I want everything with you, America. I want the holidays and the birthdays, the busy season and lazy weekends. I want peanut butter fingertips on my desk. I want inside jokes and fights and everything....

You get confused by crying women, I get confused by walks with princes.

I can’t help it.” I sighed. “One can never help being born into perfection.

Of course, because the only way I could possibly like men is if I bowed down at their feet?

What do you think my chances might be of finding a soul mate in the group of you? I’ll be lucky if I can just find someone who’ll be able to stand me for the...

The Selection was no longer something that was simply happening to me, but something I was actively a part of. I was an Elite.

I thought about the cameras following me in the terminal and pictured my family watching my entrance on TV. I hoped they’d be proud.

It was over, and I knew that. But you don’t love someone for almost two years and then turn it off overnight…

We know you’re strong, but accepting help is its own kind of strength.

[But] I have come across anything so painfully beautiful as that kiss. I wish it was something I could save and share with the world so I could tell the universe: this is what it’s...

When you know who matters most to you, giving things up, even yourself, doesn’t really feel like a sacrifice.

Sometimes I feel like we’re a knot, too tangled to be taken apart.

Your Majesty—Tugging my ear. Whenever.

Of course.

When my father is stern, no one chastises him. I don’t think it’s fair that when I act similarly, I’m seen as cruel. I’m making a huge decision, and I’m trying to be wise about...

I always wondered if they’d change you.

Castes never meant that much to me.

if you like the lovable sound of an asthma attack in your ear every time you tell a joke.

You were the one who changed us when you left me in the tree house; and you keep thinking that if you push hard enough, you can make everything go back to before that moment....

How had I lost so much in such a short period of time? It would seem like leaving your family, living in some foreign place, and being separated from the person you love should be...

December 27, 11:00 p.m.My Dear America,I’ve never written a love letter, so forgive me if I fail now. . . .The simple thing would be to say that I love you. But, in truth, it’s...

He must love you very much,’ Gavril said once I had my footing.I couldn’t look at him. ‘What makes you say that?’ Gavril sighed. ‘I’ve known Maxon since he was a child. He’s never stood...

Oh, please. A man doesn’t need that long to recover from a knee to the thigh.

You’re too beautiful for your own good. Once you leave, we’ll have to send some of the guards with you. You’ll never survive on your own, poor thing.

What’s it like to be in love?””It’s the most wonderful and terrible thing that can ever happen to you,

I know there was a time, when our country was new, when the assignment of these numbers helped organize something that was on the brink of not existing. But we are no longer that country....

…I want it to be as easy as breathing for you to say yes.

The picture of me just after I’d found out Aspen was saving up to marry me. I looked radiant, hopeful, beautiful. I looked like I was in love. And some idiot thought that love was...

Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen, show me how to love like you have loved me.

I love your hair!” Marlee gushed. “I wish I’d been born with red hair. It makes you look so alive. I hear that people with red hair have bed tempers. Is that true?Despite my rotten...

I’m not so stupid as to believe that you’ve completely forgotten about your former boyfriend. I know you think there are others here more suited for me and this life, and I wouldn’t want you...

It’s the most wonderful and terrible thing that can ever happen to you,” she said simply. “You know that you’ve found something amazing, and you want to hold on to it forever; and every second...

I should have known that if any girl was going to disobey an order, it would be you.

No wonder I’d never had any friends. I was shockingly bad at it.

Please don’t cry, darling. I’d spare you tears for the rest of your life if I could

Maybe this isn’t the right thing to say, but I want you to know: When you ran for the stage, I’ve never been so proud of you in all my life. You’ve always been beautiful;...

The Angeles air was quiet, and for a while I laid still, listening to the sound of Maxon breathing.

My shoes I got to pick. I chose worn-out red flats. I figured I should make it clear from the start that I wasn’t princess material.

It doesn’t really matter how you feel about your character, it just matters what you do with it.

It’s hard to get a hug wrong.

But I guessed she would never stop wanting more for me, more from me. Maybe that’s what mothers did.

Try patting them on the back or shoulder and telling them everything is going to be fine. Lots of times when girls cry, they don’t want you to fix the problem, they just want to...

Yes, Maxon,” I whispered. “It’s possible.

She couldn’t have been more than twelve years old. In her hands was a sign that said RED-HEADS RULE! with a little crown painted in the corner and tiny stars everywhere. I knew I was...

Prince Maxon surveyed the room and found me. Our eye met for a moment, and he smiled.

Maybe what I wanted was stupid. Maybe it wasn’t even something I could have. But, still it was mine. I didn’t think I could sacrifice my dreams, no matter how much my family meant to...

I remembered suddenly that Aspen had always been this way. He sacrificed sleep for me, he risked getting caught out after curfew for me, he scrounged together pennies for me. Aspen’s generosity was harder to...

So here I was expecting at the very best a cordial welcome from the girls who were prepared to fight me to the death for someone I didn’t want. Instead I was embraced.

I would be the best of us, the highest of the lows.

I wanted to be his dear, his darling.