How They Met, and Other Stories Quotes

“We'd said we'd keep in touch. But touch is not something you can keep; as soon as it's gone, it's gone. We should have said we'd keep in words, because they are all we can string between us--words on a telephone line, words appearing on a screen.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“You have to believe there are kisses and laughs and risks worth taking.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“I think one of the highest compliments you can give a person is that when you are talking to him, you are not thinking about the fact that you are talking to him. That is, your thoughts and words all exist on a single, engaged level. You are being yourself because you aren't bothering to think about who you should be. It is like when you talk in a dream.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“When I am with you, there is nowhere else I'd rather be. And I am a person who always wants to be somewhere else.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“Love doesn’t have to be on Valentine’s Day. It doesn’t have to be by the time you turn eighteen or thirty-three or fifty-nine. It doesn’t have to conform to whatever is usual. It doesn’t have to be kismet at once, or rhapsody by the third day.

It just has to be. In time. In place. In spirt.

It just has to be.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“You could be
the leaf that never falls from the tree
you could be
the sun that never leaves the sky
this might be
the happy ending without the ending
this might be
a reason to try”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“Every two people cause and intersection. Every person alters the world.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“I say good-bye to the part of myself that misses him so much.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“That no matter what i did, I would always be missing something else. And the only way to live, the only way to be happy, was to make sure the things I didn't miss meant more to me than the things I missed.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“I want to write my life. I want to be able to write my life.

You are a second away from saying it.


You have no idea how much I love you.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“Music is everywhere. It’s in the air between us, waiting to be sung.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“You wanna-I dunno-get coffee or something sometime?"

Justin smiled "Not coffee. But yes."

"Not Coffee it is, then."

"Yes, Not Coffee.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“It's not the easy things that let you get to know a person.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“We’d said we’d keep in touch. But touch is not something you can do from a distance. Touch is not something you can keep; as soon as it’s gone, it’s gone. We should have said we’d keep in words, because they are all we can string between us-words on a telephone line, words appearing on a screen. But they cause more complications than clarity. On the phone, there are always voices in the background. On the screen, there are always the sentences saying he has to go.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“The minute I knew I was in love was the minute when there was no question about it.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“It's like you're a character in this book that everyone around you is writing, and suddenly you have to say, 'I'm sorry, but this role isn't right for me'. And you have to start writing your own life and doing your own thing.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“Our moments are music, and sometimes – just sometimes – we can catch them and put them into some lasting form. If we didn’t have music, I don’t think we could ever be truly happy, and if we didn’t have special moments, we would never find music.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“I say good-bye to hope, but I also say good-bye to hope's disappointment.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“But you have to figure that if it’s too hard to hang on, then maybe you should let go.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“Enlightenment is scary. Sometimes things look better in the dark.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“What do I know about love? Not much-that’s the safe answer. Even when I think I have a grasp on it, something comes along to make me realize I don’t know anything at all. It’s just a concept to me. It’s the thing that all the songs are written about, the thing that makes smart people act stupidly. If I can make love a concept, it makes me a better observer. And it also leaves a place inside of me hollow. Sometimes I can actually feel it. To reach down inside that part-I wonder how it would feel, to touch a void. That nameless empty.


This makes me seem lonely, which isn’t really true. I have other parts of me—friendship, for one—which compensate for the void. I can’t feel the nothingness except in those rare times when there’s nothing else to feel.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“Let me hold on to this the way it was, before I knew anything else.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“We didn't believe in fate, but we believed in serendipity. We felt very lucky.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“I wanted every word to last for hours, every gaze to last for days.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“That's what it felt like - that if I let a little of the hurt out, it would keep pouring out until I was a deflated balloon of a person, with a big monster of hurt in front of me.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“Sometimes I wish we could open ourselves up to each other as much as we do to the sky. To the smallness and the enomity.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“Most dancers find their confidence in dancing. Right is mere millimeters away from wrong. Failure is always louder than success. But there is an accumulation of all the things you don’t do wrong, and it becomes your confidence. You can even get to the point where confidence lasts longer than the dance. Seconds at first. Then minutes. Then maybe it’ll be there when you’re walking into a party, or meeting people after a show. You know you have something desirable, and you know you can move.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“We always loved to say 'If I'd had a Monday-morning class, I never would have met you'. Or 'If you'd been reading something else, none of this would have happened'. We didn't believe in fate, but we believed in serendipity. We felt very lucky.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“I am here because of love.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories

“Whatever you had -- I don't know what it was, and that's fine. But it must not be easy for you. You miss him, and that's okay. But you have to figure that if it's too much hard to hang on, then maybe you should let go.”
― David Levithan, How They Met, and Other Stories