"I place my hands over her ears and tip her head back, and kiss her, and try to put my heart into hers, for safekeeping, in case I lose it again."
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)

"We are walking down the street holding hands. There is a playground at the end of the block, and I run to the swings and I climb on and Henry takes the one next to me facing the opposite direction. And we swing higher and higher passing each other, sometimes in synch and sometimes streaming past each other so fast that it seems we are going to collide. And we laugh and laugh, and nothing can ever be sad, no one can be lost or dead or far away. Right now we are here and nothing can mar our perfection or steal the joy of this perfect moment."
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)

"Outside it's a perfect spring night. We stand on the sidewalk in front of our apartment building, and Henry takes my hand, and I look at him, and I raise our joined hands and Henry twirls me around and soon we're dancing down Belle Plaine Avenue, no music but the sound of cars whoosing by and our own laughter, and the smell of cherry blossoms that fall like snow on the sidewalk as we dance underneath the tress."
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)

"But do you think," I persist, "that it’s better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?"
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)

"I'm living under water. Everything seems slow and far away. I know there's a world up there, a sunlit quick world where time runs like dry sand through an hourglass, but down here, where I am, air and sound and time and feeling are thick and dense."
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)

"Maybe I'm dreaming you. Maybe you're dreaming me; maybe we only exist in each other's dreams and every morning when we wake up we forget all about each other."
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)

"The compelling thing about making art - or making anything, I suppose - is the moment when the vaporous, insubstantial idea becomes a solid there, a thing, a substance in a world of substances."
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)

"I wish for a moment that time would lift me out of this day, and into some more benign one. But then I feel guilty for wanting to avoid the sadness; dead people need us to remember them, even if it eats us, even if all we can do is say "I'm sorry" until it is as meaningless air."
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)

" And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many."
— J.R.R. Tolkien

"...love, I've come to understand is more than three words mumbled before bedtime."
— Nicholas Sparks

"And I learned what is obvious to a child. That life is simply a collection of little lives, each lived one day at a time. That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers and poetry and talking to animals. That a day spent with dreaming and sunsets and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered. But most of all, I learned that life is about sitting on benches next to ancient creeks with my hand on her knee and sometimes, on good days, for falling in love."
— Nicholas Sparks

"You are the answer to every prayer I've offered. You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don't know how I could have lived without you for as long as I have."
— Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)

"Noah: "You wanna dance with me?"
Allie: "Sure. Now?"
Noah: "Mmm Hmm"
Allie: "You're not supposed to dance in the street."
Noah: "You are supposed to dance in the street."
Allie: "Yeah, but we don't have any music."
Noah: "Well, we'll make some... Bum bum bum bum bum bum..."
Allie: "You're a terrible singer."
Noah: "I know."
Allie: "And I like this song.""
— Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)

"We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn. It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox."
— Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)

"the reason it hurts so much to seperate is because our souls are connected"
— Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)

"When you're struggling with something, look at all the people around you and realize that every single person you see is struggling with something, and to them, it's just as hard as what you're going through."
— Nicholas Sparks (Dear John)

"And when her lips meet mine, I feel a strange tingling I have never felt before…and suddenly a miracle…and I discover a forgotten paradise, unchanged all this time, ageless like the stars. I feel the warmth of her body, and…I allow myself to slip away. I close my eyes and become a mighty ship in churning waters, strong and fearless, and she is my sails."
— Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)

"In times of grief and sorrow I will hold you and rock you and take your grief and make it my own. When you cry I cry and when you hurt I hurt. And together we will try to hold back the floods to tears and despair and make it through the potholed street of life"
— Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)

"If conversation was the lyrics, laughter was the music, making time spent together a melody that could be replayed over and over without getting stale."
— Nicholas Sparks

"Dreams are always crushing when they don't come true. But it's the simple dreams that are often the most painful because they seem so personal, so reasonable, so attainable. You're always close enough to touch, but never quite close enough to hold and it's enough to break your heart."
— Nicholas Sparks (Three Weeks with My Brother)

"The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that's what you've given me. That's what I'd hoped to give you forever"
— Nicholas Sparks

""A living poem" had always been the words that came to mind when he tried to describe her to others."
— Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)

"There are moments when mental overload can render words impossible."
— Nicholas Sparks (The Choice)

"There are winds of destiny that blow when we least expect them. Sometimes they gust with the fury of a hurricane, sometimes they barely fan one’s cheek. But the winds cannot be denied, bringing as they often do a future that is impossible to ignore."
— Nicholas Sparks (Message in a Bottle)

"Everyone is always going through tough things, the irony in it is that everyone thinks what they're going through is just as hard as what you are. Life isn't about surviving this, it's about understanding this. "
— Nicholas Sparks

"If you like her, if she makes you happy, and if you feel like you know her---then don't let her go."
— Nicholas Sparks (Message in a Bottle)

"'do you love me?' i asked her. she smiled. 'yes.' 'do you want me to be happy?' as i asked her this i felt my heart beginning to reace. 'of corse i do.' 'will you do something for me then?' she looked away, sadness crossing her features. 'i dont know if i can anymore.' she said. 'but if you could, would you?' i cannot adequately describe the intensity of what i was feeling at that moment. love, anger, sadness, hope, and fear, whirling together sharpened by the nervousness i was feeling. jamie looked at me curiously any my breaths became shallower. suddenly i knew that id never felt as strongly for another person as i did at that moment. as i returned her gaze, this simple realization made me wish for the millionth time that i could make all this go away. had it been possible, i would have traded my life for hers. i wanted to tell her my thoughts, but the sound of her voice suddenly silenced the emotions inside me. 'yes' she finally said, her voice weak yet somehow still full of promise. ' i would.' finally getting control of myself i kissed her again, then brot my hand to her face, gently running my fingers over her cheek. i marveled at the softness of her skin, the gentleness i saw in her eyes. even now she was perfect. my throat began to tighten again, but as i said, i knew wat i had to do. since i had to accept that it was not within my power to cure her, what i wanted to do was give her something that shed wanted. it was wat my heart had been telling me to do all along. jamie, i understood then, had already given me the answer id been searching for, the answer my heart needed to find. shed told me outside mr. jenkins office, the night wed asked him about doing the play. i smiled softly, and she returned my affection with a slight squeeze of my hand, as if trusting me in wat i was about to do. encouraged, i leaned closer and took a deep breath. when i exhaled, these were the words that flowed with my breath. 'will you marry me?'"
— Nicholas Sparks (A Walk to Remember)

"While I sleep, I dream of you, and when I wake, I long to hold you in my arms. If anything, our time apart has only made me more certain that I want to spend my nights by your side, and my days with your heart."
— Nicholas Sparks (Nights in Rodanthe)

"But even though she was attractive, there was something else about her that caught his eye. She was intelligent, he could sense that right away, and confident, too, as if she were able to move through life on her own terms. To him, these were the things that really mattered. Without them, beauty was nothing."
— Nicholas Sparks (Message in a Bottle)

"Too many people seem to believe that silence was a void that needed to be filled, even if nothing important was said."
— Nicholas Sparks (Nights in Rodanthe)

"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)

"Music is a total constant. That's why we have such a strong visceral connection to it, you know? Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in your or the world, that one song says the same, just like that moment."
— Sarah Dessen (Just Listen)

"Sometimes it seems safer to hold it all in, where the only person who can judge is yourself."
— Sarah Dessen

"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

"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 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)

"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)

"'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)

"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)

"I was beginning to see, though, that the unknown wasn't always the greatest thing to fear. The people who know you best can be risker, because the words they say and things they think have the potential to be not only scary but true, as well."
— Sarah Dessen (Just Listen)

"But I'd long ago learned not to be picky in farewells. They weren't guaranteed or promised.
You were lucky, more than blessed, if you got a good-bye at all."
— Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)

"Right now, though, I wanted not to think forward or backward, but only to lose myself in the words."
— Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)

"Only a weak person needed someone else around all the time."
— Sarah Dessen (Lock and Key)

"This is exactly what i wanted, as commitments had never really been my thing. And it wasn't like it was hard, either. The only trick was never giving more than you were willing to lose."
— Sarah Dessen (Lock and Key)

"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 don't believe in failure, because simply by saying you've failed, you've admitted you attempted. And anyone who attempts is not a failure. Those who truly fail in my eyes are the ones who never try at all. The ones who sit on the couch and whine and moan and wait for the world to change for them.""
— Sarah Dessen (Keeping the Moon)

"Holding people away from you, and denying yourself love, that doesn't make you strong. if anything, it makes you weaker. Because you're doing it out of fear."
— Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)

"My point is, there are a lot of people in the world. No one ever sees everything the same way you do; it just doesn't happen. So when you find one person who gets a couple of things, especially if they're important ones... you might as well hold on to them. You know?"
— Sarah Dessen (Lock and Key)

"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could."
— Louise Erdrich (The Painted Drum)