The Truth About Forever, By Sarah Dessen

Page 21: "But here in the present, ...I had no choice but to move ahead. [We] worked hard, me at school..."

Page 30: "Now things can only get better, right?"

Page 54: "...did not gloss over her wild past, maintaining instead that it had been crucial to her development as a person."

Page 63: "...doesn't it seem, sometimes, that the whole damn world's uphill?"

Page 81: "No matter how carefully I worked at it, by the time I finished all I could see was the raw sadness in the lines as I scanned them, all my failings and flaws cropping up in the spaces between the words."

Page 87: "...maybe it wasn't just a season or a time but a whole world I'd forgotten. I'd never know until I stepped out into it. So I did."

Page 93: "...some things are just meant to be the way they are." "It's just that some things are meant to be broken. Imperfect. Chaotic. It's the universe's way of providing contrast, you know? There have to be a few holes in the road. It's how life is."

Page 97: "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." "Maybe that's what you got when you stood over your grief, facing it finally. A sense of its depths, its area, the distance across, and the way over or around it, whichever you choose in the end."

Page 112: "It's okay... it's all going to be okay."

**TO BE CONTINUED; PAGE 112**

The Moon and More, By Sarah Dessen

Page 86: "But as was so often the case, it was the one person missing who you thought about more than the ones who were right in front of you."

Page 131: "Hearing this, I felt a strange mix of annoyance and shame. Like when you hear something you don't want to be true, but have a feeling probably is."

Page 143: "And like most times I found myself with hard choices, I just wished there was something clear and easy, right in between."

Page 147: "It's funny the things you remember."

Page 175: "As long as you were moving, you were always going somewhere."

Page 180: "'...But you take the bad to get to the great. That's just how it works. Right?'"

Page 192: "'Demarcation?'...'It means a clear separation between two things... A solid end before a clean beginning. No murky borders. Clarity.'"

Page 218: "...there was a comfort in there being no question, no room for doubt."

Page 232: "In between ahd high above, I did all I could to soak up the stillness while it lasted."

Page 237: "'It's John Wayne.'Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.'"

Page 238: "I don't know you, I thought. And yet I do. It was the weirdest feeling."

Page 244: "'Well,...someone's gotta be first to buck the trend, right?'"

Page 254: "There are just moments you look up from any once place and realize, suddenly, you have no idea how you got there."

Page 265: "It struck at something deep and primal in me, flipping a switch I couldn't reach no matter how I contorted myself."

Page 282: "It was such a weird thing how a breakup stretched much wider than you expected. You didn't just lose a person, but their entire world as well."

Page 292: "'You're special, Emaline. You're not just any other girl.'" "All this time, I'd seen it from the other side, as a way of focusing on all the things I wasn't. But to him, to be different was the better choice, even ideal. Yet again, he was giving me another view, and I liked how I looked from here."

Page 306: "Maybe it was just part of growing up with someone. Once you have a rhythm and stay with it long enough, it's not hard to find again."

Page 316: "And right then, while I still could, it was exactly where I wanted to be."

Page 326: "we were willing to do so much for the people we loved, even if it meant hurting ourselves. Maybe that, in the end, was what love--all kinds--was really all about."

Page 328: "'...Just a way of giving my older stuff another chance. I mean, an opportunity to do things differently, with the benefit of hindsight? That's a hard thing to turn down.'"

Page 329: "'I'm starting to think, though, that some things never get that. They replay, and all. So at some point you have to make peace with it as it is, not keep waiting for a chance to change it.'" "'Just because you don't get a chance right when you want or expect it doesn't mean it won't come. Fate doesn't punch a time clock or consult a schedule.'"

Page 337: "'I'm driven. I don't settle. If I see something better within reach, I go for it...Risk is part of ambition...'"

Page 345: "'...The mistakes you make now count. Not for everything, and not forever. But they do matter, and they shape you. 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.'"

Page 352: "'Disappointment, is part of life. Just like change.'"

Page 353: "'But from there, I can go anywhere. It's supposed to be a start, not a finish.'" "'You have no idea how one bad choice, one stupid mistake, can change everything for you. And once it's done,  believe me: it's done. But the sick part is, you'll still spend your whole life trying to fix it.'"

Page 356: "Worse, I had no idea where to go, or anyone who could understand."

Page 381: "Then again, I kind of admire his ability to go for what he wanted. I agonized and worried before making the safest movie; Theo saw his opportunity and took it..."

Page 410: "A reminder that not everyone is what they seem right at first glance."

Page 435: "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 and small towns."

That Summer, By Sarah Dessen

This Lullaby, By Sarah Dessen

Page 23: “I kept my closet the way I kept everything: neat and tidy.” “…Okay, so maybe I was a little obsessive. But so what? At least I wasn’t a slob.”

Page 27: “Okay, so maybe I did have a bit of history with expecting too much from relationships. 

But gosh, at least I had standards…”

Page 36: “The stupidest part was that I let him, flushed as I was with love (not likely) or lust (more likely)…”

Page 82: “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.” 

Page 101: “When I think of myself then, what I was like two years ago, I feel like a wound in a bad place, prone to be bumped on corners or edges. Never able to heal.” “Nice girls didn’t do what I did. Nice girls waited. But even before it happened, I’d never counted myself as a nice girl.”

Page 117: “Because I didn’t show weakness: I didn’t depend on anyone.”

Page 142: “It was so hard to explain, but it gave me a chill, every time, almost like he was touching my heart.”

Page 188: “I must say, it’s your confidence that really did me in. You know, so many girls are always insecure, wondering if they’re fat, or if you really like them, but not you.”

Page 264: “And 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.”

Page 316: “That strong sense of what we shared, good and bad, that led us to here, where my own story began.”

Page 320: “She fell, she hurt, she felt. She lived. And for all the tumble of her experiences, she still had hope. Maybe this time would do the trick. Or maybe not. But unless you stepped into the game, you would never know.”

Keeping the Moon, By Sarah Dessen

Page 117: “‘A day for solitude and quite: you have a lot to think about. Recycling, renewal, big things to come are on your mind.’”

Page 160: “Believe in yourself up here (in the brain) and it will make you stronger than you could ever imagine.”

Page 171: “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.”

Page 202: “Let it go.” “And just like that, I did.”

Page 209: “I don’t believe in failure…Because simply by saying you’ve failed, you’ve admitted you attempted. And anyone who attempts is not a failure. Those who truly fail in my eyes are the ones who never try at all. The ones who sit on the couch and whine and moan and wait for the world to change for them.”

Page 217: “…What you were that night at the beach was just you, Colie. It was all you. Because for once, you believed in yourself. You believed you were beautiful and so did the rest of the world.” “…It’s like the hidden secret that no one tells you. We can all be beautiful girls, Colie. It’s so easy.”