He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee. I could have looked at him forever.

Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.

It shattered something inside me that hadn't been broken before.

Better than chocolate, being with you last night. Silly me, I thought that nothing was better than chocolate.

They know that tragedy is not glamorous. They know it doesn't play out in life as it does on a stage or between the pages of a book. It is neither a punishment meted out nor a lesson conferred. Its horrors are not attributable to one single person. Tragedy is ugly and tangled, stupid and confusing.

I can't forget things, or ignore them-bad things that happen," I said. "I'm a lay-it-all-out person, a dwell-on-it person, an obsess-about-it person. If I hold things in and try to forget or pretend, I become a madman and have panic attacks. I have to talk.

I think it was the institution...I was trying to master it.

When you hate someone you used to love, and you think he's done something awful - he probably has.

It's not objective. It's subjective.” Katya hooks her bra behind her back. “It's just what you think, not the truth.

See the world as it is, not as you wish it would be

Maybe a friend is someone who wants your updates. Even if they're boring. Or sad. Or annoyingly cutesy. A friend says "Sign me up for your boring crap, yes indeed"--because he likes you anyways. He'll tolerate your junk

One day, she ventured to the palace library and was delighted to find what good company books could be.

Get over it, Roo. If you have friends who actually like you, you’re popular enough.

Meghan pushed her chocolate cheesecake across the table to me. I hadn’t gotten paid yet for November, so I had only ordered coffee. “Here,” she said.“Don’t you want it?”“Sure I want it. I ordered it. But I’m giving it to you.”“Why?”Meghan stood up and got me a fork. “Remember what Nora said about love? In your movie?”“Love is when you have a really amazing piece of cake, and it’s the very last piece, but you let him have it,” I said.“So it’s really amazing cake,” said Meghan. “And I want you to have it.

..we'll deal with it, because the good outweighs the bad.

Gideon laughed. "I like to be direct.""Okay," I said. "But I warn you, I like to be evasive, inserutable and generally send mixed messages." "I doubt it.""Human interaction is not my strong point," I told him. "Not seriously.""Seriously," I said. Thinking: There is so much about me he doesn't know. Gideon put his hand on my leg. "What's your strong point, then?""Goats," I told him. "I am excellent with goats.

When blood dripped on my bare feet or poured over the book I was reading, he was kind.

Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest. I was standing on the lawn and I fell. The bullet hole opened wide and my heart rolled out of my rib cage and down into a flower bed. Blood gushed rhythmically from my open wound,then from my eyes,my ears,my mouth.It tasted like salt and failure. The bright red shame of being unloved soaked the grass in front of our house, the bricks of the path, the steps of the porch. My heart spasmed among the peonies like a trout.

I know they're not getting divorced or anything, but when your parents argue it makes the whole universe seem like it's tipping, like everything could change if they got mad enough at each other, like the world isn't a safe place.And of course, that's true, isn't it? The world is not a safe place.

For the old people in my family—Mummy, the aunties, Granddad—the accumulation of beautiful objects is a life goal.Whoever dies with the most stuff wins.Wins what? is what I’d like to know.

You have some balls."Frankie hated that expression, ever since Zada had pointed out to her that it equates courage with the male equipment...

I can feel like a hag some days if I want! And I can tell everybody how insecure I am if I want! Or I can be pretty and pretend to think I'm a hag out of fake modesty –- I can do that if I want, too. Because you, Livingston, are not the boss of me and what kind of girl I become.

So she did not replay, but played the strategist. She retained more power by withholding an answer.

When there's a negative word or expression-immaculate, for example-but the positive is almost never used, and you choose to use it, you become rather amusing. Or pretentious. Or pretentiously amusing, which can sometimes be good. In any case, you are uncovering a buried word.

My head and shoulders melted first, followed by my hips and knees. Before long I was a puddle, soaking into the pretty cotton prints. I drenched the quilt she never finished, rusted the metal parts of her sewing machine. I was pure liquid loss...

My boyfriend is named Percocet," I say. "We're very close. I even went to Europe with him last summer.

Noel: A lot of people see friends as something you have on Twitter or Facebook or wherever. If someone wants to read your updates and you want to read their updates, then you’re friends. You don’t ever have to see each other. But that seems like a stupid definition to me. Roo: Yeah.Noel: Although on the other hand, rethink. Maybe a friend is someone who wants your updates. Even if they’re boring. Or sad. Or annoyingly cutesy. A friend says, “Sign me up for your boring crap, yes indeed” – because he likes you anyway. He’ll tolerate your junk. Roo: You have lots of friends. Noel: No, I don’t. Roo: You do. You know everyone at school. You get invited to parties. Noel: I get invited to parties, yeah. And I know people. But I don’t want their updates. Roo: Oh. Noel: And I sincerely doubt they want mine. Roo: I want your updates. Noel: I want your updates. (He looks down, bashfully.) I do. I want all your updates, Ruby.

Roo: What’s your definition of popularity?Hutch: I used to think people were popular because they were good-looking, or nice, or funny, or good at sports. Roo: Aren’t they?Hutch: I’d think, if I could just be those things, I’d – you know – have more friends than I do. But in seventh grade, when Jackson and those guys stopped hanging out with me, I tried as hard as I could to get them to like me again. But then . . . (shaking his head as if to clear it) I don’t really wanna talk about it. Roo: What happened? Hutch: They just did some ugly stuff to me is all. And really, it was for the best. Roo: Why?Hutch: Because I was cured. I realized the popular people weren’t nice or funny or great-looking. They just had power, and they actually got the power by teasing people or humiliating them – so people bonded to them out of fear. Roo: Oh. Hutch: I didn’t want to be a person who could act like that. I didn’t want to ever speak to any person who could act like that. Roo: OhHutch: So then I wasn’t trying to be popular anymore. Roo: Weren’t you lonely?Hutch: I didn’t say it was fun. (He bites his thumbnail, bonsai dirt and all.) I said it was for the best.

Touching him is familiar and unfamiliar. We have been here before. Also we have never been here before.

Be a little kinder than you have to.

Never eat anything bigger than your ass.

Another thing that happens in the movies: They all have these dramatic crises where everything looks bleak and you think the couple will never, ever get back together. But then they realize they can't live without each other, and in the end they live happily ever after.It's all a lie. When you hate someone you used to love, and you think he's done something awful-he probably has.You're not going to love him again.He's not going to apologize, or come back to you.He probably doesn't even ever think about you at all, because he's too busy thinking about someone else.

Suffer. You could say it means endure, but that's not exactly right

suffer. you could say it means endure, but thats not exactly right

The universe is seeming really huge right now. I need something to hold on to.

She will not be simple and sweet.She will not be what people tell her she should be.

If you don't want to be in an argument with someone, it is probably best to try to solve the problem, rather than lying around hoping the other person will do it for you.

The island is ours. Here, in some way, we are young forever.

The movies make the brooding guy the hero – the guy with problems the guy who carries a gun, the gun with unresolved anger, the guy with a chip on his shoulder, the guy who’s a vampire – and they tell you that you can have the mythical happy ending with that same brooding guy. But in reality, the brooding guy is cranky. He doesn’t reply to emails. He doesn’t call. He’s only half there when you’re talking to him, and he doesn’t chase you when you run. You feel insecure all the time. You get needy and sad and you hate yourself got being needy. If you don’t know why he’s brooding, you’re shut out.And if you do know why he’s brooding, you’re still shut out. (Because he’s busy brooding.)

Don't worry,' she told him. 'I am exceptionally good at keeping secrets.'- Frankie Landau-Banks

Secrets are more powerful when people know you've got them," said Mr. Sutton. "You show them the tiniest edge of your secret, but the rest you keep under wraps.

Go on, strike, said the witch, smiling. Fire is beautiful. Nothing bad will happen.

In fact, the mark of tragedy became, with time, a mark of glamour.

Our kiss was electric and soft,and tentative and certain,terrifying and exactly right.I felt the love rush from me to Gat and from Gat to me.We were warm and shivering,and young and ancient,and alive.I was thinking, It's true. We already love each other.We already do.

Always do what you're afraid to do. ...I will prove myself strong when they think I am sick. I will prove myself brave when they think I am weak.

I say, thirteen is too many dogs for good mental health. Five is pretty much the limit. More than five dogs and you forfeit your right to call yourself entirely sane.Even if the dogs are small.

Divorce shreds the muscles of our hearts so that they will hardly beat without a struggle.

Whoever dies with the most stuff wins.

I wanted so much for us: a life free of constriction and prejudice. A life free to love and be loved.

There was nothing I could say in retaliation except something that would confuse her.