It taught that there are three versions of things: the one I see in my mind, and the one that carries onto the paper, and then what it ultimately becomes.

His lips are familiar. I know the shape of them, know how to make mine fit against them. His taste is familiar too. For all the illusions and colors and sweet smells… he has always...

We accept gods that don’t speak to us. We accept gods that would place us in a world filled with injustices and do nothing as we struggle. It’s easier than accepting that there’s nothing out...

Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.

We can change so many times in our lives. We’re born into a family, and it’s the only life we can imagine, but it changes. Buildings collapse. Fires burn. And the next second we’re someplace...

Love unrequited is violent. He loves you so much that he’s turned it into hate.

I see an ocean that’s spilled out of a wineglass, its body clear and sparkling and folding over itself. I see a ribbon of sand.

I’m suddenly finding it hard to know the difference between nightmares and consciousness.

We’re all born an empty page.

To die trying would be better than to die without purpose.

A feeling can’t kill you.

Because even if the lie is beautiful, the truth is what you face in the end.

We writers are resilient souls.

Ah, love. That’s what the world has lost. There’s no more love, only the illusion of it.

I start trying to stay unconscious. The problem with this is that no amount of willpower can change the reality.

I think she’s brave. I think that nobody has ever believed what she could be capable of. All her life, nobody was listening.

She’s been conned, ruined, left for dead, and she’s not going to forgive any of it. She will soldier on, if only out of spite.

She smiles at our husband as she moves, and he blushes, overcome by her beauty. But I know what her smile really means…Her smile is her revenge.

A strange thing, words. Once they’re said, it’s hard to imagine they’re untrue.

I think humans have always been desperate. I think it has always been about doing something awful if it might help, when the only other option is death. Maybe that’s what being a parent is...

I have always been fascinated by the ocean, to dip a limb beneath its surface and know that I’m touching eternity, that it goes on forever until it begins here again.

There’s this anomaly that happens sometimes with twins. It occurs in the womb when the fetuses are growing too closely to each other. The stronger twin develops normally, while the weaker twin crumples and is...

And so ends his rush from his greatest act of rebellion. He understands that no matter where he runs or how high he flies, he will always have to come home.

Her smile is her revenge.

I wish I had a memory of that first violent shove, the shock of cold air, the sting of oxygen into new lungs. Everyone should remember being born. It doesn’t seem fair that we only...

I still don’t know where you came from,” he says. “Some days it’s like you just fell from the sky.””Some days I feel like I did.” I say.

Jenna, standing in the doorway with her mouth and hand full of shelled pistachios, says, ‘”Real’ is a dirty word in this place’.

I watch the ashes swim around like dandelion puffs, making swirls where bodies and walls once stood.

I ‘d never seen him cry; I didn’t think he could . It would have to take something greater than the end of the world to reduce Vaughn Ashby to tears .

There is a dark place calling to me, but I will not go just yet. I know I can’t return from it.

It doesn’t matter how much his mother loves him; love is not enough to keep any of us alive.

The madness of youth made me unafraid.

There’s a world out there that nobody has bothered to promise her.

Set fire to the broken pieces; start anew.

This is the real Madame. I can see why she hides herself in accents and gems and exotic perfumes. I can see why she’s grown to hate anything to do with love. She isn’t evil...

Vaughn is talking about the heat, and his voice is so excited that it breaks into whispers at times. He loves his madness the way a bird loves the sky.

Don’t you miss it?” I say. “Being free.”He laughs.

We’ll squeeze every second that we can from our lives, because we’re young, and we have plenty of years to grow. We’ll grow until we’re braver. We’ll grow until our bones ache and our skin...

It’s quiet for a while, and then Rowan says; “We could talk now. We’re alone out here. No walls.””There are always walls.” I say.

Even things that aren’t broken can be fixed.

Lovers are weapons, but love is a wound.

When we’re alive, life consumes us. But when we die, all of the color and the motion is gone so quickly, it’s as though it can no longer stand to be wasted on us.

If you’ve never been afraid, you haven’t had your moment of bravery just yet

I told him that wouldn’t be a good idea either.

It is the face of a girl who has seen the world, who realizes that it hates her, and who hates it in return.

It’s best to let her go,” he says.No, no, that’s wrong. It’s never right to give up on someone.

I think he’s beginning to understand, and understanding is a horrible thing.

Maybe it is desperation,” I say. “Maybe we can’t let things fall apart without trying. We can’t let go of the people we love.”He looks at me, and in the sunlight his eyes come alive...

You can’t be afraid. You can be sad if you like. You can be angry. But it’s the fear that’ll freeze you in place.

You can try to please everyone and risk accomplishing nothing, or go for your dreams and risk pissing a few people off.