"Sometimes I feel as though there are two me's, one coasting directly on top of the other: the superficial me, who nods when she's supposed to nod and says what she's supposed to say, and some other, deeper part, the part that worries and dreams... Most of the time they move along in sync and I hardly notice the split, but sometimes it feels as though I'm two whole different people and I could rip apart at any second."
Quote collection
Lauren Oliver quotes (page 15 of 27)
525 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"No guy in his right mind would ever choose me when there are people like Hana in the world: It would be like settling for a stale cookie when what you really want is a big bowl of ice cream, whipped cream and cherries and chocolate sprinkles included."
"Time jumps. It leaps. It pours away like water through fingers."
"I'm used to a feeling of doubleness, of thinking one thing and having to do another, a constant tug-of-war."
"No guest rooms.” I shake my head resolutely. “I want to be in a room room. A lived-in room."
"And you can't love, not fully, unless you are loved in return."
"But maybe happiness isn't in the choosing. Maybe it's in the fiction, in the pretending: that wherever we have ended up is where we intended to be all along."
"This is what amazes me: that people are new every day. That they are never the same. You must always invent them, and they must always invent themselves, too."
"With the cure, relationships are all the same, and rules and expectations are defined. Without the cure, relationships must be reinvented every day, languages constantly decoded and deciphered. Freedom is exhausting."
"That's the easy thing about falling: there is only one choice after that."
"But from the beginning, I knew that in a world where destiny was dead, I was destined, forever, to love him. Even though he didn't - though he couldn't - ever love me back."
"But that's the problem with love - it acts on you, works through you, resists your attempts to control."
"Could it be? Samantha Kingston? Home? On a Friday?” I roll my eyes. “I don’t know. Did you do a lot of acid in the sixties? Could be a flashback.” “I was two years old in 1960. I came too late for the party.” He leans down and pecks me on the head. I pull away out of habit. “And I’m not even going to ask how you know about acid flashbacks.” “What’s an acid flashback?” Izzy crows. “Nothing,” my dad and I say at the same time, and he smiles at me."
"I’ve never really had a party before.” “Why did you have one now?” I say, just to keep him talking. He gives a half laugh. “I thought if I had a party, you would come."
"That’s a funny thing: you think, when awful things happen, everything else just stops, like you would forget to pee and eat and get thirsty, but it’s not really true. It’s like you and your body are two separate things, like your body is betraying you, chugging on, idiotic and animal, craving water and sandwiches and bathroom breaks while your world falls apart."
"You must hurt, or be hurt."
"And I guess that's when it starts to hit me: the whole point is, you do what you can."
"When he speaks again, I can tell that he's smiling. "So I guess we saved each other."
"And even though I'm standing in the middle of the biggest crowd I've ever seen in my life, I suddenly feel very alone."
"Here's another thing to remember: hope keeps you alive. Even when you're dead, it's the only thing that keeps you alive."