offer us. Even if it's not what we want, at least it's something.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“So many versions of just one memory, and yet none of them were right or wrong. Instead, they were all pieces. Only when fitted together, edge to edge, could they even begin to tell the whole story.”

“I have to admit, an unrequited love is so much better than a real one. I mean, it's perfect… As long as something is never even started, you never have to worry about it ending. It has endless potential.”

Source: Just Listen

“You couldn't just pick and choose at will when someone depended on you, or loved you. It wasn't like a light switch, easy to turn on or off. If you were in, you were in. Out, you were out.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“An ending was an ending. No matter how many pages of sentences and paragraphs of great stories led up to it, it would always have the last word.”

Source: Along for the Ride

“the truth about forever is that it is happening right now”

Source: Along for the Ride

“Friends are honest with each other. Even if the truth hurts.
-Maggie”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“If this was my forever, I wouldn't want to spend it here.”

Source: Along for the Ride

“Everything, in the end, comes down to timing. One second, one minute, one hour could make all the difference.”

Source: The Truth About Forever

“I just thought to my self, all of a sudden, that we had something in common. A natural chemistry, if you will. And I had a feeling that something big was going to happen. To both of us. That we were, in fact, meant to be together.”

Source: This Lullaby

“You can't make any one person your world. The trick is to take what each can give you and build a world from it.”

Source: This Lullaby