Dessen's Famous Quotes & Sayings
100 Dessen's Famous Sayings, Quotes and Quotation.
I dialed the number slowly, wanting to get it right. Two rings, and he picked up.— Sarah Dessen
"Yes," I said after his hello.
"Mclean?" he asked. "Is that you?"
"Yeah," I said, swallowing and looking out my open door, at the ocean. "The answer's yes."
"The answer ... " he said slowly.
"You asked me to go out with you. I know you probably changed your mind. But you should know, the answer was yes. It's always been yes when it comes to you."
He was very quiet for a moment. "Where are you?"
I started crying again, my voice ragged. He told me to calm down. He told me it was going to be all right. And then, he told he'd be there soon.
No word has one specific definition.Maybe in the dictionary, but not in real life— Sarah Dessen
-Ms.Conyers of Sarah Dessen's Lock and Key
You didn't fail. You just opted out. There's a difference.— Sarah Dessen
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.— Sarah Dessen
My point is you're different here.— Sarah Dessen
Hollis I've only been here for a month.
A lot can happen in a month he replied. Shoot in two weeks I met my future wife changed my entire life's trajectory and bought my first tie.
You bought a tie I asked. Because honestly this was the most shocking part.
I don't get it,' Caroline said, bemused. 'She's the only one with wings. Why is that?'— Sarah Dessen
There were so many questions in life. You couldn't ever have all the answers. But I knew this one.
It's so she can fly,' I said. Then I started to run.
He was looking at me, jsut as I'd thought he would be, but like Bert's, his light was not what I expected. No pity, no sadness: nothing had changed. I realized all the times I'd felt people stare at me, their faces had been pictures, abstracts. None of them were mirrors, able to reflect back the expression I thought one I wore, the feelings only I felt.— Sarah Dessen
It's so, so stupid what we do to ourselves because we're afraid. It's so stupid.— Sarah Dessen
With love like that, you can't get pick about how it finds you or the details. All that matters is that it's there. Better late than never.— Sarah Dessen
I think I'm way too much of a control freak to co-author anything with anyone. I have a hard enough time writing with myself! I admire people that can do it, but it's not for me.— Sarah Dessen
It's easier to be lost than found.— Sarah Dessen
The bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike. As long as it's one more. you're all good.— Sarah Dessen
But unfriendly is usually one of those things you pick up on right away. You know, like B.O. There's no hiding it if it's there.— Sarah Dessen
During this time we've been apart, it's you I've thought of when I'm at my weakest, and you who have pulled me through.— Sarah Dessen
But that's just the thing thought. Family isn't something that is supposed to be static or set. People marry in, divorce out. They're born, they die. It's always evolving, turning into something else. Even that picture of James's family was only the true representation for that day. By the next, something has probably changed. It had to.— Sarah Dessen
Sorry!' Dave's friend yelled when he saw me. 'That was my-' But i wasn't listening as,instead,i took every bit of the anger and stress of the last few minutes and days put it behind the ball, throwing it overhead at the basket as hard as i could. It went flying, hitting the backboard and banging through the netless hoop at full speed before shooting back out and nailing Dave Wade squarely on the forehead. And just like that, he was down.— Sarah Dessen
You just walk over there and into the office and say, 'Hey, be my prom date,'" he said. "It's that simple.— Sarah Dessen
Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be so 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— Sarah Dessen
if not impossible
to lose.
One week, one strong. One scared, one bold. I was beginning to understand though, that there were no such things as absolutes, not in life, or in people. Like Owen said, it was day by day, if not moment by moment. All you could do was take on as much weight as you can bear. And if you're lucky, there's someone close enough to shoulder the rest.— Sarah Dessen
And she was good to me: strong, fun, and fiercely loyal. And if I didn't have many other friends because of her-most girls were intimidated by her looks, or thought she was too pushy, or just flat-out feared for their boyfriends-it never bothered me. I never missed having a wide, thick circle of girlfriends: Rina was more than enough. We were comfortable with each other's flaws and weaknesses, so we stuck together and kept to ourselves.— Sarah Dessen
For me, family means the silent treatment. At any given moment, someone is always not speaking to someone else.'— Sarah Dessen
Really,' I said.
We're passive-aggressive people,' she explained, taking a sip of her coffee. 'Silence is our weapon of choice. Right now, for instance, I'm not speaking to two of my sisters and one brother ... At mine [my house], silence is golden. And common.'
To me,' Reggie said, picking up a bottle of Vitamin A and moving it thoughtfully from one hand to the other, 'family is, like, the wellspring of human energy. The place where all life begins.' ...
Harriet considered this as she took a sip of coffee. 'Huh,' she said. 'I guess when someone else does something worse. Then you need people on your side, so you make up with one person, jsut as you're getting pissed off at another.'
So it's an endless cycle,' I said.
I guess.' She took another sip. 'Coming together, falling apart. Isn't that what families are all about?
It's always very pure, that last moment before an ugly, unsettling truth hits someone. The most stark of before-and-afters.— Sarah Dessen
You don't know that." He made a face, doubting this. "You don't. You have your whole life ahead of you."— Sarah Dessen
"Maybe," he said. "But even that's not long to be the person she deserves.
Happy, normal lives going on in happy, normal ways, in a works that was anything but. Once you realize this, experienced something that made it crystal clear, you couldn't forget it. Like a face. Or a name. However you learn that truth, once it's with you, it never really goes away.— Sarah Dessen
I'm incredibly flattered when people tell me that my books helped them through high school. Because of my own experience, the thought that something I wrote might help someone who felt the way I did when I was a teen ... that's huge. It awes me.— Sarah Dessen
Just because a person isn't talking about something doesn't mean it's not on their mind. Often, in fact, it's why they won't speak of it.— Sarah Dessen
It's kind of impressive ... you know, the idea of discovering something that, for all intents and purposes, goes against your abilities, and yet still deciding to do it anyway.— Sarah Dessen
I mean, to me, freaking out is different. More of a running away, not telling anyone what's wrong, slowly simmering until you burst kind of thing.— Sarah Dessen
I really just love to read, period, whether it be books or magazines or the back of the cereal box. It's the one thing I can always count on to calm me down, take me away and inspire me, all at once.— Sarah Dessen
I don't lie."— Sarah Dessen
"You don't lie," I repeated.
"That's what I said."
"Ever."
"Nope."
Sure you don't, I thought.
But what he didn't understand was that this dreamland was preferable,walking through this life half-sleeping,everything at arm's length or farther away.— Sarah Dessen
I understood those mermaids.I didn't care if they sang to me.All I wanted was to block out all the human voices as they called me name again and again,pulling me upward into light,to drown.
This thought was interrupted, suddenly, by a crash from the front entrance. We all looked over just in time to see Adam bending back from the glass, rubbing his arm.— Sarah Dessen
"Pull open," Maggie called out. As Leah rolled her eyes, she said, "He never remembers. It's so weird.
That was the thing. You never got used to it, the idea of someone being gone. Just when you think it's reconciled, accepted, someone points it out to you, and it just hits you all over again, that shocking.— Sarah Dessen
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?"— Sarah Dessen
"Is it?" he asked. "Is it what you want?"
Whether he intended it to be or not, this was the final question, the last Truth. If I said what I really thought, I was opening myself up for a hurt bigger than I could even imagine. I didn't have it in me. We changed and altered so many rules, but it was this one, the only one when we'd started, that I would break.
"Yes," I said.
It's all in the view. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count.— Sarah Dessen
You're not supposed to have it all figured out in high school. If you knew it all, and it was the best, it's all downhill from there.— Sarah Dessen
My own life felt flat and sad too much of the time; it was reassuring, somehow, to lose myself in someone else's.— Sarah Dessen
You want me to give her a key?" the guy asked.— Sarah Dessen
"I want you to give her a possibility," she told him, looking at my necklace again. "And that's what a key represents. An open door, a chance. You know?
After the group vet appointment— Sarah Dessen
during which Lyle scratched the vet, the vet tech, and some poor woman minding her own business in the waiting room
we went back to Sabrina's and re-released the cats to their natural habitat.
No,' I said, shooting him a look. 'But you don't have to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.'— Sarah Dessen
You don't have to assume the worst about everyone, either. THe world isn't always out to get you.'
In your opinion,' I added.
Look,' he said, 'the point is there's no way to be a hundred percent sure about anyone or anything. so you're left with a choice. Eitherhope for the best, or just expect the worst.'
If you expect the worst you're never disappointed,' I pointed out.
~Ruby and Nate, pg 259
You asked me to go out with you. I know you probably changed your mind. But you should know, the answer was yes. It's always been yes when it comes to you.— Sarah Dessen
It's pretty rare to find someone you actually like to be with in this world. There are a lot of annoying people out there.— Sarah Dessen
You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existence— Sarah Dessen
-Eli
Okay, so if that's not real, what is? What counts, to you?" He thought for a second, then said, "I don't know. Just because someone's pretty doesn't mean she's decent. Or vice versa. I'm not into appearances. I like flaws, I think they make things interesting." I wasn't sure what answer I'd expected. But this wasn't it. For a second, I just sat there, letting it sink in. "You know," I said finally, "saying stuff like that would make girls even crazier for you. Now you're cuteand somewhat more attainable. If you were appealing before, now you're off the charts.— Sarah Dessen
I love writing about the summer between high school and college. It's the last gasp of really being a teen.— Sarah Dessen
I've always known who I am. I might not work perfectly, or be like them, but that's okay. I know I work in my own way.— Sarah Dessen
It's a choice, Annabel. And if you make the wrong one, you have only yourself to blame when there are consequences.— Sarah Dessen
I was distracted, thinking about what she'd said, until she got to this last part. "Sherman?" I said.— Sarah Dessen
She nodded. "That's John and Craig's friend. He's visiting from Shreveport."
"Sherman from Shreveport?" I said. "This is the guy you're determined I go out with?"
"You can't judge a book by its cover!" she snapped. When I slid my eyes toward Forbidden, she grabbed it up, shoving it back under the bed. "You know what I mean. Sherman might be very nice.
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
Oh, God," I said.— Sarah Dessen
"No, it's Dexter," he replied, offering me his hand, which I ignored.
He glanced behind him, then back at me. "I'll see you soon," he said, and grinned at
me.
"Like hell," I replied,
Yeah. I mean, acknowledging is easy. Something happened or it didn't. But understanding ... that's where things get sticky.— Sarah Dessen
I'd learn that it's not just where you go, but how you choose to get there. So I pulled that sign off the green bike - ENJOY YOUR RIDE! - and went inside to take the first step toward doing just that.— Sarah Dessen
I missed him," she said finally.— Sarah Dessen
I put my hand over hers and sat down, pulling my chair closer. "I know," I said softly.
"You came back from Florida feeling really good, and then you find out he's such a rat bastard that he - "
"No," she said distractedly, interrupting me. "I missed him. All those Ensures, and not
a one made contact. I have terrible aim." And then she sighed. "Even just one would have made it
better. Somehow.
Who says there has to be a point?" He asked. "Or a reason. Maybe it's just something you have to do.— Sarah Dessen
I drove off, with my friends watching me go, all of them grouped on Lissa's hood. As I pulled onto the road, I glanced into the rearview and saw them: they were waving, hands moving through the air, their voices loud, calling out after me. The square of that mirror was like a frame, holding this picture of them saying good-bye, pushing me forward, before shifting gently out of sight, inch by fluid inch, as I turned away.— Sarah Dessen
You said the other day life was long,' I shot back. 'Which is it?'— Sarah Dessen
'It's both,' she said, shrugging. 'It all depends on how you choose to live it. It's like forever, always changing.'
Kristy and Macy; p.135
That sucks, though," Wes said finally, his voice low. "You're just setting yourself up to fail, because you'll— Sarah Dessen
never get everything perfect."
"Says who?"
He just looked at me. "The world," he said, gesturing all around us, as if this party, this deck encompassed it
all. "The universe. There's just no way. And why would you want everything to be perfect, anyway?"
"I don't want everything to be perfect," I said. Just me, I thought. Somehow. "I just want -
If you didn't always have to choose between turning away for good or rushing in deeper. In the moments that it really counts, maybe it's enough - more than enough, even - just to be there.— Sarah Dessen
Only a real asshole takes liberties with someone else's car stereo. That's serious.— Sarah Dessen
Love is an excuse to put up with the shit that you shouldn't. That's how it gets you. It throws off the scales so that things that should weigh heavily don't seem to. It's a crock. A trap.— Sarah Dessen
Life is full of screwups. You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existance.— Sarah Dessen
I don't know," I said. "What else did you do for your first eighteen years?"— Sarah Dessen
"Like I said," he said as I unlocked the car, "I'm not so sure that you should go by my example."
"Why not?"
"Because I have my regrets," he said. "Also, I'm a guy. And guys do different stuff."
"Like ride bikes?" I said.
"No," he replied. "Like have food fights. And break stuff. And set off firecrackers on people's front porches. And ... "
"Girls can't set off firecrackers on people's front porches?"
"They can," he said ... "But they're smart enough not to. That's the difference.
If you don't pay attention to the past, you'll never understand the future. It's all linked together. You see what I'm saying? At— 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."— Sarah Dessen
"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.
We can't be sad about it forever, you know? We've got to think back to the good times and just remember them; that's all we can do. We can't worry about the past or what happened at the end, any more. I can't and you can't.— Sarah Dessen
Look," he said, "the point is there's no way to be a hundred percent sure about anyone or anything. So you're left with a choice. Either hope for the best, or just expect the worst."— Sarah Dessen
If you expect the worst, you're never disappointed," I pointed out.
Yeah, but who lives like that?
That's not a real answer.'— Sarah Dessen
Says who?'
Says me. I mean real fear, like of failure, of death, of regret. Like that. Something that keeps you awake nights, questioning your very existence.'
Clowns.
I'm really happy to have the chance to talk about the editing process. It's something that I think doesn't get the weight it deserves, especially with the rise of self-publishing.— Sarah Dessen
She's a baby," Maggie told me. "Babies wear pastels."— Sarah Dessen
"Says who?" I asked ... "Society. The same society, I might add, that dictates that little girls should always be sugar and spice and everything nice, which engourages them to not be assertive. And that, in turn, then leads to low self-esteem, which can lead to eating disorders and increased tolerance and acceptance of domestic, sexual, and substance abuse.
That's what this has been all about for you, correct? Make it clear. That you and me— Sarah Dessen
it was nothing more that you'll have with Spinnerbait boy, or the guy after that, or the guy after that. Right?"
"Yeah, I said, shrugging. "You're right."
He just stood there, looking at me, as if I had actually changed before his eyes. But this was the girl I'd been all along. I'd just hidden her well.
He grinned again. We'd only been seeing each other for a few weeks now, but this easy give-and-take still surprised me. From that very first day in my room, I felt like we'd somehow skipped the formalities of the Beginning of a Relationship: those awkward moments when you're not all over each other and are still feeling out the other person's boundaries and limits. Maybe this was because we'd been circling each other for a while before he finally catapulted through my window. But if I let myself think about it much - and I didn't - I had flashes of realising that I'd been comfortable with him even at the very start. Clearly, he'd been comfortable with me, grabbing my hand as he had that first day. As if he knew, even then, that we'd be here now.— Sarah Dessen
See for me, it's immediate. Silence is so freaking loud.' This seemed either deep or deeply oxymoronic. I wasn't sure which.— Sarah Dessen
If you take nothing else from what I've been through, at least remember this: make your choices well. Because you'll always be accountable for them. That's what being an adult is all about.— Sarah Dessen
You knew the truth all along, Colie. That's all matters. You knew.— Sarah Dessen
The silence wasn't— Sarah Dessen
like the ones I'd known
lately, though: it wasn't empty as much as chosen. There's a entirely different
feel to quiet when you're
with some-one else, and at any moment it could be broken. Like the difference
between a pause and an
ending.
Are you crazy? Flirting with Eli— Sarah Dessen
Stock in front of Belissa Norwood, in Belissa Norwood's house, while eating Belissa Norwood's
cupcakes?
It's you who i have thought of when i am at— Sarah Dessen
my weakest & you who have pulled me through
Some people, they can't just move on, you know, mourn and cry and be done with it. Or at least seem to be. But for me ... I don't know. I didn't want to fix it, to forget. It wasn't something that was broken. It's just ... something that happened. And like that hole, I'm just finding ways, every day, of working around it. Respecting and remembering and getting on at the same time.— Sarah Dessen
It's hard to be nice when the rest of the world is so mean.— Sarah Dessen
From what I could see, the hardwood was just fine. Then again, I'd just see a windmill and an open sky, too, never feeling the need to conquer either. You think it's all obvious and straightforward, this world. But really, it's all in who is doing the looking.— Sarah Dessen
Life can be long or short, it all depends on how you choose to live it. it's like forever, always changing. for any of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. you can never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count. what you have to decide is how you want your life to be. if your forever was ending tomorrow, is this how you'd want to have spent it?— Sarah Dessen
And so really, you have given me no choice but to take you shopping by— Sarah Dessen
force." She sighed, then reached up, dropping her sunglasses down from
their perch on her head to cover her eyes. "Do you even realize how happy
the average teenage girl would be in your shoes? I have a credit card. We're
at the mall. I want to buy you things. It's like adolescent nirvana."
- Cora
It's so easy to get caught up in what people expect of you. Sometimes, you can just lose yourself.— Sarah Dessen
I honestly don't have many creative outlets. I'm not crafty - although motherhood has forced me to try to be - and I can only draw trees, beaches, and clouds. I'm a so-so cook except for deviled eggs. Writing has always been the one thing I feel that I am pretty good at doing. But it's enough, thank goodness.— Sarah Dessen
I think when you're a beginning author with any publishing company, there's only so much they can put behind you.— Sarah Dessen
But I always worked harder when I was up against something, or when someone assumed I couldn't succeed. That's what drove me, all those nights studying. The fact that so many figured I couldn't do it.— Sarah Dessen
I don't think anyone would think that an ellipsis represents doubt or anything. I think it's more, you know, hinting at the future. What lies ahead.— Sarah Dessen
Hey, and for what it's worth? Friends don't leave you alone in the woods. Friends are the ones who come and take you out.— Sarah Dessen
I mean, it's impossible to fake anything if you've already seen the other person in a way they'd never choose for you to. You can't go back from that.— Sarah Dessen
But it's strange, when you've always been told something is true, like the moon will come back. You need proof. And while you wait, you feel the entire balance of your world just tipping. It's crazy. But when it's over, and it does come back, that's the best, because it's all you want, everything narrows to just that. It's this great rush, like for that one second everything's okay with the world again. It's amazing.— Sarah Dessen
We all have one idea of what the color blue is, but pressed to describe it specifically, there are so many ways: the ocean, lapis lazuli, the sky, someone's eyes. Our definitions are as different as we are ourselves.— Sarah Dessen
It's cold. You should come inside.— Sarah Dessen
I want you to give her a possibility. And that's what a key represents. An open door, a chance.— Sarah Dessen
No relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways you have to bend, to compromise, to give something up in order to gain something greater ... The love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And that's the key. It's like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship has to be the biggest piece. Love can make up for a lot.— Sarah Dessen
If there's one thing I've learned in the last few months, it's that sometimes you just have to close your eyes and jump.— Sarah Dessen
I find that the more I depend on real life, the less interesting the story is. It's much more common for me to take something that almost-happened, or I wish had happened, and then follow that possibility.— Sarah Dessen
Well, here we are," Ethan said. "The end of the world."— Sarah Dessen
I smiled, turning slightly to take in the full view. "It's different to what I expected."
"The big stuff always is," he said.
Now, now," my father said. "Let's just get the bags."— Sarah Dessen
This was typical. My father, the lone male in our estrogen-heavy household, had always dealt with any kind of emotional situation or conflict by doing something concrete and specific. Discussion of cramps and heavy flow at the breakfast table? He was up and out the door to change oil on one of our cars. Coming home in tears for reasons you just didn't want to discuss? He'd go make you a grilled cheese, which he'd probably end up eating. Family crisis brewing in a public place? Bags. Get the bags.
Fifteen minutes later, a meeting was called.— Sarah Dessen
"Okay, look." Deb's face was dead serious. "I know I just joined this project, and I don't want to offend anyone. But I'm going to be honest. I think you've been going about this all wrong."
"I'm offended," Dave told her flatly.
Lissa lowered her voice and added, "I might not even go to school anyway. I might defer and join the Peace Corps and go to Africa and shave my head and dig latrines."— Sarah Dessen
"Shave your head?" I said, because, really, this was the most ludicrous part of the whole thing. "You? Do you have any idea how ugly most people's bare heads are? They've got all kinds of bumps, Lissa. And you won't know until it's too late and you're flat-out bald.
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