Sarah Dessen Quotes - Page 2

A united front announcing a split.
Sarah Dessen
it's a lot easier to be lost than found.
Sarah Dessen
Earlier in the summer, I'd found the syllabi to a couple of the courses I was taking at Defriese in the fall, and I'd hunted down a few of the texts at the U bookstore, figuring it couldn't hurt to acquaint myself with the material.
Sarah Dessen
School was my solace, and studying let me escape, allowing me to live a thousand vicarious lives.
Sarah Dessen
If you try anything, if you try to lose weight, or to improve yourself, or to love, or to make the world a better place, you have already achieved something wonderful, before you even begin. Forget failure. If things don't work out the way you want, hold your head up high and be proud, and try again.
Sarah Dessen
It shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder―or impossible―to lose.
Sarah Dessen
I hadn't said goodbye. It had been easier, like always, to just disappear, sparing myself the messy details of another farewell. Now, my fingers hovered over my track pad, moving the cursor down to his comment section before I stopped myself. What was the point? Anything I said now would only be an afterthought.Elizabeth who goes by her middle name
Sarah Dessen
Not everything's perfect, especially in the beginning. And its all right to have a little bit of regret every once in a while. It's when you feel it all the time and can't do anything about it... that's when you get into trouble
Sarah Dessen
All I'd ever thought I wanted was to be left alone. Until I was.
Sarah Dessen
That was the thing about being alone, in theory or in principle. Whatever happened-good, bad, or anywhere in between-it was always, if nothing else, all your own.
Sarah Dessen
Everything hurt. I closed my eyes, pressing my cheek to the street, and waited. What for, I didn't know. To be rescued. Or found. But no one came. All I'd ever thought I wanted was to be left alone. Until I was.
Sarah Dessen
funny how a beautiful song could tell such a sad story
Sarah Dessen
Restoring order of my personal universe suddenly seemed imperative, as I refolded my T-shirts, stuffed the toes of my shoes with tissue paper, and arranged all the bills in my secret stash box facing the same way, instead of tossed in sloppy and wild, as if by my evil twin. All week, I kept making lists and crossing things off them, ending each day with a sense of great accomplishment eclipsed only by complete and total exhaustion.
Sarah Dessen
Good be- gets bad, something lost leads to found...
Sarah Dessen
These were always the weirdest trips for me, when it was midnight or even later, and we pulled up to a dark house, trying to be quiet. Like a robbery in reverse, creeping around to leave something rather than take it.
Sarah Dessen
I said, somewhat confused, “What’s the problem?”[Kristy] rolled her eyes. Beside her, Monica said, “Donneven.”“Kristy.” Delia shook her head. “This isn’t the time or the place, okay?”“The time or the place for what?” Caroline asked.“There is never,” Kristy said adamantly, “a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.”“Throbbing?” my mother said, leaning forward and looking at me. “Who’s throbbing?”“Macy and Wes,” Kristy told her.“We are not,” I said indignantly. “Kristy,” Delia said helplessly. “Please God I’m begging you, not now.”“Wait a second, wait a second.” Caroline held her hands up. “Kristy. Explain.”“Yes, Kristy,” my mother said, but she was looking at me. Not really mad as much as confused. Join the club, I thought. “Explain.”Bert said, “This ought to be good.”Kristy ignored him, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “Wes wants to be with Macy. And Macy, whether she’ll admit it or not, wants to be with Wes. And yet they’re not together, which is not only unjust, but really, when you think about it, tragical.”“That’s not a word,” Bert pointed out.“It is now,” she said. “How else can you explain a situation where Wes, a truly extraordinary boy, would be sent packing in favor of some brainiac loser…”“Why,” I said, feeling embarrassed, “do we have to keep talking about this?”“Because it’s tragical!” Kristy said….”I’ll tell you what it is. It’s wrong. You should be with Wes, Macy. The whole time you guys were hanging out, talking about how you were both with other people, it was so obvious to everyone. It was even obvious to Wes. You were the only one who couldn’t see it, just like you can’t see it now.”“Mmm-hmm,” Monica said aloud.
Sarah Dessen
If he'd been any other boy, and this was any other world, I would have kissed him. Nothing could have stopped me.
Sarah Dessen
Suddenly, I was just sure he was going to kiss me. He was there, I could feel his breath, the ground solid beneath us. But then something crossed his face, a thought, a hesitation, and he shifted slightly. Not now. Not yet. It was something I'd done so often - weighing what I could afford to risk, right at that moment - that I recognized it instantly. It was like looking in a mirror.
Sarah Dessen
He had a nice ttttsmile. Seeing it, I felt like I’d won a prize, because he was so sparing with them.
Sarah Dessen
Sure, it sucked to be lost, but I'd long ago realized I preferred it to depending on anyone else to get me where I needed to go. That was the thing about being alone, in theory or in principle. Whatever happened- good, bad, or anywhere in between- it was always, if nothing else, all your own.
Sarah Dessen
Most people put off my mother's erratic behavior to the fact that she was a writer, as if that just explained everything. To me that was just an excuse. I mean, brain surgeons can be crazy too, but no one says that's all right. Fortunately for my mother, I am alone in this opinion.
Sarah Dessen
Accepting all the good and bad about someone. It's a great thing to aspire to. The hard part is actually doing it.
Sarah Dessen
There were so many places in my time with Rogerson that I wished I could go back to, hitting the stop button at just one moment to stop everything that came after. I had so many If Onlys, but each place I thought to stop meant missing something that came later. I needed it all, in the end, to make my own story find its finish.
Sarah Dessen
I'd made my choice, though, and I couldn't take it back.
Sarah Dessen
What you do in your dreams is never your choice. But it made me happy anyway.
Sarah Dessen
You could just tell when a person belonged somewhere. That is something you can't fake, no matter how hard you try
Sarah Dessen
The first thing I did when I got inside was turn on the kitchen light. Then I moved to the table, putting my dad's iPod on the speaker dock, and a Bob Dylan song came on, the notes familiar. I went into the living room, hitting the switch there, then down the hallway to my room, where I did the same. It was amazing what a little noise and brightness could do to a house and a life, how much the smallest bit of each could change everything. After all these years of just passing through, I was beginning to finally feel at home.
Sarah Dessen
I reached up with my finger and traced the scar over my eyebrow, remembering when that was the greatest hurt I'd ever known.
Sarah Dessen
The silence wasn't like the ones I'd known lately, though; it wasn't empty so much as chosen. There's an entirely different feel to quiet when you're with someone else, and at any moment it could be broken. Like the difference between a pause and an ending.
Sarah Dessen
But as i lay there, it only seemes like silence filling my ears. And the thing was, it was so freaking loud.
Sarah Dessen
Silence is so freaking loud
Sarah Dessen
Jennifer Anne had prepared some complicated-looking recipe involving chicken breasts stuffed with sweet potatoes topped with a vegetable glaze. They looked perfect, but it was the kind of dish where you just knew someone had to have been pawing at your food for a long while to get it just right, their fingers all in what now you were having to stick in your mouth.
Sarah Dessen
You did listen." He sat back, nodding his head. "Okay, then. Now tell me what you really thought.""I told you. It was interesting.""Interesting," he said, "is not a word.""Since when?""It's a placeholder. Something you use when you don't want to say something else." He leaned a little closer to me. "Look, if you're worried about my feelings, don't be. You can say whatever you want. I won't be offended.""I did. I liked it.""Tell the truth. Say something. Anything. Just spit it out.""I—" I began, then stopped myself. Maybe it was the fact that he was so clearly on to me. Or my sudden awareness of how rarely I was honest. Either way, I broke. "I… I didn't like it," I said.He slapped his leg. "I knew it! You know, for someone who lies a lot, you're not very good at it."This was a good thing. Or not? I wasn't sure. "I'm not a liar," I said."Right. You're nice," he said."What's wrong with nice?""Nothing. Except it usually involves not telling the truth," he replied. "Now. Tell me what you really thought.
Sarah Dessen
Anger's not bad," he said. "It's human...
Sarah Dessen
But I knew what it said. That I could be imperfect, but only so much. Human, but only within limits. And honest, to her or to myself, never.
Sarah Dessen
... Everything he feels, he feels strongly. Too strongly, sometimes. I think he freaks people out.
Sarah Dessen
The people who know you best can be risker, because the words they say and things they think have the potential to be not only scary but true, as well.
Sarah Dessen
I would have thought this would make me feel better.. getting to be the one to leave and not the one left behind. But it didn't. Not at all.
Sarah Dessen
Someone who normally moved so slowly, this time, for once, was long gone.
Sarah Dessen
Like I, of all people, didn't know better than to lead a total stranger to the point where they could hurt me most, knowing how easily they'd be able to find their way back to it.
Sarah Dessen
So many times it seemed like there were chances to stop things before they started. Or even stop them in midstream. But it was even worse when you knew in that very moment that there was still time to save yourself, and yet you couldn't even budge.
Sarah Dessen
I knew from experience that no matter how much you turn things in your head, trying to make sense of them, some people just defy all logic.
Sarah Dessen
Because it is so hard, in any life, to believe in what you can't fully understand.
Sarah Dessen
Isn't that the way everything begins? A night, a love, a once and for all.
Sarah Dessen
Everything in life had its phases, and if you were smart, you learned to appreciate them all. What really mattered, though, were the people in those moments with you. Memories are what we have and what we keep, and I held mine close. The ones I knew well, like a night on the beach with a boy who would always live in my heart, and the ones yet to come with another.
Sarah Dessen
For you, I wish for second chances
Sarah Dessen
You get used to people being a certain way; you depend on it. And when they surprise you, for better or worse, it can shake you to your core.
Sarah Dessen
You always think you want to be noticed. Until you are.
Sarah Dessen
I wasn’t ready to think about the other yet: that it wasn’t that I wasn’t right for Macon, but that maybe he wasn’t right for me. There was a difference. Even for someone who things didn’t come easy for, someone like me.
Sarah Dessen
Norman picked up a sketch, glanced at it, then put it back down on the table. "I saw Bea Williamson this morning," he said in a low voice. "Lurking about looking for cut glass." "Oh, of course," Mira said with a sigh. "Did she have it with her?" Norman nodded solemnly. "Yep. I swear, I think it's almost gotten ... bigger." Mira shook her head. "Not possible." "I'm serious," Norman said. "It's way big." I kept waiting for someone to expand on this, but since neither of them seemed about to, I asked, "What are you talking about?" They looked at each other. Then, Mira took a breath. "Bea Williamson's baby," she said quietly, as if someone could hear us, "has the biggest head you have ever seen." Norman nodded, seconding this. "A baby?" I said. "A big-headed baby," Mira corrected me. "You should see the cranium on this kid. It's mind-boggling.
Sarah Dessen
Life is full of screwups," he said, chucking another paper at the split-level before taking the corner. "You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existence.
Sarah Dessen
Life is full of screwups. You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existance.
Sarah Dessen
What was it like to be so confident even in your failings that you weren't the least bit bothered when other people pointed them out? I was almost envious.
Sarah Dessen
There was something so heavy about the burden of history, of the past.
Sarah Dessen
I'd been through so much, falling short again and again, and only recently had found a place where who I was, right now, was enough.
Sarah Dessen
The important thing to remember, ... is that you are a human being and worthy of respect.
Sarah Dessen
What defines you isn't how many times you crash but the number of times you get back.
Sarah Dessen
Believe in yourself up here and it will make you stronger than you could ever imagine.
Sarah Dessen
for once, you believed in yourself. you believed you were beautiful and so did the rest of the world.
Sarah Dessen
Why should I even bother? What's the point, really?"He thought for a moment. "Who says there has to be a point?" he asked. "Or a reason. Maybe it's just something you have to do.
Sarah Dessen