Quotes by Sarah Dessen

The thing is, you can’t always have the best of everything. Because for a life to be real, you need it all: good and bad, beach and concrete, the familiar and the unknown, big talkers and small towns.

Life shouldnt be about the either/or. Were capable of more than that, you know?

My mother was strong, in all the ways I was weak. She fell, she hurt, she felt. She lived. And for all the tumble of her experiences, she still had hope. Maybe this next time would do the trick. Or maybe not. But unless you stepped into the game, you will never know.

It seemed like this day could go in so many directions, like a spiderweb shooting out toward endless possibilities. Whenever you made a choice, especially one youd been resisting, it always affected everything else, some in big ways, like a tremor beneath your feet, others in so tiny a shift you hardly noticed a change at all. But it was happening.

Maybe the truth was, it shouldnt be so easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. Its the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When somethings difficult to come by, youll do that much more to make sure its even harder--if not impossible--to lose.

I didnt pay atteniton to times or distance, instead focusing on how it felt just to be in motion, knowing it wasnt about the finish line but how I got there that mattered.

You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.

Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, thats what makes you strong.

What you have to decide... is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, would this be how youd want to have spent it? Listen, the truth is, nothing is guaranteed. You know that more than anybody. So dont be afraid. Be alive.

The further you go, the more you have to be proud of. At the same time, in order to come a long way, you have to be behind to begin with. IN the end, though maybe its not how you reach a place that matters. Just that you get there at all.

The future was one thing that could never be broken, because it had not yet had the chance to be anything.

Id heard of Evergreen Care Center before. Cass and I had always made fun of the stupid ads they ran on TV, featuring some dragged-out woman with a limp perm and big, painted-on circles under her eyes, downing vodka and sobbing uncontrollably. We cant heal you at Evergreen, the very somber voiceover said. But we can help you to heal yourself. It had become our own running joke, applicable to almost anything. Hey Cass, Id say, hand me that toothpaste. Caitlin, shed say, her voice dark and serious. I cant hand you the toothpaste. But I CAN help you hand the toothpaste to yourself.

Rogerson, I asked him sweetly as we sat watching a video in the pool house, where would I find the pelagic zone?In the open sea, he said. Now shut up and eat your Junior Mints.

When I pictured myself, it was always like just an outline in a colouring book, with the inside not yet completed.

Your mother won a special reward, she told me, because everyone had a head in her pictures. We all applauded.

Failing sucks. But its better than the alternative.Which is?Not even trying. Now he did look at me, straight on. Lifes short, you know?

It’s funny how one summer can change everything. It must be something about the heat and the smell of chlorine, fresh-cut grass and honeysuckle, asphalt sizzling after late-day thunderstorms, the steam rising while everything drips around it. Something about long, lazy days and whirring air conditioners and bright plastic flip-flops from the drugstore thwacking down the street. Something about fall being so close, another year, another Christmas, another beginning. So much in one summer, stirring up like the storms that crest at the end of each day, blowing out all the heat and dirt to leave everything gasping and cool. Everyone can reach back to one summer and lay a finger to it, finding the exact point when everything changed. That summer was mine.

Too many locks, not enough keys.

Plus there’s the fact,” he went on, making it clear he didn’t need me to reply anyway, “that music is a total constant. That’s why we have such a strong visceral connection to it, you know? Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in you or the world, that one song stays the same, just like that moment. Which is pretty amazing, when you actually think about it.

So youre always honest, I said.Arent you?No, I told him. Im not.Well, thats good to know, I guess.Im not saying Im a liar, I told him. He raised his eyebrows. Thats not how I meant it, anyways.Howd you mean it, then?I just...I dont always say what I feel.Why not?Because the truth sometimes hurts, I said.Yeah, he said. So do lies, though.