But if everything was always smooth and perfect, you’d get too used to that, you know? You have to have a little bit of disorganization now and then. Otherwise, you’ll never really enjoy it when...

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...

Do you even realize how happythe average teenage girl would be in your shoes? I have a credit card. We’reat the mall. I want to buy you things. It’s like adolescent nirvana.”- Cora

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...

That was the hard thing about grief, and the grieving. They spoke another language, and the words we knew always fell short of what we wanted them to say.

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.

All those clean, fresh starts had made me forget what it was like, until now, to be messy and honest and out of control. To be real.

School was my solace, and studying let me escape, allowing me to live a thousand vicarious lives.

Well, it’s true that I have been hurt in my life. Quite a bit. But it’s also true that I have loved, and been loved. and that carries a weight of its own. A greater...

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...

The worst thing you can do if you miss or need someone is let them know it.

He thought about this for a second. “True. But if you never really make friends, you probably don’t have anyone to be your 2 a.m. Which would kind of suck. I just looked at him...

It’s okay to accept things from people. It doesn’t make you weak or helpless.

Grief can be a burden, but also an anchor. You get used to the weight, how it holds you in place.

Accepting all the good and bad about someone. It’s a great thing to aspire to. The hard part is actually doing it.

There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you’d better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you’ll never understand what it’s saying.

Together, we looked down at the tiny house, the sole thing on this vast, flat surface. Like the only person living on the moon. It could be either lonely or peaceful, depending on how you...

The truth was I knew, after all those flat January days, that I deserved better. I deserved I love yous and kiwi fruits and warriors coming to my door, besotted with love. I deserved pictures...

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

Like it takes so little to change something, but to make you forget the way it once was, as well.

As I rolled over, stretching out, my only thought was to go back to the dream I’d been having, which I couldn’t remember, other than that it had been good, in that distant, hopeful way...

She smiled, pulling the photo a little closer, and I wondered if I should ask her, too, the question for my project, get her definition. But as she ran a finger slowly across the faces,...

I want the white one

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.

It’s hard to do,” I said. Wes looked at me. “What is?” I swallowed, not sure why I’d said this out loud. “Get it right.

I can still see Boo sitting there on the floor, cross-legged, holding my Ken and watching my face as she tried to make me see that between my mother’sPTA and Boo’s strange ways there was...

But that was the problem with having the answers. It was only after you gave them that you realized they sometimes weren’t what people wanted to hear.

It’s the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth.

Shit,” Delia said. “I mean, shoot. No, actually, I mean shit. I really do.

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...

It was amazing how you could get so far from where you’d planned, and yet find it was exactly were you needed to be.

for once, you believed in yourself. you believed you were beautiful and so did the rest of the world.

I don’t know,” I said. “What else did you do for your first eighteen years?””Like I said,” he said as I unlocked the car, “I’m not so sure that you should go by my example.””Why...

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,...

He was not my boyfriend. On the other hand, he wasn’t just a friend either. Instead, our relationship was elastic, stretching between those two extremes depending on who else was around, how much either of...

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...

I wondered if emotions were like menstrual cycles, if you get enough women together. Give it time, and everyone was crying.

Oh for God’s sake,’ Heather said, ‘I wish you two would just go out, fail miserably as a couple, and get it over with.

So you should remember that, when you’re thinking about what other people can deal with. Maybe it’s not so bad.

Isn’t it weird,” I said, “the way you remember things, when someone’s gone?”What do you mean?”I ate another piece of waffle. “When my dad first died, all I could think about was that day. It’s...

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...

I am coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and that a soft landing is never guaranteed.

the truth about forever is that it is happening right now

Look,” I said, “We knew Jason and Becky would be back, the break would end. This isn’t a surprise, it’s what’s supposed to happen. It’s what we wanted. Right?””Is it?” he asked. “Is it what...

What you have to decide… is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, would this be how you’d want to have spent it? Listen, the truth is, nothing is...

Nunca habría sido capaz de decírselo, pero Owen me inspiraba. Las mentiras piadosas que yo decía a diario, las cosas que me guardaba, cada vez que no era sincera del todo… ahora me daba cuenta...

What you do in your dreams is never your choice. But it made me happy anyway.

It’s funny how two people can grow up in the same town, go to the same school, have the same friends, and end up so totally different. Family, or lack of it, counts for more...

Silence is so freaking loud

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...