"What do you want from me?" he asks.
What I want from every person in my life, I want to tell him.
More."
— Melina Marchetta (Jellicoe Road)

"My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.

I counted.

It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of miles away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, 'What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?' and my father said, 'Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,' and that was the last thing he ever said."
— Melina Marchetta (On The Jellicoe Road)

"When I turn around, he cups my face in his hands and he kisses me so deeply that I don't know who is breathing for who, but his mouth and tongue taste like warm honey. I don't know how long it lasts, but when I let go of him, I miss it already."
— Melina Marchetta (On The Jellicoe Road)

"There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend."
— Sarah Dessen (Someone Like You)

"Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you."
— Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)

"No relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways you have to bend, to compromise, to give something up in order to gain something greater...The love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And that's the key. It's like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship has to be the biggest piece. Love can make up for a lot."
— Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)

"Some things don't last forever, but some things do. Like a good song, or a good book, or a good memory you can take out and unfold in your darkest times, pressing down on the corners and peering in close, hoping you still recognize the person you see there."
— Sarah Dessen

"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."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"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."
— Sarah Dessen (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."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed in there, regardless. It wasn't just about blood relations or shared chromosomes, but something wider, bigger. We had many families over time. Our family of origin, the family we created, and the groups you moved through while all of this was happening: friends, lovers, sometimes even strangers. None of them perfect, and we couldn't expect them to be. You can't make any one person your world. The trick was to take what each could give you and build your world from it."
— Sarah Dessen

"So you're always honest," I said.
"Aren't you?"
"No," I told him. "I'm not."
"Well, that's good to know, I guess."
"I'm not saying I'm a liar," I told him. He raised his eyebrows. "That's not how I meant it, anyways."
"How'd you mean it, then?"
"I just...I don't always say what I feel."
"Why not?"
"Because the truth sometimes hurts," I said.
"Yeah," he said. "So do lies, though."
— Sarah Dessen (Just Listen)

"It was just one of those things," I said, "You know, that just happen. You don't think or plan. You just do it."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"You can't always get the perfect moment. Sometimes, you just have to do the best you can under the circumstances."
— Sarah Dessen

"You know, when it works, love is pretty amazing. It's not overrated. There's a reason for all those songs."
— Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)

"Hate Spinnerbait!"
— Sarah Dessen

"Wherever you will go,
I will let you down,
But this lullaby goes on. "
— Sarah Dessen (Someone Like You)

"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."
— Sarah Dessen (Lock and Key)

"If this was my forever, I wouldn't want to spend it here. "
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"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."
— Sarah Dessen (Lock and Key)

"But it's strange, when you've always been told something is true, like the moon will come back. You need proof. And while you wait, you feel the entire balance of your world just tipping. It's crazy. But when it's over, and it does come back, that's the best, because it's all you want, everything narrows to just that. It's this great rush, like for that one second everything's okay with the world again. It's amazing."
— Sarah Dessen (Keeping the Moon)

"Silence is so freaking loud
- Owen"
— Sarah Dessen (Just Listen)

"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?"
— Sarah Dessen (Lock and Key)

""this Lullaby is only a few words, a simple run of chords, quiet here in this spare room, but you can hear it, hear it, wherever you may go, even if I let you down, this lullaby plays on...""
— Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)

"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?"
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

""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.""
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"Love is so unpredictable. That what makes it so great"
— Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)

"Are those the only options? Nothing or forever?
-Dexter"
— Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)

"You, have this whole tall, dark stranger thing going on. Not to mention the tortured artist bit.

And you, have that whole blonde cool and collected perfect smart thing going on.

You're the boy all the girls want to rebel with.

You, are the unattainable girl in homeroom who never gives a guy the time of day."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"funny how a beautiful song could tell such a sad story."
— Sarah Dessen

"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."
— Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride)

"So maybe it wasnt the fairy tale. But those stories werent real anyway. Mine were. "
— Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride)

"But if something was really important, fate made sure it somehow came back to you and gave you another chance."
— Sarah Dessen

""Life is full of screwups. You're supposed to failsometimes. It's a required part of the human existance"
-Eli"
— Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride)

"There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

""I meant what I said to you. I wasn't playing some kind of summer game. Everything I said was true, from the first day. EVERY GODDAMN WORD""
— Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)

"It didn't make you noble to step away from something that wasnt working, even if you thought you were the reason for the malfunction. Especially then. It just made you a quitter. Because if you were the problem, chances were you could also be the solution. The only way to find out was to take another shot."
— Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride)

"Friends are honest with each other. Even if the truth hurts.
-Maggie"
— Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride)

"Relationships dont always make sense. Especially from the outside"
— Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride)

""You believed you were beautiful, and so did the rest of the world.""
— Sarah Dessen (Keeping the Moon)

"'Why does she have wings?'
'So she can fly.'"
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"But sometimes you lose. Nothing you can do but admit it.
-Eli"
— Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride)

"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. When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder - if not impossible - to lose."
— Sarah Dessen (Along for the Ride)

""Who says there has to be a pont," he said. "Or a reason. Maybe it's just something you have to do."
-Eli"
— Sarah Dessen

"Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities cause they somehow complete you."
— Sarah Dessen

"Because you can never go from going out to being friends, just like that. It's a lie. It's just something that people say they'll do to take the permanence out of a breakup. And someone always takes it to mean more than it does, and then is hurt even more when, inevitably, said ‘friendly' relationship is still a major step down from the previous relationship, and it's like breaking up all over again. But messier."
— Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)

"'...Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?'
Jace said, "Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself."
..."At least," she said, "you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland."
"Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting.""
— Cassandra Clare (City of Bones)

"I am a badass, and I recognize that you, too, are a badass"
— Cassandra Clare (City of Bones)

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, and then throw it in the
face of the person who gave you the lemons until they give you the
oranges you originally asked for."
— Cassandra Clare