Sarah Dessen Quotes

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“If you didn't love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love and everything that followed it is part of letting it go.”

“You can't just plan a moment when things get back on track, just as you can't plan the moment you lose your way in the first place.”

“I don't get it,' Caroline said, bemused. 'She's the only one with wings. Why is that?'
There were so many questions in life. You couldn't ever have all the answers. But I knew this one.
It's so she can fly,' I said. Then I started to run.”

“I don't know. Just because someone's pretty doesn't mean she's decent. Or vice versa. I'm not into appearances. I like flaws, I think they make things interesting.”

“But if everything was always smooth and perfect, you'd get too used to that, you know? You have to have a little bit of disorganization now and then. Otherwise, you'll never really enjoy it when things go right.”

“It was like when you're a little kid and you run into your teacher or librarian at the grocery store or Wal-mart and it's just so startling, because it never occurred to you they existed outside of school.”

“Not everything's perfect, especially in the beginning. And its all right to have a little bit of regret every once in a while. It's when you feel it all the time and can't do anything about it… that's when you get into trouble”

“But if something was really important, fate made sure it somehow came back to you and gave you another chance.”

“Family isn’t something that’s supposed to be static, or set. People marry in, divorce out. They’re born, they die. It’s always evolving, turning into something else.”

“She fell, she hurt, she felt. She lived. And for all the tumble of her experiences, she still had hope. Maybe this next time would do the trick. Or maybe not. But unless you stepped into the game, you would never know.”

“for once, you believed in yourself. you believed you were beautiful and so did the rest of the world.”

“Only a weak person needed someone else around all the time.”

“Look, the point is there's no way to be a hundred percent sure about anyone or anything. So you're left with a choice. Either hope for the best or just expect the worst.”

“I thought again how you could never really know what you were seeing with just a glance, in motion, passing by. Good or bad, right or wrong. There was always so much more.”

“He always did the leaving. But not this time. She kept walking, and did not look back.”

“If you expect the worst, you'll never be disappointed.”

“Like a word on a page that you’ve printed and read a million times, that suddenly looks strange or wrong, foreign. And you feel scared for a second, like you’ve lost something, even if you’re not sure what it is.”

“So maybe it wasn't the fairy tale. But those stories weren't real anyway. Mine were.”

“Sometimes a question can hurt more than an answer.”

“I realized how truly hard it was, really, to see someone you love change right before your eyes. Not only is it scary, it throws your balance off as well.”

“But that was the problem with having the answers. It was only after you gave them that you realized they sometimes weren't what people wanted to hear.”

“It was amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly were you needed to be.”

“Pieces and parts were always easier to process. The full picture, the entire story, was another thing entirely. But you just never knew. Sometimes, people could surprise you.”

“Love is so unpredictable. That's what makes it so great.”

“All you could do was take on as much weight as you can bear. And if you're lucky, there's someone close enough by to shoulder the rest.”

“So while it seemed like you were seeing everything, you really weren't. Just bits and pieces that looked like a whole.”

“There's just something obvious about emptiness, even when you try to convince yourself otherwise.”

“I just don't know," I said, my voice sounding bumby, not like mine, "how do you help someone who doesn't want your help. What do you do when you can't do anything?”

“I was worn out, broken: He had taken almost everything. But he'd been all I'd had, all this time. And when the police led him away, I pulled out of the hands of all these loved one, sobbing, screaming, everything hurting, to try and make him stay.”

“The further you go, the more you have to be proud of. At the same time, in order to come a long way, you have to be behind to begin with. IN the end, though maybe it's not how you reach a place that matters. Just that you get there at all.”

“It was always late at night, when everything and everyone else was quiet, that those voices would rise like ghosts, soft and haunting, filling your mind until sleep finally came.”

“You can't just turn your heart off like a faucet; you have to go to the source and dry it out, drop by drop.”

“But it was okay not to fit in everywhere, as long as you did somewhere.”

“I wondered if he ever thought of me, and hated the pang I felt when I told myself he didn't.”

“Because the truth sometimes hurts," I said.
Yeah," he said. "So do lies, though.”

“This is exactly what i wanted, as commitments had never really been my thing. And it wasn't like it was hard, either. The only trick was never giving more than you were willing to lose.”

“But sometimes you lose. Nothing you can do but admit it.
-Eli”

“Right now, though, I wanted not to think forward or backward, but only to lose myself in the words.”

“Are those the only options? Nothing or forever?”

“He was the closest thing I'd ever had to something, or someone, that mattered. But in the end, close didn't count. You were either in, or you weren't.”

“The bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike. As long as it's one more. you're all good.”

“It's so, so stupid what we do to ourselves because we're afraid. It's so stupid.”

“And that was it. All this buildup to a great leap, and I didn't fall or fly. Instead I found myself back on the edge of the cliff, blinking, wondering if I'd ever jumped at all. It's not supposed to be like this.”

“After everything that happened, how could I miss him? But I did, I did.”

“The worst thing you can do if you miss or need someone is let them know it.”

“Who says there has to be a point?" He asked. "Or a reason. Maybe it's just something you have to do.”

“No one could tell you: you just had to go through it on your own. If you were lucky, you came out on the other side and understood. If you didn't, you kept getting thrust back, retracing those steps, until you finally got it right.”

“And always remember how much your crazy sister loves you.”

“People don't change. If anything, you get more set in your ways as you get older, not less”