Jon Moss > Jon's Quotes

“Saying 'I notice you're a nerd' is like saying, 'Hey, I notice that you'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you'd rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan. Why is that?' In fact, it seems to me that most contemporary insults are pretty lame. Even 'lame' is kind of lame. Saying 'You're lame' is like saying 'You walk with a limp.' Yeah, whatever, so does 50 Cent, and he's done all right for himself.”
― John Green

“We never really talked much or even looked at each other, but it didn't matter because we were looking at the same sky together, which is maybe even more intimate than eye contact anyway. I mean, anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see.”
― John Green, Turtles All the Way Down

“Your now is not your forever.”
― John Green, Turtles All the Way Down

“I was beginning to learn that your life is a story told about you, not one that you tell.”
― John Green, Turtles All the Way Down

“The worst part of being truly alone is you think about all the times you wished that everyone would just leave you be. Then they do, and you are left being, and you turn out to be terrible company.”
― John Green, Turtles All the Way Down

“You remember your first love because they show you, prove to you, that you can love and be loved, that nothing in this world is deserved except for love, that love is both how you become a person and why.”
― John Green, Turtles All the Way Down

“It's hard to build your soul when everyone around you is trying to sell theirs”
― William Deresiewicz, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life

“Bram was right: people really are like houses with vast rooms and tiny windows. And maybe it’s a good thing, the way we never stop surprising each other.”
― Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“I guess it was about loneliness. And it’s funny, because I don’t really think of myself as lonely. But there was something so familiar about the way Blue described the feeling. It was like he had pulled the ideas from my head.
Like the way you can memorize someone’s gestures but never know their thoughts. And the feeling that people are like houses with vast rooms and tiny windows.
The way you can feel so exposed anyway.
The way he feels so hidden and so exposed about the fact that he’s gay.”
― Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“I mean, when you think about it, it's a little fucked up that teachers think they get to dictate what you think about. It's not enough to just sit there quietly and let them teach. It's like they think they have a right to control your mind.”
― Becky Albertalli

“It's strange because in reality, I'm not the leading guy. Maybe I'm the best friend. I guess I didn't think of myself as interesting until I was interesting to Blue.”
― Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“But it sucks when life moves along without you. Sometimes I feel left out even when life's moving along with me.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“Imagine going about your day knowing someone’s carrying you in their mind. That has to be the best part of being in love- the feeling of having a home in some else’s brain.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“I hate when assholes have talent. I want to live in a world where good people rule at everything and shitty people suck at everything.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“Though the idea of objective hotness fucks me up a little. The idea that certain arrangements of facial features are automatically superior. It’s like someone woke up one day with a boner for big-eyed, soft-lipped, tight-bodied cheekbone people, and we all just decided to go along with that.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“And in that moment--for a split second-- I feel it. How short that is. How soon everything changes. It's strange, because good-byes are a thing I can understand intellectually, but they almost never feel real. Which makes it hard to brace for impact. I don't know how to miss people when they're standing right in front of me.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“It makes me cringe to admit this, but I want the whole prom thing. The dress, the limo, all of it. It actually hurts, imagining prom happening without me. Me, alone in my pajamas, spending the whole night trolling Instagram and Snapchat. Watching everything unfold virtually. Seeing once and for all how little I'm missed.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“Maybe I'd have spent a little less time watching the action from the back of the auditorium. Maybe I'd have spent more time making out in the back of the auditorium.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“I honestly think there are two kinds of quiet people. There's the kind like me, who are full of storms and spinning gears. And then there's the kind like Olivia, who is the actual personification of an ocean on a sunny day. I don't mean that she's simple. There's just something peaceful about her.”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“I don’t entirely understand how anyone gets a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. It just seems like the most impossible odds. You have to have a crush on the exact right person at the exact right moment. And they have to like you back. A perfect alignment of feelings and circumstances. It’s almost unfathomable that it happens as often as it does.”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“Friendship is like that. I guess it's not always about common ground.”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“I think the way I feel about the internet is the way some people feel about the ocean. It's so huge and unknowable, but also totally predictable. You type a line of symbols and click enter, and everything you want to happen, happens.

Not like real life, where all the wanting in the world can't make something exist.”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“I don't think I'm unlovable. But I keep wondering: what is my glitch?”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“Because I have to admit: there’s something really badass about truly, honestly not caring what people think about you. A lot of people say they don’t care. Or they act like they don’t care. But I think most people care a lot. I know I do.”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“Oh my God, I'm just making a point. We like who we like. Who cares if someone else doesn't get it? That's a good thing. That's less competition.”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“Ex-sisters. Which sounds exactly like existers. And I guess it fits, because that's exactly how things fall apart. That's all it takes. Just the fact you're two different people. Just the fact that you exist outside each other. I get this ache in my chest when I think about it. I try to shake the feeling away.”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“And you know what? Love is worth wanting.”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“Something like that. But you know, there's an upside here. Because when you spend so much time just intensely wanting something, and then you actually get the thing? It's magic.” All of a sudden, I feel like crying. In a good way. In the best way. Because I know exactly what she means. It's butterflies and haziness and heart eyes, but underneath all that, there's this bass line of I can't believe this. I can't believe this is me. I can't quite articulate the sweetness of that feeling. It's finding out the door you were banging on is finally unlocked. Maybe it was unlocked the whole time.”
― Becky Albertalli, The Upside of Unrequited

“So, I keep thinking about the idea of secret identities. Do you ever feel locked into yourself? I'm not sure if I'm making sense here. I guess what I mean is that sometimes it seems like everyone knows who I am except me.”
― Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“But I'm tired of coming out. All I ever do is come out. I try not to change, but I keep changing, in all these tiny ways. I get a girlfriend. I have a beer. And every freaking time, I have to reintroduce myself to the universe all over again.”
― Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda