Forever Geek Quotes

“I’m slowly beginning to realise how ironic it is that I’m so good at learning lessons inside school, and so terrible at learning any outside it.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“I loved all of this boy: the good bits and the bad. And I knew that, when it came, I would love his sadness too.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“Because the people I love always find their way back in the end.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“Now and then, you get to put somebody else at the top of your list.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“The orchestral music is glorious but I wish they'd stop playing for a minute: it's very hard to eavesdrop properly over a grand piano and full accompaniment.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“Carefully, I write in big letters on the front of my backpack:
GEEK
Then I put my pen away.
Because these are my words, and this is my story.
Now you get to choose yours.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“There's a beep.
And, in that fraction of a second, I see it all
→ . .
Me in bed, covered in lipstick and talcum powder; falling down the coach aisle; smashing into a hat-stall; climbing under a table; thirty hands in the air; spinning under a spotlight; jumping in the snow; a ponytail, cut off; sitting on a catwalk; standing on a doorstep; my first kiss, on a television set.
I see a Japanese fish market and an octopus; a sumo stage; a glass box and a hundred dolls; a shining lake; a zebra crossing; a brand-new sister.
I see New York and a governess; a fairground ride; a planetarium; a party; Brooklyn Bridge. Toilet paper and Icarus; dinosaur biscuits; posters; Marrakesh and a monkey; parties of stars. Picnics and coffee; an advertising agency; a doppelganger; an Indian elephant and firework clouds of paint; a cafe, filled with pink. I see Sydney and diving and a fashion show that glittered with gold.
In short: I see a whole world, opening behind me.
And a new world, opening in front.
A world that I fit into perfectly.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“But then, with a rush, I can suddenly hear them all: every single unkind word I've ever been called
Circling in the air above my head like angry flies: buzzing and buzzing, as if they're desperate to find somewhere to land.
Ugly. Freckles. Nobody. Boring. Loser. Spotty. Carrots.
GEEK.
But for the first time, they can't seem to settle or stick on me.
There's nowhere for them to go.
Still smiling, I reach a hand up and start batting at them: hitting the words, one by one, until they're dead on the floor. Empty ghost words that have no meaning, no use, no purpose, no truth in them.
Definitions that aren't in my dictionary any more.
Because from this point onwards, nobody gets to choose the vocabulary I use for myself but me.
Smiling, I lean forward and give my beautiful, flawed and irreplaceable face a quick kiss in the mirror. After all, none of those social-networking statistics said that my sixth best friend couldn't be myself.
That's not cheating at all.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“That was rather discombobulating."
I laughed. "Discombobulating? Where did that word come from?"
"I might have stolen it from you."
"You can have it on loan."
"Thanks. I'll check it back in when I don't need it any more.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“Because these aren't just dresses.
They're portals: ways of time-travelling without moving. A little bit of me went into each of them, and it's as if I can see myself in each of them, standing there like a ghost. As if every emotion, every thought, every hope, every memory I had is still drifting visibly through them like smoke.
These are all part of who I am and who I was, and they're also part of who I will be.
My very own historical timeline.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“Nat says that fashion is history: that clothes aren't just materials we wear, but they become a part of who we are, who we have been and who we will be.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“I don't really get sad," Nick said, staring at the ceiling. "I'm just one of those cool, aloof guys who stays chilled at all times. You know the type. We're everywhere in fiction”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“I'm hard work, Nick. And I'm OK with that, but you need to be OK with that too because I'm not going to change." Finally, I draw to a breathless stop.
"But that's the whole point," he says slowly with a warm smile. "I don't want you to change, Harriet. You're not hard work for me." And that's when I know.
As Nick laces his fingers through mine and the golden sun in my chest starts burning so brightly it feels like it's going to explode, I realise that all that time we were focusing on our three stars, the moon had been there too.
Coming and going - waxing and waning - but never really leaving.
Always there: always shared.
Always reflecting love and light back at me.
"Acceptance," Lion Boy says, kissing me gently. "Tick.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“People are like glass.
Some you can see straight through; others shine bright lights and iridescent colours everywhere they go. Some you look at and see parts of yourself reflected, and you look into some and see nothing but darkness.
Some people magnify so that everything around them seems bigger anc more beautiful, while others can make even the largest things seem infinitely smaller.
People can be cracked or chipped, fragile or scratched, and still stay in one piece: even more precious and loved for all of their broken parts.
But sometimes ... people shatter.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“Because I don't always need plans or strategies.
In this moment, I don't need bullet points and maps; I don't need to know where I'm going or where I've been. I don't need to look to the future to try to see what's coming or the past to see what has already happened; I don't need to assess or analyse or theorise or research or dissect anything.
In this precise moment, all I need is now.
All I need is me.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“Nat's face is like thunder.
Which is an analogy that makes no sense because thunder is sound so technically it doesn't look like anything, but I don't have time to find a better one because my best friend is about to kill me.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“You know, Manners, this was an incredibly extreme way to pass on a message. You could have just rung. Or sent a postcard."
And I suddenly remember our race to the postbox last summer: happy and giggling and dizzy from the roundabout and the sunshine and the kissing.
"I could have," I smile back. "I guess this time I just wanted to get here first.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“You didn't need to do that. Lie for me, I mean."
"I didn't," he says simply. "Who do you think wrote the sign on the door downstairs in the first place?”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“It's as if somebody has copied and pasted Yuka Ito into a different document and then edited her, like a human game of Spot the Difference.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“How are you?"
"I'm coolioko," I nod, coughing once more. Not coolioko again, Harriet. "I mean, I'm ... fantastico." No. "Supastic." No. "I mean ... I'm OK and stuff.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek

“Carrots.”
― Holly Smale, Forever Geek