Beautiful Graves Quotes

“This is for falling in love with the right girl at the wrong time and still fucking paying for it.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“When you like someone, you want to leave footprints your time together.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“I loved you, Ever Lawson. But I want you to know, you're the worst thing that's ever fucking happened to me.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“Be thankful to those who helped you when you were down, and be thankful to those who didn’t. The former are worth keeping, and the latter helped you realize it.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“Mainstream people aren't revolutionary.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“Pets are never just animals. They’re family.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“As long as you have breath in you, no one else stands a chance. - Joe”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“But since redheads make up less than 2 percent of the entire world population, I don’t have it in me to dye it.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“take a deep breath. “My breath might smell of vomit.” “Sweetheart.” He tucks a lock of my hair behind my ear. “Nothing smells as bad as you did the night we went to the junkyard.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“I can’t do this. I can’t get inside. I turn around, toward the stairs, toward the world above. I’m going home. I can’t do this. “Ever.” I hear a voice. I look up, wiping my tears. And there, in front of me, on the train in front of me, stands Joe. With his worn-out Levi’s. With tousled dark curls that frame my favorite face in the entire world. With a cigarette tucked behind one ear. Beautiful and handsome and alive. He offers me his hand.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“Look, I love my brother. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have you. He can have your outside. I can have your inside.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“The train approached. I tried to reach for her, I did. But she . . .” I draw a breath, feeling tears rolling down my cheeks. “She said, ‘Don’t you dare.’ Don’t you dare.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“But see, forgiving people who hurt us is not about those people at all. It is about choosing to move on with our lives. Letting go of the grudges. Healing without depending on someone else’s journey.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“I think that’s the issue, Everlynne. What you don’t understand—what your generation doesn’t understand, I think—is that things are naturally messy. They’ve always been messy. Perfect doesn’t exist. Embarrassment and shame are a package deal. They’re a part of life. You cannot remove these compartments from your existence. You have to meet your challenges head-on.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“You goddamn know Presley was never in the race.” Joe shuts me up with a dirty, violent kiss. “As long as you have breath in you, no one else stands a chance.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“He hooks his USB into his stereo and plays Nickelback and Dave Matthews Band throwbacks.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“Because what’s one night in an ocean of days in your life?”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“the Atlantic Ocean makes up roughly twenty percent of the entire world? It kisses Morocco, Brazil, Iceland, London, and Florida. But no matter how big it is, I cannot help but think it makes the world seem so small. You are always a ship’s journey away from anywhere.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“I know there’s this whole thing about not minimizing people’s problems, but fuck it, I feel like some things should be minimized, you know? Yeah, being an Afghan refugee trying to escape a horrible fate is a bigger problem than not getting asked by your crush to prom, and I’m tired of pretending all troubles were born equal when obviously that’s not the goddamn truth!”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“Is it always like that?” I whisper. He knows exactly what I’m asking, because he shakes his head and says, “No, Ever. It’s never like that. This . . .” He dips his head, kissing the shell of my ear. “This is heaven. This is worthy of death.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“What if I’m not fucking awesome?” “You are,” he says, sure as the morning sun. “If you were mediocre, you wouldn’t be running circles in my head.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“it. The girl hasn’t met a book she didn’t want to read,”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“Tattoos are like putting wallpaper on a generically painted house, she always says.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“Because even in the best of times, I’ve always been torn. Between the man I am about to bury. And the man standing behind my back.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“I loved you, Ever Lawson. But I want you to know, you’re the worst thing that’s ever fucking happened to me.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“Sean pawed and squeezed my breasts like he was trying to milk me.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“It’s just that I needed a few moments to collect myself after what happened. And see, those moments turned into a few years. I just wanted to thank you for saving me. For being the best mom a girl could have. I’m so sorry my guilt stood in the way of doing the right thing. I promise you, it’s over now. I’ll be good to everyone who is still alive and I love. Everyone.” And I mean it. Everyone.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“He does CrossFit; I . . . get cross when people tell me to get fit.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“Mainstream people aren’t revolutionary. Nothing good ever comes out of them. Average equals comfort.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves

“They’re not wrong. I have no idea what I’ll do. Because even in the best of times, I’ve always been torn. Between the man I am about to bury. And the man standing behind my back.”
― L.J. Shen, Beautiful Graves