Jenny Han > Quotes

“Moments, when lost, can't be found again. They're just gone.”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“It's the imperfections that make things beautiful”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“In the dark you can feel really close to a person. You can say whatever you want.”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“I will never look at you in the same way ever again. I'll never be that girl again. The girl who comes running back every time you push her away, the girl who loves you anyway.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“How do you regret one of the best nights of your entire life? You don't. You remember every word, every look. Even when it hurts, you still remember.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“He didn’t give me flowers or candy. He gave me the moon and the stars. Infinity

-Belly Conklin-”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“Best friends are important. They're the closest thing to a sister you'll ever have.”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“And no matter what you do or how hard you try, you can’t stop
yourself from dreaming.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“Victory is a thousand times sweeter when you're the underdog.”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“He was marrying my girl, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I just had to watch it happen, because he was my brother, because I promised. Take care of him, Connie. I’m counting on you .”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“We stood there, looking at each other, saying nothing. But it was the kind of nothing that meant everything.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“When you walk on the beach at night, you can say things you can't say in real life.”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“But just because you bury something, that doesn’t mean it stops existing. Those feelings, they’d been there all along. All that time. I had to face it. He was part of my DNA. I had brown hair and I had freckles and I would always have Conrad in my heart. ”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“I release you. I evict you from my heart. Because if I don't do it now, I never will.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“I love Jere more than anybody. He’s my brother, my family. I hate myself for doing this. But when I see you two together, I hate him too.” His voice broke.
“Don’t marry him. Don’t be with him. Be with me.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“How is a person supposed to prepare for what happens tomorrow when there's just no figuring out today?”
― Jenny Han

“Would you rather live one perfect day over and over or live your life with no perfect days but just decent ones?”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“Things couldn't stay the same forever.”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“He started to say something, maybe an apology and maybe not, and then he stopped, he leaned over and pulled me toward him - like by gravitational force. He kissed me, hard, and his skin was stubbly and rough against my cheek. My first thought was, I guess he didn't have time to shave this morning, and then - I was kissing him back, my fingers winding through his soft yellow hair and my eyes closed. He kissed like he was drowning and I was air. It was passionate, and desperate, and like nothing I had ever experienced before.
This was what people meant when they said the earth stopped turning. It felt like a world outside of that car, that moment, didn't exist. It was just us.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“It’s a known fact that in life, you can’t have everything. In my heart I knew I loved them both, as much as possible to love two people at the same time. Conrad and I were linked, we would always be linked. That wasn’t something I could do away with. I knew that now—that love wasn’t something you could erase, no matter how hard you tried.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“A fight is like a fire. You think you have it under control, you think you can stop it whenever you want, but before you know it, it’s living, breathing thing and there’s no controlling it and you were a fool to think you could.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“There are moments in life that you wish with all your heart you could take back. Like, just erase from existence. Like, if you could, you'd erase yourself right out of existence too, just to make that moment not exist.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“He came up and kissed me on my forehead, and before he stepped away, I closed my eyes and tried hard to memorize this moment. I wanted to remember him exactly as he was right then, how his arms looked brown against his white shirt, the way his hair was cut a little too short in the front. Even the bruise, there because of me.
Then he was gone.
Just for that moment, the thought that I might never see him again…it felt worse than death. I wanted to
run after him. Tell him anything, everything. Just don’t go. Please just never go. Please just always be near me,so I can at least see you.
Because it felt final. I always believed that we would find our way back to each other every time. That no matter what, we would be connected—by our history, by this house. But this time, this last time, it felt final. Like I would never see him again, or that when I did, it would be different, there would be a mountain between us.
I knew it in my bones. That this time was it. I had finally made my choice, and so had he. He let me go. I was relieved, which I expected. What I didn’t expect was to feel so much grief.
Bye Bye, Birdie.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“I’m sorry for screwing everything up. I hurt you again, and for that I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I don’t want to do that anymore. So … I’m not going to stay
for the wedding. I’m just going to take off now. I won’t see you again, not for a long time. Probably for the best. Being near you like this, it hurts. And
Jere”—Conrad cleared his throat and stepped backward, making space between us—“he’s the one who needs you.”
Hoarsely, he said, “I need you to know that no matter what happens, it was worth it to me. Being with you, loving you. It was all worth it”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“I’ve only ever loved two boys—both of them with the last name Fisher. Conrad was first, and I loved him in a way that you can really only do the first time around. It’s the kind of love that doesn’t know better and doesn’t want to—it’s dizzy and foolish and fierce. That kind of love is really a one-time-only thing.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“She and I were still friends, but not best friends, not like we used to be. But we were still friends. She'd known me my whole life. It's hard to throw away history. It was like you were throwing away a part of yourself.”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“There hadn’t been one specific moment. It was like gradualy waking up. You go from being asleep to the space between dreaming and awake and then into consciousness. It’s a slow process, but when you’re awake, there’s no mistaking it. There was no mistaking that it had been love.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“I hated to leave her and I hated to
be near her,
because she made me remember what I wanted most to forget.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“You never know the last time you’ll see a place. A person.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“I laid myself fucking bare last night! I put it all out there, and you shut me down. Rightfully so. I get that I shouldn’t have said any of that stuff to you. But now here I am trying to find a way to come out of this with just a little fragment of pride so I can look you in the eye when this is all over, and you won’t even let me have that. You broke my heart last night, all right? Is that what you want to hear?”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“Maybe that was how it was with all first loves. They own a little piece of you heart, always.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“That's when I finally got it. I finally understood. It wasn't the thought that counted. It was the actual execution that mattered, the showing up for somebody. The intent behind it wasn't enough. Not for me. Not anymore. It wasn't enough to know that deep down, he loved me. You had to actually say it to somebody, show them you cared. And he just didn't. Not enough.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“Do you remember infinity?”
Slowly, I turned around. “What about it?”
Tossing something toward me, he said, “Catch.”
I reached out and caught it in the air. A silver necklace. I held it up and examined it. The infinity necklace.
It didn’t shine the way it used to; it looked a bit coppery now. But I recognized it. Of course I recognized it.
“What is this?” I asked.
“You know what it is,” he said.
I shrugged. “Nope, sorry.”
I could see that he was both hurt and angry. “Okay, then. You don’t remember it. I’ll remind you. I bought
you that necklace for your birthday.”
My birthday.
It had to have been for my sixteenth birthday. It was the only year he ever forgot to buy me a birthday
present—the last summer we’d all been together at the beach house, when Susannah was still alive.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“I never once cheated on you. I never even looked at another girl when we were together.”

Conrad Fisher”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“I might have been a fuckup and a failure and a disappointment, but I wasn’t a liar.
I did lie to Belly, though. Just that one time in that crappy motel. I did it to protect her. That’s what I kept telling myself. Still, if there was one moment in my life I could redo, one moment out of all the shitty moments, that was the one I’d pick. When I thought back to the look on her face—the way it just crumpled, how she’d sucked in her lips and wrinkled her nose to keep the hurt from showing—it killed me. God, if I could, I’d go back to that moment and say all the right things, I’d tell her I loved her, I’d make it so that she never look that way again.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“There are moments in every girls life that are bigger than we know at the time. when you look back, you say that was one of those life-changing fork in the road moments and I didn't see it coming and then there are the moments that you know are big that whatever you do next there will be an impact. Your life could go one of two directions, DO or DIE
- Belly Conklin”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“Don’t marry him. Don’t be with him. Be with me.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“I knew I had to be careful. I had to keep my distance. If she knew how much I still cared, it was all over. I wouldn’t be able to walk away again. The first time was hard enough.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“Sometimes I think I’ll never trust another girl the way I trust you,”

-Conrad Fisher”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“My two great loves. I think I always knew I would be Belly Fisher one day. I just didn't know it was going to happen like this.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“But just because you bury something, that doesn’t mean it stops existing.”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“I couldn't even be mad at him, because this was who he was. This was who he'd always been. He'd never lied about that. He gave and then he took away. I felt it in the pit of my stomach, the familiar ache, that lost, regretful feeling only he could give me. I never wanted to feel it again. Never, ever. Maybe this was why I came, so I could really know. So I could say good-bye.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“I spun away from him. I didn’t need his pity.
I started walking in the opposite direction of the house. I didn’t know where I was going, I just wanted to get away from him.
He called out, “I still love you.”
I froze. And then slowly,
I turned around to look at him. “Don’t say that”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“You Are The Milk To My Shake, forever and ever. Love, J”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“Firsts were important”
― Jenny Han, We'll Always Have Summer

“I didn't want to make the same mistake my parents made. I didn't want my love to fade away one day like an old scar. I wanted it to burn forever.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“I wondered if this was the way old crushes died, with a whimper, slowly, and then, just like that—gone.”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“For me, it was almost like winter didn’t count. Summer was what mattered. My whole life was measured in summers.”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“I stared at him. Did he really say that? Did he remember? The way he looked back at me, one eyebrow raised, I knew he did. And this time, I was the one to look away.
Because I remembered. I remembered everything.”
― Jenny Han, It's Not Summer Without You

“On the way out Jeremiah turned around and danced a quick jig for me and i couldn't help it, I laughed. Over his shoulder Conrad said, "Good night Belly."

And that was it. I was in love”
― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty