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 a middle ground that began here with my Barbie, Sab-rina,and led right to me. "She can be anything," Boo told me, and this is what I remember most, her freckled face so solemn, as if she knew she was the first to tell me. "And so can you.
Sarah Dessen
Related Can she be divorced?" I asked. "And famous for her commercials and ideas?" She can be anyt... SARAH DESSEN So what's your doll's name?" Boo asked me. "Barbie," I said. "All their names are Barbie." SARAH DESSEN What was she like?" I tell the truth. "She was my dream. She made me who I am, and holding... NICHOLAS SPARKS A sad smile crossed her face, and I knew right then what she was trying to tell me. Her eyes never l... NICHOLAS SPARKS I held her close for only a short time, but after she was gone, I'd see her smile on the face of a p... BRIAN ANDREAS I think I fell in love with her, a little bit. Isn't that dumb? But it was like I knew her. Like she... NEIL GAIMAN There was something about my face,she said, that she couldn't stand. Something about my eyes, the wa... TAHEREH MAFI She can sense things . . . Things the rest of us can't.She only knew there was a strange feel to you... RICHELLE MEAD And that was it; it was so easy for her. My own memories did not even belong to me. But I knew she w... SARAH DESSEN Then I looked right at Mama, for the first time in what seemed like forever, and she wasn't looking ... KATHERINE HANNIGAN She was my dream. She made me who I am, and holding her in my arms was more natural to me than my ow... NICHOLAS SPARKS Nothing they say or do can ever change the man you are,” Trinity continued. “A man I love with a... C.A. HARMS [T.J.] Without thinking, I held them out to her. She stopped laughing, and looked at me like she was... TRACEY GARVIS-GRAVES She stops now. Leans over me so that the wisps of her hair tickle my face. She kisses me on the fore... GAYLE FORMAN And then I opened my eyes and it was just Grace and me - nothing anywhere but Grace and me - she pre... MAGGIE STIEFVATER I tried!” She screamed, her eyes filled with raw emotion. All Sarah could do is stand there, speec... ZOE SANTANA I knew that she couldn’t hear me if she was there. But the sound was enough to grab me, to hold me... SHAWN KIRSTEN MARAVEL I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES I see that my wife is on the floor, so I'm shaking her, saying, ?What happened? What happened? Tell ... GOLAM MAOLA True Love has many forms. But my true love is her...and her name is B.D.C she is an amazing girl who... MICHAEL HENDERSON She took me to her room and stood me in front of her dresser, which was covered in a pillowcase with... STEPHEN CHBOSKY She told me that she would like to meet with her family as soon as possible. She wants us to make ef... SHINZO ABE They got under each of my shoulders and pulled me up, Padma walking in front of me and holding her a... KIERA CASS Violet makes me better,” I tell him, confidence in my tone. He smirks. “I can see that. I can se... K. WEBSTER Zach finally acknowledges me when my elbow smacks against his side as I shove my way between him and... KATIE MCGARRY From a child, I knew I didn't have the face I wanted to have. My mother was a baroness. She was ... PETE BURNS We stared at each other for several moments, neither of us speaking or moving, and then I was in fro... JENNIFER L. ARMENTROUT You know," Marion said, "I met a woman once when I was a teenager. I knew she had gone through a lot... ERICA BAUERMEISTER As far back as I can remember, my mother would have me down by the bed at night with her, praying. I... CHARLES R. SWINDOLL My mum will always come and see my shows if she can, and if she can't, she'll text or email ... RAIN PHOENIX I never had anything good, no sweet, no sugar; and that sugar, right by me, did look so nice, and my... HARRIET TUBMAN When I told my mother that I wanted to be an actress, she said, you can't live here and do that,... CICELY TYSON My mother is my pastor She teaches me the Bible I love her as my mentor She tells me... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR I thought I played a good match, ... I knew that she can run well and that she likes a certain pace,... SANIA MIRZA Connecting with my daughter is the most important thing in my life - the priority. I want to be a ma... JAMIE FOXX I grab on to her wrists, pull them away from her face and kiss her lips, lips that can’t kiss me b... KATIE MCGARRY I grew up in the Alps and France, and Barbie was my first exposure to the American woman. For me she... CATHERINE MALANDRINO My mother-in-law was with me during all four of my births and when she was sitting next to me holdin... PATRICIA HEATON She glared at me like she was about to punch me, but then she did something that surprised me even m... RICK RIORDAN I begged her, 'Please don't leave me stranded in the middle of some primitive zarking forest with no... DOUGLAS ADAMS That was a bad situation for me, ... I'm lucky I actually got a chance to wake up and see them and g... WILLIE PONDER I thought she was going to stuff me because she was coming right at my face. But I'm lucky I got it ... LIZ GRUBER I once knew a girl that meant the world to me, she was just amazing. She's that one girl in my life ... MAHMOUD EL HALLAB I said, I want to tell you something. She said, you can tell me tomorrow. I had never told... JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER Once a woman spilled a drink on me in an elevator, ... She was dancing and holding a mango margarita... SARAH VOWELL The moment I was introduced to my wife, Emma, at a party I thought, here she is - and 20 minutes lat... JULIAN FELLOWES My wife said she saw me warm up and she went upstairs behind the bullpen to bring others to watch me... TODD COFFEY Jane was my wicked stepmother: she was generous, affectionate and resourceful; she salvaged my schoo... MARTIN AMIS But my mom knew this was my job and she gave me her blessing and told me to stay out here and do the... MARCUS TUBBS I walked over to the paper and bent as the pencil began scribbling across it. You look OK. ... KELLEY ARMSTRONG My parents told me from the time I can remember that, 'Yeah, you're adopted. But this is you... COLIN KAEPERNICK My daughter told me she wasn't afraid of spider but that she was afraid of my smoking. She said that... ROBERT CLARK I can tell you that my sister never expressed fear to me. I talked to her the Sunday before she died... LUHANNA CHESLEY My wife is a writer. She grew up in Alaska. She told me she was moving to Boulder and that I could c... BRAD FELD His face was pale, and he dropped to the floor so that he was half kneeling, half sitting before her... MELISSA MARR Sweet Grace amazes me The way that she can see Beyond the man I am To the man that I ... JASON GRAY You are so much more than I bargained for,” I confessed, which gained her attention. “I knew I w... C.A. HARMS The pure menace radiating from my younger sister is undeniable. She can hate me, but I need her to k... KATIE MCGARRY I don't care if she ever makes a basket that can hold grain, but I want her to be here with me. I wa... SHAY SAVAGE I smiled and looked at her- there she was with such a genuine grin and twinkle in her eyes. I kissed... JORI NUNES My mom had me at 16 and took me every place she went. I remember going on peace marches. She tried t... DEBI MAZAR Take this message to your people, you obsequious little worm,” I murmured. “Anyone who lays a ha... KYOKO M. The first time I was ever called ugly, I was thirteen. It was a rich friend of my brother Carlton's ... KATHRYN STOCKETT I pictured Cupid sitting in a crappy little bar, drunk and depressed, while he moaned to the bartend... JENNIFER RARDIN I was losing her, she wouldn’t listen to me, and I was about to fail my third quiz of the semester... KAMI GARCIA I've hated Snowflake for so long," she says. "But then I met you. And you're the person entire town ... KATIE MCGARRY The money hits the floor, and my hands immediately frame her face. She has skin so soft that I worry... KATIE MCGARRY I met Gemma, my wife, when she was 12. She had a schoolgirl crush on me and her dad had arranged for... GARY NUMAN I remember a relative of mine who used to pick on me all the time, constantly ridiculing my every mo... C. JOYBELL C. She was in love with you,” he says. “And I don’t think she got to tell you, did she?” <... TESS SHARPE Cricket could tell Enkai was holding back tears, and wishing to comfort him, she took his hand. They... ASH GRAY Grandmam, as I have seen in looking back, was the decider of my fate. She shaped my life, without of... WENDELL BERRY I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me... She showed me her room, isn't it good, ... NORWEGIAN WOOD (THE BEATLES) Everyone has a track star, but I remember Ms. Hampton telling me that. She was the first one to ever... CAROLYN LEWIS My first female lover was a Jewish woman. She was butch, but not in a swaggering macho way- she coul... LAWRENCE SCHIMEL What do you want to show me?" "Nothing, really. I just want to be alone with you for a mi... RAINBOW ROWELL I went to my grandmother, your great-great-grandmother, and asked her to write a letter. She was my ... JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER One of the most talented, smartest people happens to be my wife, so I can get great advice from her.... DAVE GOLDBERG I went there with a trap Desiree had given me; she told me how to catch a frightened cat, ... You se... JACK MCCOY I sat in the passenger seat of the squad car, laughing at the look on Noah’s face. “She tr... C.A. HARMS Mom." I couldn't believe she was doing this again. She was taking this moment, this time when I was ... SARAH DESSEN I was only kidding about the hundred," she says. oh," I say, "what will it cost me?" CHARLES BUKOWSKI When I asked my da how ye knew which was the right woman, he told me when the time came, I'd have no... DIANA GABALDON (...) When I asked my Da how ye knew which was the right woman, he told me when the time came, I'd h... DIANA GABALDON She was perfect. I knew this the moment she emerged from my body, white and wet and wailing. Beyond ... VANESSA DIFFENBAUGH My daughter will find some of the sweetest words to tell you that can make a grown man cry. She stil... DEONTAY WILDER Ethan: I love you, I whispered in her ear. She held my face in her hands and leaned back so she... KAMI GARCIA I was so glad to see that passport. Seeing it told me she was still on that island. Maybe I could fi... BETH TWITTY I was so glad to see that passport. Seeing it told me she was still on that island. Maybe I could fi... BETH HOLLOWAY TWITTY My wife told me I’m always watching TV and never paying attention to her. So she got a job as a ne... MUNTAZIR M. I looked up from the ground and glared at Scarlett, who helped Steven stand up. “You bitch.” I g... SARA MASSA Sam…” “What?” she whispered. “Tell me what to do to fix it.” She shook he... KAYLEA CROSS When we were arguing on my twenty-fourth birthday, she left the kitchen, came back with a pistol, an... DENIS JOHNSON She told me that she loved me. She told me that everything would be okay. She told me to... ANGEL MCGREGOR I always feel sad for the girl that I was, because it never occurred to me that my mother might comf... GILLIAN FLYNN I remember running down a road on my way to a nursery of flowers. I remember her smile and her laugh... JENNIFER NIVEN For me, it's important that I can talk to my customers all over the world. They can comment on w... EDGARDO OSORIO The cord, a familiar voice said. Remember your lifeline, dummy! Suddenly there was a tug in my ... RICK RIORDAN As she was speaking in a loud voice, I came out of my room and listened to her. She told me about wh... DATUK MICHAEL CHONG My mother had heard the story of Hannah and Samuel, so she prayed that if God would give her a son, ... STANLEY HAUERWAS
More Sarah Dessen
It's okay to accept things from people. It doesn't make you weak or helpless. SARAH DESSEN When I pictured myself, it was always like just an outline in a colouring book, with the inside not ... SARAH DESSEN But you don’t have to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.” “You don’t have to assum... SARAH DESSEN The best gifts come from the heart, not the store. SARAH DESSEN He wasn't the type for displays of affection, either verbal or not. He was disgusted by couples that... SARAH DESSEN Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend. SARAH DESSEN So you're always honest," I said. "Aren't you?" "No," I told him. "I'm not." "Well, t... SARAH DESSEN There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single f... SARAH DESSEN And that was it. All this buildup to a great leap, and I didn't fall or fly. Instead I found myself ... SARAH DESSEN You, have this whole tall, dark stranger thing going on. Not to mention the tortured artist bit. SARAH DESSEN But it was okay not to fit in everywhere, as long as you did somewhere. SARAH DESSEN Okay,' he said. He took a breath. 'What would you do, if you could do anything?' I took a step ... SARAH DESSEN The choices you make now, the people you surround yourself with, they all have the potential to affe... SARAH DESSEN But that was the problem with having the answers. It was only after you gave them that you realized ... SARAH DESSEN I realized how truly hard it was, really, to see someone you love change right before your eyes. Not... SARAH DESSEN But if something was really important, fate made sure it somehow came back to you and gave you anoth... SARAH DESSEN But if everything was always smooth and perfect, you'd get too used to that, you know? You have to h... SARAH DESSEN I don't know. Just because someone's pretty doesn't mean she's decent. Or vice versa. I'm not into a... SARAH DESSEN I don't get it,' Caroline said, bemused. 'She's the only one with wings. Why is that?' There we... SARAH DESSEN If this was my forever, I wouldn't want to spend it here. SARAH DESSEN the truth about forever is that it is happening right now SARAH DESSEN Life can be long or short, it all depends on how you choose to live it. it's like forever, always ch... SARAH DESSEN I have to admit, an unrequited love is so much better than a real one. I mean, it's perfect... As lo... SARAH DESSEN Grief can be a burden, but also an anchor. You get used to the weight, how it holds you in place. SARAH DESSEN We'd start slow, the way we always did, because the run, and the game, could go on for awhile. Maybe... SARAH DESSEN What you have to decide... is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, wou... SARAH DESSEN But I'd long ago learned not to be picky in farewells. They weren't guaranteed or promised. Yo... SARAH DESSEN Shoulda, coulda, woulda. It's so easy in the past tense. SARAH DESSEN It was just one of those things," I said, "You know, that just happen. You don't think or plan. You ... SARAH DESSEN What you need, what you deserve, is a guy who adores you for what you are. Who doesn't see you as a ... SARAH DESSEN Some people, they can't just move on, you know, mourn and cry and be done with it. Or at least seem ... SARAH DESSEN I like flaws. I think they make things interesting. SARAH DESSEN It's all in the view. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end... SARAH DESSEN That was the thing. You never got used to it, the idea of someone being gone. Just when you think it... SARAH DESSEN It's just that...I just think that some things are meant to be broken. Imperfect. Chaotic. It's the ... SARAH DESSEN If you try anything, if you try to lose weight, or to improve yourself, or to love, or to make the w... SARAH DESSEN There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you'd bet... SARAH DESSEN All I'd ever wanted was to forget. but even when I thought I had, pieces had kept emerging, like bit... SARAH DESSEN I knew, in the silence that followed, that anything could happen here. It might be too late: again, ... SARAH DESSEN Don't think or judge, just listen. SARAH DESSEN I wondered if emotions were like menstrual cycles, if you get enough women together. Give it time, a... SARAH DESSEN How it felt to have the world moving beneath me, a hand gripping mine, knowing if I fell, at least I... SARAH DESSEN Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, w... SARAH DESSEN There are some things in this world you rely on, like a sure bet. And when they let you down, shifti... SARAH DESSEN If you didn't love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love and eve... SARAH DESSEN You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it. SARAH DESSEN Life is full of screwups. You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human exist... SARAH DESSEN Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you. SARAH DESSEN If you expect the worst, you'll never be disappointed. SARAH DESSEN It shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and stru... SARAH DESSEN Music is the great uniter. An incredible force. Something that people who differ on everything and a... SARAH DESSEN He thought about this for a second. "True. But if you never really make friends, you probably don't ... SARAH DESSEN Hey, and for what it's worth? Friends don't leave you alone in the woods. Friends are the ones who c... SARAH DESSEN You know, when it works, love is pretty amazing. It's not overrated. There's a reason for all those ... SARAH DESSEN No relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways you have to bend, to compromise, to giv... SARAH DESSEN Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow comple... SARAH DESSEN I don't know," I said. "What else did you do for your first eighteen years?" "Like I said," he ... SARAH DESSEN Music is a total constant. That's why we have such a strong visceral connection to it, you know? Bec... SARAH DESSEN Some things don't last forever, but some things do. Like a good song, or a good book, or a good memo... SARAH DESSEN I am coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and that a soft lan... SARAH DESSEN This is the problem with dealing with someone who is actually a good listener. They don’t jump in ... SARAH DESSEN I don't lie." "You don't lie," I repeated. "That's what I said." "Ever." "Nope."... SARAH DESSEN for once, you believed in yourself. you believed you were beautiful and so did the rest of the world... SARAH DESSEN I don't live in New York or California. I'm in the grocery store, at the park with my kids, ... SARAH DESSEN I'm always hopeful. I feel like I'm at the prom sitting against the wall waiting for someone... SARAH DESSEN When I was a teen, I was never really into the captain of the football team or the student body pres... SARAH DESSEN It's not always easy being her daughter.' I think,' she said, 'sometimes it's hard no ma... SARAH DESSEN I thought this was a cookout. You know, dogs and burgers, Tater Tots, ambrosia salad" Dexter picked ... SARAH DESSEN Oh, God," I said. "No, it's Dexter," he replied, offering me his hand, which I ignored. He... SARAH DESSEN What the hell," I said, pushing off the wall, ready to take off the head of whatever stupid salesper... SARAH DESSEN But you, fine sir." John Miller clapped Dexter on the shoulder, a bit unsteadily. "You have problems... SARAH DESSEN Plastic ware," he said slowly, "like knives and forks and spoons?" I brushed a bit of dirt off ... SARAH DESSEN Are those the only options? Nothing or forever? SARAH DESSEN I just thought to my self, all of a sudden, that we had something in common. A natural chemistry, if... SARAH DESSEN I was born in 1970 in Illinois, but all the life I remember I've spent in Chapel Hill, N.C. SARAH DESSEN Outside, the ocean was crashing, waves hitting sand, then pulling back to sea. I thought of everythi... SARAH DESSEN Maybe if I'd agreed to do the debutante thing like she wanted. Or taken up pageants instead of ridin... SARAH DESSEN Relationships dont always make sense. Especially from the outside SARAH DESSEN Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be so easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the thing... SARAH DESSEN Accepting all the good and bad about someone. It's a great thing to aspire to. The hard part is actu... SARAH DESSEN Stuff that would be weird in the bright light of day just wasn't so much once you passed a certain h... SARAH DESSEN Really, it had been stupid to expect anything anyway. A few late nights does not a habit, or a relat... SARAH DESSEN I sat up, sliding them off, and the quiet around me did not, for once, seem empty and vast. Instead,... SARAH DESSEN Look, everyone mourns at their own pace. Maybe you're just a little bit ahead of her, but she'll get... SARAH DESSEN She bought seeds and raided nurseries and mulched and composted and spent full days with her hands f... SARAH DESSEN But anyone can begin. It was the part with all the promise, the potential, the things I loved. More ... SARAH DESSEN There's just something obvious about emptiness, even when you try to convince yourself otherwise. SARAH DESSEN Macy: “In Truth,” I said, “there are no rules other than you have to tell the truth.” W... SARAH DESSEN funny how a beautiful song could tell such a sad story SARAH DESSEN Life shouldn't be about the either/or. We're capable of more than that, you know? SARAH DESSEN Not everything's perfect, especially in the beginning. And its all right to have a little bit of reg... SARAH DESSEN Well, it's true that I have been hurt in my life. Quite a bit. But it's also true that I have loved,... SARAH DESSEN She knew I could tell with one glance, one look, one simple instant. It was her eyes. Despite the th... SARAH DESSEN I didnt pay atteniton to times or distance, instead focusing on how it felt just to be in motion, kn... SARAH DESSEN Wherever you will go, I will let you down, But this lullaby goes on. SARAH DESSEN I am still the center sister. But I see it differently now. There has to be a middle. Without it, no... SARAH DESSEN Maybe not," she said as we came to the car. "But maybe that isn't so bad. You can't love anyone that... SARAH DESSEN Remy: Did you really believe, that first day, that we were meant to be together? Dexter: ... SARAH DESSEN Love is so unpredictable. That's what makes it so great. SARAH DESSEN Silence is so freaking loud SARAH DESSEN Maybe other writers have perfect first drafts, but I am not one of them. I always try to get the boo... SARAH DESSEN You're not supposed to have it all figured out in high school. If you knew it all, and it was th... SARAH DESSEN I'd still thought that everything I thought about that night-the shame, the fear-would fade in time.... SARAH DESSEN Despite my dad's assurances I was strangely nervous my stomach tight ever since we'd hung up. Maybe ... SARAH DESSEN That was the hard thing about grief, and the grieving. They spoke another language, and the words we... SARAH DESSEN because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. no matter what... SARAH DESSEN I've never envied the person who had to put my books together in one script. SARAH DESSEN Sometimes, you get things right the first time. Others, the second. But the third time, they say, is... SARAH DESSEN He glanced over at me. 'Scared? Of Reggie? What, she thinks he might force her to give up caffeine f... SARAH DESSEN In midair, dangling lost above the world. SARAH DESSEN And so we stood there in the kitchen, my mother and I, facing off over everything that had built up ... SARAH DESSEN And to know me, as you have discovered, is to love me. SARAH DESSEN Sometimes you dont even want to think aout what people are doing with their groceries. SARAH DESSEN Best Friends. And I thought of what she had done all the millions of times I cried to he... SARAH DESSEN Why don't you ever wait a second and see what I'm planning, or thinking, before you burst in with yo... SARAH DESSEN I didn't want to leave things the way we had, unresolved, ... and tried to tell myself he cared abou... SARAH DESSEN It was something I couldn't put my finger on or define clearly, but a whole mishmash of words and in... SARAH DESSEN As far as I was concerned, we'd come to a draw: I hadn't wanted to come, and she didn't want me to l... SARAH DESSEN The language of solace, and comets, and the girls we all become, in the end. SARAH DESSEN This world is an awful/ugly place not to have a best friend. SARAH DESSEN its reall bad SARAH DESSEN Just like that, with one phone call, she was a daughter again. SARAH DESSEN I hoped that Grace would be a little bit of the best of all of us: Scarlett's spirit, and my mother'... SARAH DESSEN If you have just one person believe in you, you'll always find your way SARAH DESSEN You can't just plan a moment when things get back on track, just as you can't plan the moment you lo... SARAH DESSEN And that was it; it was so easy for her. My own memories did not even belong to me. But I knew she w... SARAH DESSEN I knew I had to keep him to myself, as I'd slowly begun to keep everything. We had secrets now, trut... SARAH DESSEN He wasn't what I'd thought he was; maybe he never had been. I wasn't what I'd thought I was, either. SARAH DESSEN When I pictured myself, it was always like just an outline in a coloring book, with the inside not y... SARAH DESSEN Mom." I couldn't believe she was doing this again. She was taking this moment, this time when I was ... SARAH DESSEN I wondered again why the right thing always seemed to be met with so much resistance, when you'd thi... SARAH DESSEN Macon: “It’s true. And if that doesn’t work, use the Jedi Mind Trick. But only if you really h... SARAH DESSEN Don't be a fool. Don't give up something important to hold onto someone who can't even say they love... SARAH DESSEN I've given lots of people chances," she said suddenly, as if Marion was still in the room to hear us... SARAH DESSEN I watched my mother do what she did best, and realized there would never be a way to cut myself from... SARAH DESSEN You can't just turn your heart off like a faucet; you have to go to the source and dry it out, drop ... SARAH DESSEN You can't just plan a moment when things get back on track, just as you can't plan the moment you lo... SARAH DESSEN What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they we... SARAH DESSEN Because this is what happens when you try to run from the past. It just doesn’t catch up, it overt... SARAH DESSEN Sometimes it seems safer to hold it all in, where the only person who can judge is yourself. SARAH DESSEN The bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get... SARAH DESSEN An ending was an ending. No matter how many pages of sentences and paragraphs of great stories led u... SARAH DESSEN So many times it seemed like there were chances to stop things before they started. Or even stop the... SARAH DESSEN Friends are honest with each other. Even if the truth hurts. -Maggie SARAH DESSEN Two a.m.' He swallowed, then said, "You know. The person you can call at two a.m. and, no matter wha... SARAH DESSEN So much had happened that morning. Yet it was this image, this moment, that i kept going back to hou... SARAH DESSEN [Adam picks up the camera] "I have to get a shot of this." The reaction in the room was swift, ... SARAH DESSEN You get what you give, but also what you're willing to take. SARAH DESSEN It didn't make you noble to step away from something that wasn't working, even if you thought you we... SARAH DESSEN There's a kind of radar that you get, after years of being talked about and made fun of by other peo... SARAH DESSEN You can't make any one person your world. The trick is to take what each can give you and build a wo... SARAH DESSEN Hate Spinnerbait! SARAH DESSEN It's a lot easier to be lost than found. It's the reason we're always searching and rarely discovere... SARAH DESSEN It doesn't matter, anyway, why you like me. Just that you do. SARAH DESSEN Suddenly, I was just sure he was going to kiss me. He was there, I could feel his breath, the ground... SARAH DESSEN There was something so heavy about the burden of history, of the past. I wasn't sure I had it in me ... SARAH DESSEN Oh for God's sake,' Heather said, 'I wish you two would just go out, fail miserably as a couple, and... SARAH DESSEN It's a great compliment that people think they're fast reads. It's always funny to me because it tak... SARAH DESSEN Wherever you will go, I will let you down, But this lullaby goes on. SARAH DESSEN I think my mother characters have changed a lot since Sasha was born, just because I understand what... SARAH DESSEN With love like that, you can't get pick about how it finds you or the details. All that matters is t... SARAH DESSEN You want me to give her a key?" the guy asked. "I want you to give her a possibility," she told... SARAH DESSEN What was it like to be so confident even in your failings that you weren't the least bit bothered wh... SARAH DESSEN Look,” he said, “the point is there’s no way to be a hundred percent sure about anyone or anyt... SARAH DESSEN Your mother won a special reward," she told me, "because everyone had a head in her pictures. We all... SARAH DESSEN Rogerson," I asked him sweetly as we sat watching a video in the pool house, "where would I find the... SARAH DESSEN I'd heard of Evergreen Care Center before. Cass and I had always made fun of the stupid ads they ran... SARAH DESSEN Nothing like being scolded by a hippie. SARAH DESSEN After all, it's all kinds of things that make up a life, right? The big, like falling in love and sp... SARAH DESSEN I knew this feeling, the 2 a.m. loneliness that I'd practically invented. SARAH DESSEN Maybe we were all destined to just keep doing the same stupid things, over and over again, never rea... SARAH DESSEN After the group vet appointment--during which Lyle scratched the vet, the vet tech, and some poor wo... SARAH DESSEN It [I'm leaving] wasn't really necessary to say, especially if you were already walking away. Almost... SARAH DESSEN It was so risky and so scary, and yet at the same time, so beautiful. Maybe the truth was, it should... SARAH DESSEN When you don't know where you're going, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to have more than you need. SARAH DESSEN That's not a real answer.' Says who?' Says me. I mean real fear, like of failure, of death... SARAH DESSEN It's hard to be nice when the rest of the world is so mean. SARAH DESSEN I want the white one SARAH DESSEN As Isabel acted out her date, both of them laughing, I stayed in the kitchen, out of sight, and pret... SARAH DESSEN Isn't it weird," I said, "the way you remember things, when someone's gone?" What do you mean?"... SARAH DESSEN So what's your doll's name?" Boo asked me. "Barbie," I said. "All their names are Barbie." SARAH DESSEN Why should I even bother? What's the point, really?" He thought for a moment. "Who says there h... SARAH DESSEN I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be one of so many, to have not just parents and siblings... SARAH DESSEN If someone is really close with you, your getting upset or them getting upset is okay, and they don�... SARAH DESSEN Restoring order of my personal universe suddenly seemed imperative, as I refolded my T-shirts, stuff... SARAH DESSEN There were so many places in my time with Rogerson that I wished I could go back to, hitting the sto... SARAH DESSEN That's what this has been all about for you, correct? Make it clear. That you and me--it was nothing... SARAH DESSEN And for one second, it was like I could feel the timing clicking together, finally pieces falling in... SARAH DESSEN Sometimes, you have to manufacture your own history. Give fate a push, so to speak. SARAH DESSEN It was amazing how you could get so far from where you'd planned, and yet find it was exactly were y... SARAH DESSEN These were always the weirdest trips for me, when it was midnight or even later, and we pulled up to... SARAH DESSEN You couldn't just pick and choose at will when someone depended on you, or loved you. It wasn't like... SARAH DESSEN Story of my life. SARAH DESSEN instead, we just sat there, together but really apart, watching a show about a stranger and all her ... SARAH DESSEN I understood now. This voice, the one that had been trying to get my attention all this time, callin... SARAH DESSEN I am the middle sister. The one in between. Not oldest, not youngest, not boldest, not nicest. I am ... SARAH DESSEN I'd been convinced I was on the outside, but really, I'd always been within arm's reach. All I had t... SARAH DESSEN Because this is what happens when you try to run from the past. it doesn't just catch up: it overtak... SARAH DESSEN Because the truth sometimes hurts," I said. Yeah," he said. "So do lies, though. SARAH DESSEN So while it seemed like you were seeing everything, you really weren't. Just bits and pieces that lo... SARAH DESSEN