The Charm Offensive Quotes

“I don't think happily ever after is something that happens to you, Dev. I think it's something you choose to do for yourself.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“You're allowed to want the romance parts without the sex parts. Or the sex parts without the romance parts. All of those feelings are valid. You're deserving of a relationship in whatever form you want it.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“I don't love you despite those things. I love you because of those things.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“Sexuality isn't always a straight line from closeted to out-of-the-closet. You can take time to explore and evolve and figure out exactly what kind of queer you are, if that even matters to you".”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“Most of the time, Dev is like a human bonfire walking around generously warming everyone with his presence. But burning that bright and that fiercely must be exhausting; no one can sustain it forever. Charlie wishes he could tell Dev it’s okay to flicker out sometimes. To tend to his own flame, to keep himself warm. He doesn’t have to be everything for everyone else all the time.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“I’ve learned it’s possible to be so in love with an idea of something, you can be blinded to the reality. And I’ve learned I want something real.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“When it gets like this, how can I help?"
Charlie swallows. "No one has ever asked me that before.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“Because there is nothing more terrifying than standing up in front of the world and declaring that you deserve love.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“You're so good at seeing other people. I wish you could see yourself.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“I...I'm terrified of letting you see me."
Dev knows Charlie is handing him something important, something he's never trusted anyone else to hold before. "Oh, love," Dev says, leaning in to kiss the cluster of freckles to the left of his nose. "I already see you.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“Do you still fall asleep listening to his old voicemails every night?”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“Charlie thinks about Dev and about the beautiful simplicity of being seen.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“How can I help when it gets like this?"
Dev folds himself tighter against Charlie, all those lovely sharp points digging in. "You can just stay," he says, at last. "No one ever stays.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“Dev Deshpande. Are you interested in becoming my prince?"
If happily ever after is something you choose, then Dev decides to choose it for himself. "Yes," he says.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“How are the pancakes?"
Somehow both burned and raw in the middle. "Delicious."
"Be honest, Charlie."
"I think I already have food poisoning.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“You're deserving of a relationship in whatever form you want it.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“He's like a terrified baby bird. Like a two-hundred -twenty-pound baby bird with crippling anxiety and a fairly intense germ phobia who can't navigate his way through a complete sentence.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“It feels like an unzipping of his skin, as if he's stepping outside this costume version of himself to become his actual self - that he's discovering something true buried so deep he thought he would never reach that person, but there he is, and Dev is with him, holding his hand, guiding him through.
In the middle of the night, he wakes up reaching out for Dev, but he's already there, arms wrapped up tight around Charlie. "I would choose you," Charlie whispers into the darkness.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“And it's okay if you don't love me back yet. I can love enough for both of us. Just please stop pulling away.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“labels can be nice sometimes, They can give us a language to understand ourselves and our hearts better. And they can help us find a community and develop a sense of belonging.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“I... I... am not good with words, or with trying to communicate my thoughts. People always think I'm weird, so it's easier if I never talk.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“Being perfect was the only way to ensure everything was safe and everything was healthy.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“He's always happy, always smiling, always thinking about other people. He usually thrives on set, fluttering around to everyone, helping and chatting and feeding off the energy of it all. He's the most charming person Charlie's ever met. That's not the description of a depressed person.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“Charlie hasn't met many people like this - people who don't male assumptions about you when they discover your brain doesn't work like theirs; people who don't judge you; people who simply stay with you and ask what they can do to help.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“Because slow and careful is what Charlie needs, and because Dev is a little bit obsessed with being what Charlie needs.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“We ate pizza on the floor of your new apartment, and I asked you why it took you six years to break up with someone who didn't make you happy. Do you remember what you said? "
He shakes his head.
"You said sometimes easy is better than happy.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“He's just sad for him, for the little kid who fell in love with love stories where no one looked like him, no one thought like him, no one loved like him.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“He liked how productivity made him feel worthy, and he liked how being busy never left him time to think.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“He doesn't often try to explain his mind to other people. On the rare occassions he does, other people don't tend to listen.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive

“And holy shit—Dev’s knees and Dev’s mouth and Dev’s Adam’s apple. He tries
thinking about Daphne’s pretty blue eyes instead, but he can only see Dev’s dark
ones, peering intensely at him behind his glasses. He tries to conjure the image of
Angie’s soft body, but it’s superimposed with Dev’s wide shoulders, the slenderness
of his hips, the sharp points and the beautiful brown skin and the smell of him.”
― Alison Cochrun, The Charm Offensive