Elena > Elena's Quotes

“And who are all these people? There weren't this many when I fell asleep."
Alfie shrugged, indicating that the universe was mysterious and nothing would ever be fully understood.”
― Cassandra Clare, The Rise of the Hotel Dumort

“Magnus, you were trying to flirt with your own plate."

"I'm a very open-minded sort of fellow!”
― Cassandra Clare, The Bane Chronicles

“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
― Ray Bradbury

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You

“You might be tempted to avoid the messiness of daily living for the tranquility of stillness and peacefulness. This of course would be an attachment to stillness, and like any strong attachment, it leads to delusion. It arrests development and short-circuits the cultivation of wisdom.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

“As he slipped the lock into place again he realized his hand was trembling. He held up his shaky fingers where he could see them better and wondered at the equally weak flutter in his chest.

Hope was a dangerous, disquieting thing, but he thought perhaps he liked it.”
― Nora Sakavic, The Foxhole Court

“A group of people shouldered their way up to the bar counter at Neil's back, pushing him into Andrew. Andrew didn't budge beneath his weight. He was something solid to lean against, something violent and fierce and unmoving. Neil couldn't remember what it felt like to have someone hold him up. It was terrifying and liberating all at once. His life was out of his control now; he was giving it to Andrew and hoping Andrew would keep it safe.”
― Nora Sakavic, The Foxhole Court

“He glanced up at the sky, but the stars were washed out behind the glare of the stadium lights. He wondered – not for the first time – if his mother was looking down at him. He hoped not. She’d beat him to hell and back if she saw him sitting around moping like that.”
― Nora Sakavic, The Foxhole Court

“Do you know what I did to the last guy that called me Tinkerbelle?"

"Slept with him?"

Darryl was silent for a second. "After that.”
― Dani Alexander, Shattered Glass

“Tell me something good about your life," I whispered, needing to hear that he wasn't as broken as I thought him to be.
Peter breathed into the handset for about two minutes. I began wondering if he was about to hang up, or had fallen asleep, when he answered. "You."
It was so quiet I almost didn't hear it. And then he hung up before I could ask him to repeat himself.
I fell asleep, grinning, with the phone still clutched in my hand and my milk souring on the coffee table.”
― Dani Alexander, Shattered Glass

“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”
― Albert Camus

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
― Albert Camus

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
― Albert Camus

“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”
― Albert Camus

“There are perhaps many causes worth dying for, but to me, certainly, there are none worth killing for.”
― Albert Dietrich, Army GI, Pacifist CO: The World War II Letters of Frank Dietrich and Albert Dietrich

“But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.”
― Albert Camus

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
― Albert Camus

“Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.”
― Albert Camus, Notebooks 1935-1942

“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.”
― Albert Camus

“I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolutely sure about what didn't.”
― Albert Camus, The Stranger

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”
― Albert Camus

“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion."

[The Minotaur]”
― Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays

“When the soul suffers too much, it develops a taste for misfortune.”
― Albert Camus, The First Man

“Let me know when you're done with this conversation. Peter needs his tongue bath. I mean sponge bath.”
― Dani Alexander, Shattered Glass

“You're rich, spoiled and used to getting your own way."

"Not true. If I had my own way you would have kissed me and ridden me like a cowboy while screaming 'yeehaw'.”
― Dani Alexander, Shattered Glass

“‎"Tell me something good about your life," I whispered, needing to hear that he wasn't as broken as I thought him to be.

"You." It was so quiet I almost didn't hear it.”
― Dani Alexander, Shattered Glass

“I looked at our hands, caked and coated in red, but entwined. The pristine moment when they were clasped like that earlier in the day seemed weeks ago.

"Clean." Peter said.

"Can I get a water bottle or something to clean his hands?" I scanned the crowd. He drew my attention back to him with a pull of my hand.

"No," Peter said. "I'm...clean."

I had missed who Peter was until that very moment.

I had called him names and treated him callously. I had read every micro expression in a vacuum of how it related to Austin Glass. And in return Peter had cared for my wounds, treated me tenderly and assured me that he was HIV negative while bleeding out in a hallway of strangers.

I broke. It wasn't a visible fracture. I didn't sob or explode into anguish. I didn't give in to my vomitus urge that came from the burst of self-loathing. But I shattered nonetheless.”
― Dani Alexander, Shattered Glass

“Gay sex, one. Straight sex, zero”
― Dani Alexander, Shattered Glass

“You know what I find ironic? My homophobic mother offers
you her cabbage rolls as a truce and you respond by asking her if
it was 'tacit approval' to suck my cock.”
“She shoved a phallic symbol my way and told me to eat it.”
― Dani Alexander, Shattered Glass

“Bunny Slippers watched my appraisal for at least a full
minute before clasping his hands and resting them on the table.
“You stand in the doorway, clothes sticking to you like you just
got out of the shower and didn’t dry off.” I hadn’t dried off
actually. “Your hair is wet like it’s been raining, but it’s near
ninety outside. You glare at me for a good ten minutes before
you come over. Sit across from me in my booth, without an
invitation. Don’t introduce yourself. Don’t say hello. You
announce you’re not gay, but that I made you gay, and I am
confusing you?

Well, when he said it like that.”
― Dani Alexander, Shattered Glass