Ashleigh > Ashleigh's Quotes

“I cannot live without books.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Everyone is a little crazy. The only difference between us and them is that they hide it better.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Evolution of Mara Dyer

“You should date a girl who reads.
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.”
― Rosemarie Urquico

“Asscrown," I muttered under my breath as I headed to my next class. I wasn't proud of swearing at a complete stranger, no. but he started it.

Noah matched my pace. "Don't you mean 'assclown'?" He looked amused.

"No," I said, louder this time. "I mean asscrown. The crown on top of the asshat that covers the asshole of the assclown. The very zenith in the hierarchy of asses," I said, as though I was reading from a dictionary of modern profanity.

"I guess you nailed me then.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“Wait," I said as Noah slipped a book from a shelf and headed toward the door. "Where are you going?"
"To read?"
But I don't want you to.
"But I need to go home," I said, my eyes meeting his. "My parents are going to kill me."
"Taken care of. You're at Sophie's house."
I loved Sophie.
"So I'm...staying here?"
"Daniel's covering for you."
I loved Daniel.
"Where's Katie?" I asked, trying to sound casual.
"Eliza's house."
I loved Eliza.
"And your parents?" I asked.
"Some charity thing."
I loved charity.
"So why are you going to read when I'm right here?”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“You're distracting,' I said truthfully.
'I won't be. I promise,' Noah said. 'I'll get some crayons and draw quitely. Alone. In a corner.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“In my rush, I hadn’t tied my shoelaces. Noah was now tying them for me.
He looked up at me through his dark fringe of lashes and smiled. The expression on his face melted me completely. I knew I had the goofiest grin plastered on my lips, and didn’t care.
“There,” he said as he finished tying the laces on my left shoe. “Now you won’t fall.”
Too late.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“Did I just see you litter?'
'I'm driving a hybrid. It cancels out.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“What would you do if I kissed you right now?"
I stared at his beautiful face and his beautiful mouth and I wanted nothing more than to taste it. "I would kiss you back.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“They rattled my cage to see if I'd bite. When they released me, they'd see that the answer was yes.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Evolution of Mara Dyer

“This was the boy I loved. A little bit messy. A little bit ruined. A beautiful disaster. Just like me.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Evolution of Mara Dyer

“They were never scared of the kids who might die, or the empty spaces they would leave behind. They were afraid of us-the ones who lived.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“I hate you," I muttered.
Noah smiled wider. "I know.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“I’m too selfish to leave you,” I said. Noah pulled back so I could see his smile. “I’m too selfish to let you.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Evolution of Mara Dyer

“How many lives do you need to live before you fine someone worth dying for?”
― Lauren Kate

“You're supposed to say, 'All I want is your happiness. I'll do whatever it takes, even if it means being without you.'"
"Sorry," Noah said. "I'm just not that big of a person.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“I was warned about you, you know."
And with that half-smile that wrecked me, Noah said, "But you're here anyway.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“We are far too screwed up for a goddamned love triangle.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Evolution of Mara Dyer

“That mouth. Smoking was a bad habit, yes. But he looked so good doing it.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“How did you get my number?" I blurted, before I could stop myself.
"It's called research." I could hear him smirking over the phone.
"Or stalking."
Noah chuckled. "You're adorable when you're bitchy."
"You're not," I said, but smiled despite myself.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“Where are you going?”
“My God, you’re like the plague.”
“A masterfully crafted, powerfully understated, and epic parable of timeless moral resonance? Why, thank you. That’s one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me,” he said.
“The disease, Noah. Not the book.”
“I’m ignoring that qualification.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“Why do you always look like you just rolled out of bed?'
'Because usually I have.' And the way he raised his eye-brow at me made me blush.
'Classy,' I said.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“Je t'aime. Aujourd'hui. Ce soir. Demain. Pour toujours. Si je vivais mille ans, je t'appartiendrais pour tous. Si je vivais mille vies, je te ferais mienne dans chacune d'elles.

I love you. Today. Tonight. Tomorrow. Forever. If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them. If I were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Retribution of Mara Dyer

“Fix me," I commanded him. "This thing, what I've done - there's something wrong with me, Noah. Fix it."

Noah's expression broke my heart as he brushed my hair from my face, and skimmed the line of my neck. "I can't"

"Why not?" I asked, my voice threatening to crack.

"Because," he said, "You're not broken.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“Rubbish. The Taj Mahal is only a hundred eighty-six square feet. This house has twenty-five thousand."
I stared at him blankly.
"I was kidding," he said.
I stared at him blankly.
"All right, I wasn't kidding. Let's go, shall we.?"
"After you, my liege.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“You don't have to pick me up," I said in a rush.
"Considering you have no idea where we're going and I have no intention of telling you, I'm quite sure that I do."
"I can meet you somewhere centrally located."
Noah sounded amused. "I promise to press my trousers before meeting your family. I'll even bring flowers for the occasion."
"Oh, God. Please don't." I said. Maybe honesty is the best policy. "My family is going to screw with my life if you come over." I knew them far too well.
"Congratulations-- you just made the prospect all the more enticing. What is your address?”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

“I knew Noah worshipped Charlie Parker and that his toothbrush was green. That he wouldn't bother to button his shirts correctly but always made his bed. That when he slept he curled into himself and that his eyes were the color of the clouds before it rained, and I knew he had no problem eating meat but would subtly leave the room if animals started to kill one another on the Discovery Channel. I knew one hundred little things about Noah Shaw but when he kissed me I couldn't remember my own name.”
― Michelle Hodkin

“I looked up at the video camera and stared. Then raised my hand and gave it the middle finger.
“I thought you were going to give it the District Twelve salute,” Jamie said.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Retribution of Mara Dyer

“You will love him to ruins.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Evolution of Mara Dyer

“I've already learned Parseltongue. What else is there?"
"Elvish.”
― Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer