"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)

"You can have your pick of pretty women. Why me?
You're like the ocean, Pattyn. Pretty enough on the surface, but dive down into your depths, you'll find beauty most people never see. Lucky me. I fell in, headfirst."
— Ellen Hopkins

"Like driving along a bumpy road and losing control of the steering wheel, tossing you--just a tad--off the road. The wheels kick up some dirt, but you're able to pull it back. Yet no matter how hard you try to drive straight, something keeps jerking you to the side. You have so little control over anything anymore. And at some point, the struggle becomes too much--too tiring--and you consider letting go. Allowing tragedy...or whatever...to happen."
— Jay Asher (Thirteen Reasons Why)

"I wondered which was harder, in the end. The act of telling, or who you told it to. Or maybe if, when you finally got it out, the story was really all that mattered."
— Sarah Dessen (Just Listen)

"You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life. Everything. . . affects everything."
— Jay Asher (Thirteen Reasons Why)

"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."
— Sarah Dessen (Dreamland)

"Wish you could turn off the questions, turn off the voices, turn off all sound.
Yearn to close out the ugliness, close out the filthiness, close out all light.
Long to cast away yesterday, cast away memory, cast away all jeapordy.
Pray you could somehow stop uncertainty, somehow stop the loathing, somehow stop the pain.
Act on your impulse, swallow the bottle, cut a little deeper, put the gun to your chest."
— Ellen Hopkins

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

"Next thing you know she'll be on the bus and selling T-shirts in the parking lot, showing off her boobs to get in the stage door."

"At least she has boobs to show," Jess said.

"I have boobs," Chloe said, pointing to her chest. "Just because they're not weighing me down doesn't mean they're not substantial."

"Okay, B cup," Jess said, taking a sip of her drink.

"I have boobs!" Chloe said again, a bit too loudly--she'd already had a couple of minibottles at the Spot. "My boobs are great, goddammit. You know that? They're fantastic! My boobs are amazing."
— Sarah Dessen

"All I'd ever wanted was to forget. but even when I thought I had, pieces had kept emerging, like bits of wood floating up to the surface that only hint at the shipwreck below."
— Sarah Dessen (Just Listen)

"Can you see the sunset real good on the West side? You can see it on the East side too."
— S.E. Hinton

"I understood now. This voice, the one that had been trying to get my attention all this time, calling out to me, begging me to hear it -- it wan't Will's. It was mine."
— Sarah Dessen (Just Listen)

"You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it."
— Sarah Dessen (Keeping the Moon)

"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."
— Sarah Dessen (Keeping The Moon)

"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)

"I was only then, when I knew I was alone, at least for the moment, that I reached under my gown into the pocket of my dress. As I pulled out my key from the yellow house, which I'd kept on my bureau since the day Nate left, I traced the shape one last time before folding my hand tightly around it.
Behind me, Cora was calling again. My family was waiting. Looking down at the pond, all I could think was that it is an incredible thing, how a whole world can rise from what seems like nothing at all. I stepped closer to the edge, keeping my eyes on my reflection as I dropped the key into the water, where it landed with a splash. At first, the fish darted away, but as it began to sink they circled back, gathering around. Together, they followed it down, down until it was gone.<3 "
— Sarah Dessen (Lock and Key)

"I knew, in the silence that followed, that anything could happen here. It might be too late: again, I might have missed my chance. But I would at least know I tried, that I took my heart and extended my hand, whatever the outcome.
"Okay," he said. He took a breath. "What would you do, if you could do anything?"
I took a step toward him, closing the space between us. "This," I said. And then I kissed him."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"'Okay,' he said. He took a breath. 'What would you do, if you could do anything?'
I took a step toward him, closing the space between us. 'This,' I said. And then I kissed him.
Kissed him. There, in the middle of the street, as the world went on around us. Behind me, I knew Jason was still waiting for an explanation, my sister was still lecturing, and that angel still had her eyes skyward, waiting to fly. As for me, I was just trying to get it right, whatever that meant. But now I finally felt I was on my way. Everyone had a forever, but given a choice, this would be mine. The one that began in this moment, with Wes, in a kiss that took my breath away, then gave it back- leaving me astounded, amazed, and most of all, alive."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"We'd start slow, the way we always did, because the run, and the game, could go on for awhile. Maybe even forever.
That was the thing. You just never knew. Forever was so many different things. It was always changing, it was what everything was really all about. It was twenty minutes, or a hundred years, or just this instant, or any instant I wished would last and last. But there was only one truth about forever that really mattered, and that was this: it was happening. Right then, as I ran with Wes into that bright sun, and every moment afterwards. Look, there. Now. Now. Now."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

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

"Behind the camera, I was invisible. When I lifted it up to my eye it was like I crawled into the lens, losing myself there. and everything else fell away."
— Sarah Dessen (Dreamland)

"There are some things in this world you rely on, like a sure bet. And when they let you down, shifting from where you've carefully placed them, it shakes your faith, right where you stand."
— 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)

"It's all in the view, Macy. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You can never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

""But I was sure of something to: it's a lot easier to be lost then found. It's the reason were always searching but rarley discover; so many locks not enough keys.""
— Sarah Dessen (Lock and Key)

"It [death] chokes you, gags you, but you have to pretend that you're doing just fine, not trembling with this fear because the end is close."
— Ellen Hopkins (Impulse)

""you come home, and everyone talks at once and everyone asks questions, but no one waits for the answers.Instead they talk about themselves, what they've been up to, what they're going to do next,       as if you're a photo on the wall.And then they talk to one another, forgetting you've jsut flown in, forgetting you're in the backseat, forgetting they've already said it all.""
— Ellen Hopkins (Crank)

"Act
on your impulse,
swallow the bottle,
cut a little deeper,
put the gun to your chest.

"
— Ellen Hopkins (Impulse)

"

Sometimes you're traveling a highway, the only road you've ever known and wham! A semi comes from nowhere and rolls right over you. Sometimes you dont wake up. But if you happen to you know things will never be the same. Sometimes that's not so bad. Sometimes lives instersect, no rhyme, no reason, except, perhaps, for a passing semi."
— Ellen Hopkins (Impulse)

"When you were little, endure your parents’ warnings, then wait for them to leave the room, pry loose protective covers and consider inserting some metal object into an electrical outlet?

Did you wonder if for once you might light up the room?

When you were big enough to cross the street on your own, did you ever wait for a signal, hear the frenzied approach of a fire truck and feel like stepping out in front of it?

Did you wonder just how far that rocket ride might take you?

When you were almost grown, did you ever sit in a bubble bath, perspiration pooling, notice a blow dryer plugged in within easy reach, and think about dropping it into the water?

Did you wonder if the expected rush might somehow fail you?

And now, do you ever dangle your toes over the precipice, dare the cliff to crumble, defy the frozen deity to suffer the sun, thaw feather and bone, take wing to fly you home?"
— Ellen Hopkins (Burned)

"Heart Breaking,
I think that if Dad, staring down the sight of a 10mm,
would only tell me he loves me,

I could easily change my mind...

...but he won't."
— Ellen Hopkins

"Can a dream be wrong? Aren't dreams God's way of telling you things?"
— Ellen Hopkins

"Forever has no meaning when you're living in the moment. I wasn't ready for that moment to end."
— Ellen Hopkins

"It's about a girl who is on the cusp of becoming someone.. A girl who may not know what she wants right now, and she may not know who she is right now, but who deserves the chance to find out."
— Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper)

"Whether or not you believe in Fate comes down to one thing: who do you blame when something goes wrong. "
— Jodi Picoult

"When we're awake, we see what we need to see. When we're asleep, we see what is really there."
— Jodi Picoult (Second Glance)

""You don't need water to feel like you're drowning, do you?" "
— Jodi Picoult (Nineteen Minutes)

"'I am Alice in Wonderland', Josie thought. 'Watch me fall.'"
— Jodi Picoult

"If you spent your life concentrating on what everyone else thought of you, would you forget who you really were? What if the face you showed the world turned out to be a mask... with nothing beneath it?"
— Jodi Picoult (Nineteen Minutes)

"This is what it always comes down to, I realized. There are the ones who believe, and the ones who don't, and caught in the space between them are guns."
— Jodi Picoult, Change of Heart (p268)

"Whether or not belive in Fate comes down to one thing: who you blame when something goes wrong. Do you think it's your fault - that if you'd tried better, worked harder, it wouldn't have happened? Or do you just chalk it up to circumstance?

I know poeple who'll hear about the people who died, and will say that it was God's will. I know people who'll say it was bad luck. And then there's my personal favorite: They were just in the wrong place at hte wrong time.

Then again, you could say the same thing about me, couldn't you?"
— Jodi Picoult (Nineteen Minutes)

"’Ponyboy, I asked the nurse to give you this book so you could finish it.’ It was Johnny’s handwriting. I went on reading, almost hearing Johnny’s quiet voice. ‘The doctor came in a while ago but I knew anyway. I keep getting tireder and tireder. Listen, I don’t mind dying now. It’s worth it. It’s worth saving those kids. Their lives are worth more than mine, they have more to live for. Some of their parents came by to thank me and I know it was worth it…I’ve been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you’re gold when you’re a kid, like green. When you’re a kid, everything’s new, dawn. It’s just when you get used to everything that it’s day…You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There’s still lots of good in the world…Your buddy, Johnny.’…Someone should tell their side of the story, and maybe people would understand then and wouldn’t be so quick to judge…And I decided I could tell people…"
— S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders)

"Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot. But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn. Sixteen years on the streets and you see a lot. But all the wrong sights, not the things you want to see."
— S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders)

"You get tough like me and you don't get hurt. You look out for yourself and nothin' can touch you..."
— S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders)

"It's okay. We aren't in the same class. Just don't forget that some of us watch the sunset too."
— S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders)

" I lie to myself all the time, but I never believe me."
— S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders)

""The truth was I knew, after all those flat January days, that I deserved better. I deserved I love yous and kiwi fruits and warriors coming to my door, besotted with love. I deserved pictures of my face in a thousand expressions, and the warmth of a baby's kick beneath my hand. I deserved to grow, and to change, to become all the girls I could be over the course of my life, each one better than the last.""
— Sarah Dessen

"I wish I had a boyfriend. I wish he lived in the wardrobe on a coat hanger. Whenever I wanted, I could get him out and he'd look at me the way boys do in films, as if I'm beautiful. "
— Jenny Downham

"'We said we'd be friends.'

He looks confused. 'Yeah.'

'I don't want to be.'

There's space between us, and in that space there's darkness. I take another step, so close that we share a breath. The same one. In and out.

'Tess,' he says. I know it's a warning, but I don't care.

'What's the worst thing that can happen?'

'It'll hurt,' he says.

'It already hurts.'

He nods very slowly. And it's like there's a hole in time, as if everything stops and in this one minute, where we look at each other so close, is spread out between us. As he leans towards me, I feel a strange warmth filtering through me. I forget that my brain is full of every sad face at every window I've ever passed."
— Jenny Downham (Before I Die)

"Adam strokes my head, my face, he kisses my tears.

We are blessed.


Let them all go.


The sound of a bird flying low across the garden. Then nothing. Nothing. A cloud passes. Nothing again. Light falls through the window, falls onto me, into me.


Moments.


All gathering towards this one.
"
— Jenny Downham (Before I Die)