quotes by David Levithan

"It doesn't have to be on Valentine's Day. It doesn't have to be by the time you turn eighteen or thirty-three or fifty-nine. It doesn't have to conform to whatever is usual. It doesn't have to be kismet at once, or rhapsody by the third date.
It just has to be. In time. In place. In spirit.
It just has to be."
— David Levithan

"We'd said we'd keep in touch. But touch is not something you can keep; as soon as it's gone, it's gone. We should have said we'd keep in words, because they are all we can string between us--words on a telephone line, words appearing on a screen."
— David Levithan

"Love and I once had a great relationship, but I fear we've broken up. It cheated on me, wrecked my heart, and then went on to date other people. A lot of other people. And I can't stand to watch it, since love's going to cheat on them too."
— David Levithan

"Love weaves itself from hundreds of threads."
— David Levithan

"Here’s what I know about the realm of possibility— it is always expanding, it is never what you think it is. Everything around us was once deemed impossible. From the airplane overhead to the phones in our pockets to the choir girl putting her arm around the metalhead. As hard as it is for us to see sometimes, we all exist within the realm of possibility. Most of the limits are of our own world’s devising. And yet, every day we each do so many things that were once impossible to us. "
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"Because the song is us and the song is her and this time I’m going to use her name. Norah, Norah, Norah - no rhymes really. Just truth.

I shouldn’t want the song to end. I always think of each night as a song. Or each moment as a song. But now I’m seeing we don’t live in a single song. We move from song to song, from lyric to lyric, from chord to chord. There is no ending here. It’s an infinite playlist."
— David Levithan (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist)

"You could be
the leaf that never falls from the tree
you could be
the sun that never leaves the sky
this might be
the happy ending without the ending
this might be
a reason to try"
— David Levithan (How They Met, and Other Stories)

"To love--to fall--is not a question.
To touch--to kiss--to speak--those are questions."
— David Levithan

"Just because a person is beautiful doesn't mean there's no soul beneath. Doesn't mean that person hasn't suffered like everyone else, doesn't mean they don't hope to still be a good human being in an awful world."
— David Levithan (Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List)

"I think one of the highest compliments you can give a person is that when you are talking to him, you are not thinking about the fact that you are talking to him. That is, your thoughts and words all exist on a single, engaged level. You are being yourself because you aren't bothering to think about who you should be. It is like when you talk in a dream."
— David Levithan (How They Met, and Other Stories)

"Remember that at any given moment there are a thousand things you can love."
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"The way you're singing in your sleep
The way you look before you leap
The strange illusions that you keep
You don't know
But I'm noticing

The way your touch turns into arcs
The way you slide into the dark
The beating of my open heart
You don't know
But I'm noticing"
— David Levithan (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist)

"I have no idea how he knows when I need him. We can go weeks without speaking, and then, when my blue moods threaten to turn black, he will show up and tell me my moods are
azure
indigo
cerulean
cobalt
periwinkle
and suddenly the blue will not seem so dark, more like the color of a noon-bright sky.
He brings the sun."
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"We pencil-sketch our previous life so we can contrast it to the technicolor of the moment. "
— David Levithan (Boy Meets Boy)

"To get something you must give something away.
To hold something you must give something away.
To love something you must give something away."
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"I've never understood why looking hot had to be equated with sex and conquest. Whatever happened to anticipation, to courtship, to true love? Can't a person look hot and not have it mean something? Call me an old-fashioned Naomi bitch, but I'm holding out for true love. Even if it's an unattainable fantasy"
— David Levithan (Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List)

"Singing in the rain. I'm singing in the rain. And it's such a fucking glorious feeling."
— David Levithan (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist)

"Maybe that's it, [...] [w]ith what you were talking about before. The world being broken. Maybe it isn't that we're supposed to find the pieces and put them back together. Maybe we're the pieces." [...] "Maybe [...] what we're supposed to do is come together. That's how we stop the breaking."
— David Levithan (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist)

"You will always be my always."
— David Levithan

"She's cinematic and I'm a fucking sitcom."
— David Levithan (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist)

"A year. A thousand kisses. And now a thousand one, a thousand two. There are so many other place we could have ended up, but I have to believe
none of them would have felt this right. "All I want is you" is not entirely true. I want so much more, and with you I think I can get it."
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"Being a bitch is easy. It's finding the alternative that's hard."
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"The word I think of is precarious. I am struck by how precarious it all is. How the things that hold us are only as strong as the faith we have in them."
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"We are so used to releasing words, we don't know what to do with them if they stay. No matter how many times we let them go, they come back. The words that matter always stay."
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"I can't pretend to know what love is. It just is."
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"I want to write my life. I want to be able to write my life.

You are a second away from saying it.


You have no idea how much I love you."
— David Levithan (How They Met, and Other Stories)

"Caroline's about to say something really harsh, but suddenly Hunter and Dev launch into a fucking Green Day cover, and we're all seven years old again and dancing like we spit out the Ritalin while Mom wasn't looking."
— David Levithan (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist)

"This is as much a part of my story as anything else. Friendship is love as much as any romance."
— David Levithan

"Maybe your history just repeats and repeats until it batters you enough to snap the seams that hold you together"
— David Levithan (Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List)

"Getting what you want is just as difficult as not getting what you want. Because then you have to figure out what to do with it instead of figuring out what to do without it. "
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"Because sometimes you just have to dance like a madman in the Self-Help section of your local bookstore."
— David Levithan (Boy Meets Boy)

"The three of us do not go out very often as the three of us. I think Daniel is perfect for Jed, which is the highest compliment I can give. But my friendship isn't with him, and Jed understands that. When we hit the road, we hit it together alone.

We get to the bridge, out undestined destination. Even though there's no sign, no arrow, Jed turns at the last minute and parks us in a verge right before the bridge leaves the ground.
The trunk pops open, and Jed runs round back to retrieve a bag of oranges and a sweatshirt that fits me better.

Shall we make like lizards and leap? he asks.

I never felt the urge to jump off a bridge, but there are times I have wanted to jump out of my life, out of my skin.

Would you stroll me down the promenade instead? I ask back.

Most certainly, my splendid.

There is no word for our kind of friendship. Two people tho don't see each other a lot, but can make each other effortlessly happy."
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

" "Maybe that's it," I say gently. "With what you were talking about before. The world being broken. Maybe it isn't that we're supposed to find the pieces and put them back together. Maybe *we're* the pieces." ... "Maybe," I say, "what we're supposed to do is come together. That's how we stop the breaking." "
— David Levithan (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist)

"A year. A thousand kisses. And now a thousand one, a thousand two. There are so many other places we could have ended up, but I have to believe none of them would have felt this right. All I want is you is not entirely true. I want so much more, and with you I think I can get it."
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"I want this world
small enough for the two of us
I want you to think of me
that way
I want this world
to crash us into marvelous
I want you to kiss me
and say:"
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"In the next election, I'm voting for your mom to be the next God."
— David Levithan

"seven wonders of the world
and I have to ask for an eighth
fill a bottle with some prayers
and spend them on hope
create an easy route
just so I can complicate
send my heart down that
slippery slope"
— David Levithan (The Realm of Possibility)

"Love is so painful, how could you ever wish it on anybody? And love is so essential, how could you ever stand in its way?"
— David Levithan

"This is as much a part of my story as anything else. Friendship is love as much as any romance."
— David Levithan (Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List)

"I think one of the highest compliments you can give a person is that when you are talking to her, you are not thinking about the fact that you are talking to her. That is, your thoughts and words all exist on a single, engaged level. You are being yourself because you aren't bothering to think about who you should be. It is like when you talk in a dream."
— David Levithan (How They Met, and Other Stories)