Quotes by John Green

The funny thing about writing is that whether youre doing well or doing it poorly, it looks the exact same. Thats actually one of the main ways that writing is different from ballet dancing.

What is the point of being alive if you dont at least try to do something remarkable? How very odd, to believe God gave you life, and yet not think that life asks more of you than watching TV.

People, I thought, wanted security. They couldnt bear the idea of death being a big black nothing, couldnt bear the thought of their loved ones not existing, and couldnt even imagine themselves not existing. I finally decided that people believed in an afterlife because they couldnt bear not to.

I was not religious, but I liked rituals. I liked the idea of connecting an action with remembering.

There is no try. There is only do.

Maybe its like you said before, all of us being cracked open. Like each of us starts out as a watertight vessel. And then things happen - these people leave us, or don’t love us, or don’t get us, or we don’t get them, and we lose and fail and hurt one another. And the vessel starts to crack in places. And I mean, yeah once the vessel cracks open, the end becomes inevitable. Once it starts to rain inside the Osprey, it will never be remodeled. But there is all this time between when the cracks start to open up and when we finally fall apart. And its only that time that we see one another, because we see out of ourselves through our cracks and into others through theirs. When did we see each other face to face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade, but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out.

And then the line was quite but not dead. I almost felt like he was there in my room with me, but in a way it was better, like I was not in my room and he was not in his, but instead we were together in some invisible and tenuous third space that could only be visited on the phone.

Why don’t we break up? I guess I stay with her because she stays with me. And that’s not an easy thing to do.

Its easy to like someone from a distance. But when she stopped being this amazing unattainable thing or whatever, and started being, like, just a regular girl with a weird relationship with food and frequent crankiness whs kind of bossy--then I had to basically start liking a whole different person.

You know your problem, Quentin? You keep expecting people not to be themselves.

That’s always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people would want to be around someone because they’re pretty. It’s like picking your breakfast cereals based on color instead of taste.

Uh-uh, dude. I tried it your way with the dating and the girls and the kissing and the drama, and man, I didnt like it. Plus, my best friend is a walking cautionary tale of what happens to you when romantic relationships dont involve marriage. Like you always say, kafir, everything ends in breakup, divorce, or death. I want to narrow my misery options to divorce or death - thats all.

You know whats lame, Pudge? I really care about her. I mean, we were hopeless. Badly matched. But still. I mean, I said I loved her... I mean, its stupid to miss someone you didnt even get along with. but I dont know, it was nice, you know, having someone you could always fight with.

I wouldnt have cared if my girlfriend was a Jaguar-driving Cyclops with a beard - Id have been grateful just to have someone to make out with.

One swing set, well worn but structurally sound, seeks new home ... With this swing set, your child(ren) will be introduced to the ups and downs of human life gently and safely, and may also learn the most important lesson of all: No matter how hard you kick, no matter how high you get, you cant go all the way around.

There comes a time when we realize that our parents cannot save themselves or save us, that everyone who wades through time eventually gets dragged out to sea by the undertow-that, in short, we are all going

Id had nearly four years of experience looking at these clocks, but their sluggishness never ceased to surprise. If I am ever told that I have one day to live, I will head straight to the hallowed halls of Winter Park High School, where a day has been known to last a thousand years.

What a slut time is. She screws with everybody.

What a slut time is. She screws everybody...

I spent the next three hours in classrooms, trying not to look at the clocks over various blackboards, and then looking at the clocks, and then being amazed that only a few minutes had passed since I last looked at the clocks, but their sluggishness never ceased to surprise. If I am ever told that I have one day to live, I will head straight for the hallowed halls of Winter Park High School, where a day has been known to last a thousand years.