Quotes by Ann Brashares

Desire was just the dumbest thing. You wanted what you wanted until it was yours. Then you didn’t want it anymore. You took what you had for granted until it was no longer yours. This, it seemed to her, was one of the crueller paradoxes of human nature.

This is the most beautiful piece of advice I can offer. I you dont have what you want now, you dont have what you want.

Healing wasn’t always the best thing. Sometimes a hole was better left open. Sometimes it healed too thick and too well and left separate pieces fused and incompetent. And it was harder to reopen after that.

It was her last breakfast with Bapi, her last morning in Greece. In her frenetic bliss that kept her up till dawn, she’d scripted a whole conversation in Greek for her and Bapi to have as their grand finale of the summer. Now she looked at him contentedly munching on his Rice Krispies, waiting for the right juncture for launchtime.He looked up at her briefly and smiled, and she realized something important. This was how they both liked it. Though most people felt bonded by conversation, Lena and Bapi were two of a kind who didn’t. They bonded by the routine of just eating cereal together.She promptly forgot her script and went back to her cereal.At one point, when she was down to just milk, Bapi reached over and put his hand on hers. ‘You’re my girl,’ he said.And Lena knew she was.

Why was it that her temper and her thinking never happened at the same time? Her temper behaved like a glutton sitting in an expensive restaurant ordering a hundred dishes, only to disappear when the bill came due. It left her lucid mind to do dishes.

When she made her way to the big picture window that framed the dining room table she froze. She stopped breathing. The anger was growing again.It grew up into her throat, where she could taste it, coppery like blood, in the back of her mouth. It grew down into her stomach, where it knotted her intestines. It made her arms stiffen and her shoulders lock. It pushed against her ribs until she felt they would snap like sticks.

A part of her wanted to tell him she still loved him, and that even though this love was hopeless and long over, it still consumed her year after year. It was a tangled hairball of feelings and she couldnt pull forth any one strand.

Her body was a prison, her mind was a prison. Her memories were a prison. The people she loved. She couldnt get away from the hurt of them. She could leave Eric, walk out of her apartment, walk forever if she liked, but she couldnt escape what really hurt. Tonight even the sky felt like a prison.

But it was smell that carried memory.

Honesty was a tough customer... Once you started allowing yourself some honesty, it couldnt easily be contained or limited to one part of your life. It was like poison ivy or a bossy houseguest. Once it was there, you couldnt tell it what to do. You had to really fight to keep it from taking over.

My mother says it cant stay like this, but I believe it will. The Pants are like an omen. They stand for the promise we made to one another, that no matter what happens, we stick together. But they stand for a challenge too. Its not enough to stay in Bethesda, Maryland, and hunker down in air-conditioned houses. We promise one another that someday wed get out in the world and figure some stuff out.

There were those emotions down there, and though she couldnt quite feel them, they were strong and she feared them. It was like watching a thunderhead from high up in a plane, and though you werent under it, you knew how it would feel if you were. You knew youd have to land eventually.

Lena wished that love were something you could flip on and off. You could turn it on when you felt good about yourself and worthy of it and generous enough to return it. You could flip it off when you needed to hide or self-destruct ad had nothing at all to give.

I told him, though, that he better be good to you. When you came along, I said Id share you, but I told him to remember that youre my sister. I loved you first. (Riley to her sister Alice about Paul)

Not even you can reach me here, Carmen thought.

But I know this. Were ready to move forward again in our way. Together or apart, no matter how far apart, we live in one another. We go on together.

She spilled rice on my knee, and she smiled. I wanted her to spill a thousand things on me, lava, acid, bricks, anything, and smile each time

People sometimes talk about the power of first impressions, and believe me, there is truth to it.

How terrible would it be to just wait there pathetically alone for him never to show up?Eudoxias expression grew more serious. Thats what youre doing anyway, my dear.

She kept walking. The very small, brave part of her brain knew that this would be her one chance. If she turned around, she would lose it.