Elise > Elise's Quotes

“We pretend the pain isn't there, that we are made of scars instead of wounds.”
― Leigh Bardugo, King of Scars

“The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." I guess that means we're just products of whoever made us and we don't have much control. The thing is, when people use that phrase, they ignore the most critical part: the falling. Within the logic of that saying, the apple falls every single time. Not falling isn't an option. So, if the apple has to fall, the most important question in my mind is what happens to it upon hitting the ground? Does it touch down with barely a scratch? Or does it smash on impact? Two vastly different fates. When you think about it, who cares about its proximity to the tree or what type of tree spawned it? What really makes all the difference, then, is how we land.”
― Val Emmich, Dear Evan Hansen

“Who knows if destiny is just how you tell yourself the story of your life? . . .
Who knows if Grandma really thought the first daffodils of spring were lucky or if she just wanted to go on walks with me through the woods? . . .
So we grapple with the mysteries, each in our own way.
And some of us get to float around on one of them and call it home.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“Nikolai could see that he wanted to believe. Don't we all? Who didn't want to think fate had a plan for him, that his hurts and failures had just been the prologue to a grander tale?”
― Leigh Bardugo, King of Scars

“My mind is filled with cataclysm and apocalypse: I wish for earthquakes, eruptions, flood. Only that seems large enough to hold all of my rage and grief. I want the world overturned like a bowl of eggs, smashed at my feet.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“They likely would not have been able to be open about it. But the optimist in me likes to believe that the twenty-first century is not the first time in history that queer people have been able to live full romantic and sexual lives with the people they love. And if that makes me anachronistic,”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Right now. I don't think there's ever been a moment in history that was more perfect for coming out.
But I don't.
It's the weirdest thing. I'm lying in a room with my gay best friend, who is 100 percent likely to be completely fucking cool about this. Literally risk-free.
But it's like the words won't come.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“Alex hasn't been a good Catholic in a long time, but he knows confession is a sacrament.”
― Casey McQuiston, Red, White & Royal Blue

“But I have this feeling, suddenly, that I'm on a too-fast treadmill--like things are moving so quickly, I might slide off the back end.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“I've never understood the appeal of drinking. It's not like liquor tastes good. I mean, I know it's not about that. It's about feeling loose and light and unstoppable. Simon described it to me once. He said drinking lets you say and do things without filtering or overthinking. But I don't get how that's a good thing.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“We drive and drive, and it's like I'm teetering on the edge of something. Now it's been ten minutes since we've spoken. The music feels too loud and too soft all at once, and underneath its bass line, I can hear Abby breathing.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“She smelled like vanilla, and her eyelashes were like thick black parentheses. That was it. My brain only had room for those two facts.”
― Becky Albertalli

“...warning the baby moms how fast it all flies by.
Here's the thing though: no one ever warns the babies.”
― Becky Albertalli, Leah on the Offbeat

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
― E.E. Cummings

“Reality is crushing. The world is a wrong-sized shoe. How can anyone stand it?”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“A valve has loosened inside me...I think of that counselor telling me I was in the house in the woods with no doors or windows. No way to get in or out, she said. But she was wrong, because: Walls fall down.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“-I will bathe in vinegar, down some raw eggs, and start looking for a wasp nest ASAP to put on my head.
-I do not understand this.
-To reverse the leanings of the heart. Ancient family wisdom.
-Ah. Very good. In my family, we just suffer.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“No one tells you how gone gone really is, or how long it lasts.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“What if I'm in charge of my own damn light switch?”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“I want to play How Would You Rather Die? instead of figuring out how to live. But I can't. I'm over being a coward.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“When my mom died...I don't know, I got scared. Of pretty much everything.'
He nods like he gets it, says, 'It's like a hand at your throat all the time, isn't it? Nothing's inevitable anymore. Not the next heartbeat, not anything.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“i made a wish, too, she says mysteriously, but she has so many things she could wish for i have no idea what she's thinking.”
― R. J. Palacio

“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”
― James Thurber

“She dresses like she's the dean of a small liberal arts college, and she probably could be. Not only does she relish following the rules, but she's also the only one who even knows what they are.”
― Val Emmich, Dear Evan Hansen

“I hold my breath, try to freeze time, thinking if I can just keep the air inside my lungs forever, maybe I'll never have to face what comes next. But I breathe, because I'm weak and I must, and when I open my eyes, and everyone is looking at me, and I know it's only begun: the end of everything. But there's no way out now.”
― Val Emmich, Dear Evan Hansen

“Talk to me," she says.
It's not a command. It's a welcome mat. All I have to do is step to her.”
― Val Emmich, Dear Evan Hansen

“What are the odds? he thought, even though he knew that thing about magic was that it bent the odds.”
― Victoria Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic

“Love doesn't buy us anything, so be glad for what you have and who you have because you may want for things but you need for nothing.”
― Victoria Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic

“Magic bent the world. Pulled it into shape. There were fixed points. Most of the time those points were places. But sometimes, rarely, they were people. For someone who never stood still, Lila still felt like a pin in Kell's world. One he was sure to snag on.
He didn't know what to say, so he simply said, "Stay out of trouble."
She flashed him a smile that said she wouldn't, of course.”
― Victoria Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic

“If I be waspish, best beware my sting.”
― William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew