Before We Were Strangers Quotes

“The present is our own. The right-this-second, the here-and-now, this moment before the next, is ours for the taking. It’s the only free gift the universe has to offer. The past doesn’t belong to us anymore, and the future is just a fantasy, never guaranteed. But the present is ours to own. The only way we can realize that fantasy is if we embrace the now.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“You can’t re-create the first time you promise to love someone or the first time you feel loved by another. You cannot relive the sensation of fear, admiration, self-­consciousness, passion, and desire all mixed into one because it never happens twice. You chase it like the first high for the rest of your life. It doesn’t mean you can’t love another or move on; it just means that the one spontaneous moment, the split second that you took the leap, when your heart was racing and your mind was muddled with What ifs?—that moment—will never happen the same way again. It will never feel as intense as the first time. At least, that’s the way I remember it. That’s why my mother always said we memorialize our past. Everything seems better in a memory.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Poetry is just evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Everything seems better in a memory.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“And in that moment, you realize how little control you have over your own destiny. From the time you're born, you have no control; you can't choose your parents, and, unless you're suicidal, you can't choose your death. The only thing you can do is choose the person you love, be kind to others, and make your brutally short stint on earth as pleasant as possible.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Once there was you and me
We were lovers
We were friends
Before life changed
Before we were strangers
Do you still think of me?”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“It was like the universe was teasing us; we saw each other just a second too late.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“We were victims of bad timing. But here we are again.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Maybe that’s what growing up was really all about. Adults always say how complicated life gets as we age, but really, I think we just look for bigger challenges to overcome. Our biggest fears stretch from sleeping without our beloved teddy bear to finding out that we have no purpose in life. Did time, maturity, and overcoming obstacles offer the kind of contentment so evident in Orvin? Or did we just simply give up and surrender to the life we were already living?”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Weren’t we though? Timeless? Nothing could change what we’d had all those years before, even if the idea of what might’ve been lingered between us.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“You have to learn to fly before you can soar.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“I felt it for Grace before I even had a name for it. I might have said the word a million times, but it sounded different now that I meant it. When I thought about what we had, it didn’t matter that it was just friendship. I loved her.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“You were always with me, Grace. I never found a way to let you go.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“We memorialize our past. Everything seems better in a memory.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“You’re my first muse, Grace.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Like nothing else in life, sex is perfectly selfless and selfish all at once. Hot and cold, yin and yang, black and white, and all of the shades in between.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“You can’t re-create the first time you promise to love someone or the first time you feel loved by another. You cannot relive the sensation of fear, admiration, self-consciousness, passion, and desire all mixed into one because it never happens twice. You chase it like the first high for the rest of your life.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“The present is our own. The right-this-second, the here-and-now, this moment before the next, is ours for the taking. It’s the only free gift the universe has to offer.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“And then his lips were on mine and we were in it, pulling away from the past and rushing fast into the future.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Heart slayed. He owned me.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Time passes, life goes on, places change, people change.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“I was static, standing on the platform, watching train after train go by, wishing I knew which one to be on.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“From the time you’re born, you have no control; you can’t choose your parents, and, unless you’re suicidal, you can’t choose your death. The only thing you can do is choose the person you love, be kind to others, and make your brutally short stint on earth as pleasant as possible.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Three seconds doesn't seem like a long time, but when you're gazing into someone's eyes, it's long enough to make a silent promise.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Fifteen years is too long to be holding on to a few heart-pounding moments from college.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.’ ”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Life was passing me by at high speed as I sat back with my feet up, rejecting change, ignoring the world, shrugging off anything that threatened to have meaning of relevance.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Isn’t there a word for friends that mess around?”
“Yeah, it’s called girlfriend and boyfriend.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Would they have carried on with their lonely lives, living like two halves of one heart, just out of reach of each other?”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Isn’t that all we need to hear sometimes—that you’re a good mom or friend or daughter or wife?”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers