FastSaying

Live free or die.
Four words. Thirteen letters. Ridges, bumps, swirls under my fingertips.
Another story. We cling tightly to it, and our belief turns it to truth.


Lauren Oliver

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LAUREN OLIVER Live free or die.
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<...
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Though I dress and drink and eat,
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A.W. TOZER DEATH
. . .
And now you are here to fight for this woman.
You know her promise is giv...
ANNE CARSON For I dance
And drink and sing,
Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing.

If t...
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LAUREN OLIVER So many things become beautiful when you really look.
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when you don’t.
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LAUREN OLIVER And there it is: Even though we’re standing in the same patch of sun-drenched pavement, we might a...
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LAUREN OLIVER This is the world we live in, a world of safety and happiness and order, a world without love.
...
LAUREN OLIVER The devil stole into the Garden of Eden.

He carried with him the disease— amor deliria ...
LAUREN OLIVER It’s hard not to be afraid while I’m still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn’t touched m...
LAUREN OLIVER Things weren’t always as good as they are now. In school we learned that in the old days, the dark...
LAUREN OLIVER For all the people who have infected me with amor deliria nervosa in the past
- you know who yo...
LAUREN OLIVER That’s a funny thing: you think, when awful things happen, everything else just stops, like you wo...
LAUREN OLIVER She knew that this day, this feeling, couldn't last forever. Everything passed; that was partly why ...
LAUREN OLIVER I’ll tell you another secret, this one for your own good. You may think the past has something to ...
LAUREN OLIVER Everything looks stark and vivid and frozen, as though drawn precisely and outlined in ink - parents...
LAUREN OLIVER Everything has taken on a strange, distant quality - the sounds of running and shouting outside get ...
LAUREN OLIVER His eyes are the color of honey. These are the eyes I remember from my dreams.
LAUREN OLIVER We'll walk together holding hands, and kiss in broad daylight, and love each other as much as we wan...
LAUREN OLIVER Nothing has ever been so painful or delicious as being so close to him and being unable to do anythi...
LAUREN OLIVER His eyes are blazing with light, more light than all the lights in every city in the whole world, mo...
LAUREN OLIVER I know the rules. I've been living here longer than you have."
He cracks a smile then. He nudge...
LAUREN OLIVER They haven't killed us yet," I say, and I imagine that one day I will fly a plane over Portland, ove...
LAUREN OLIVER ....love and desire enjoy a symbiotic relationship, meaning that one cannot exist without the other....
LAUREN OLIVER This is what I want. This is the only thing I've ever wanted. Everything else—every single second ...
LAUREN OLIVER I wish I could close my eyes and be blown into dust and nothingness, feel all my thoughts disperse l...
LAUREN OLIVER Alex loved books. He was the one who first introduced me to poetry. That's another reason I can't re...
LAUREN OLIVER I told you," he whispers back. I can feel his breath just tickling the space behind my ear, making m...
LAUREN OLIVER This is the strange way of the world, that people who simply want to love are instead forced to beco...
LAUREN OLIVER Who knows? Maybe they’re right. Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings. Maybe love is a disease...
LAUREN OLIVER How can someone have the power to shatter you to dust--and also to make you feel so whole?
LAUREN OLIVER My heart shoots into my throat every time I think I see his loping walk, or catch sight of some flop...
LAUREN OLIVER i feel like a curtain has dropped away and i'm seeing people for who they really are, different, and...
LAUREN OLIVER I want to help you,' I say to Juliet, though I know that I can't make her understand, not like this....
LAUREN OLIVER And a face above mine, white and beautiful, eyes as large as the moon. You saved me. A hand o...
LAUREN OLIVER Be honest: Are you surprised that I didn't realize sooner? Are you surprised that it took me so long...
LAUREN OLIVER So are you going to be my knight in shining armor or what?'

Kent does a little bow. 'You ...
LAUREN OLIVER I'm not with Rob," I say quickly. "Not anymore."
"You're not?" He's staring at me so intensely...
LAUREN OLIVER That's the thing about best friends. That's what they do. They keep you from spinning off the edge.
LAUREN OLIVER That's the way I feel, at least: like there's a real me and a reflection of me, and I have no way of...
LAUREN OLIVER I've never really thought about it before, but it's a miracle how many kinds of light there are in t...
LAUREN OLIVER And I guess that's when it starts to hit me: the whole point is, you do what you can.
LAUREN OLIVER The last laugh, the last cup of coffee, the last sunset, the last time you jump through a sprinkler,...
LAUREN OLIVER The butterflies are working their way up from my stomach into my head, making me feel dizzy, and I t...
LAUREN OLIVER No one can tell us no. No one can make us stop. We have picked each other, and the rest of the world...
LAUREN OLIVER For a second we just stand there in silence. Then, suddenly, Alex is back,
easy and smiling aga...
LAUREN OLIVER The idea—the fact of it, the fact that he even noticed and thought about me for more than one seco...
LAUREN OLIVER What does it feel like to be infected?"
"I-- I can't describe it." I force the words out. Can't...
LAUREN OLIVER I’m used to a feeling of doubleness, of thinking one thing and having to do another, a constant tu...
LAUREN OLIVER This is the past: It drifts, it gathers. If you are not careful, it will bury you.
LAUREN OLIVER I wonder what Lena is doing now. I always wonder what Lena is doing. Rachel, too: both my girls, my ...
LAUREN OLIVER The dagger pin is all I have left. It is comfort and pain, both, because it reminds me of all I’ve...
LAUREN OLIVER This is how Tack and Raven work: It’s their private language of push and return, argument and conc...
LAUREN OLIVER