Cammie McGovern Quotes & Sayings

He stood in front of her and told her he'd come, not to climb her tower but to shelter it. In his clumsy way, he was like a prince who arrived with sweaty armpits and bad hair. At least I'm here, he might have said. That's better than nothing. And it was. — Cammie McGovern

It was electrifying the way he watched her so carefully that he forgot himself. — Cammie McGovern

Freakishness could happen to anyone at any time. — Cammie McGovern

I just slipped into my mother's office to look at the names of my new peer helpers, and I'm so happy! Your name is on the list! I thought maybe I'd scared you by coming right out and asking you to apply. I realize it's an unusual setup, but try not to think of it as my parents offering to pay people to be my friend. I know there's something unsettling and prideless in that. I prefer to think of it this way: my parents are paying people to pretend to be my friend. This will be much closer to the truth, I suspect, and I have no problem with this. I'm guessing that a lot of people in high school are only pretending to be friends, right? It'll be a start, I figure. — Cammie McGovern

Let's don't wait forever for our lives to start. Let's begin them ourselves. Let's be fearless for once and say, we can do this. — Cammie McGovern

It was about acceptance, he thought. About realizing no one is perfect and no one can expect to change someone else. Which — Cammie McGovern

What's a strapless bra?" he finally asked.
"LIKE A TOURNIQUET FOR YOUR CHEST."
"Can you breathe if you're wearing it?"
"BARELY — Cammie McGovern

I have learned not to judge people by their limitations, but by the way they push past them. — Cammie McGovern

I suspect we have both lived lives that appeared to have serene surfaces and were, for both of us, hollow and impossible to sustain. — Cammie McGovern

Oh God, this is my fantasy! Where those just-friend boys suddenly realize they love me.'
'I don't know if this was like that.'
'What happened?'
He thought for a moment. 'Well. I realized I loved her.'
Hannah gasped. 'Oh God, that's so sweet. — Cammie McGovern

You don't have to date me, just don't date her. Please, as your friend, I'm begging you not to date someone who doesn't appreciate you. — Cammie McGovern

I have learned that some people who look fine are more crippled than I am, by fears they can't explain. Other people are held back by shyness, or anger. In making friends, I see the way some people handicap themselves. I believe there are choices each of us make every single day. We can dwell on our limitations or we can push ourselves past them. — Cammie McGovern

This feeling will pass. The fear is real but the danger is not. — Cammie McGovern

After that, a strange thing happened: Amy couldn't stop her expectations from rising. She imagined herself transformed and beautiful, like Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink, with her homemade dress and mysterious lace boots. She pictured her hair in an upsweep of loose curls. In the fantasy, her prom face looked like the one she only wore asleep, loose and relaxed. She imagined a photographer asking her to smile and, for the first time in her life, being able to do it. — Cammie McGovern

YOUR FEAR MAY SEEM REAL BUT THE DANGER IS NOT. YOU'RE SAFE. YOU'RE ALL RIGHT. YOU'RE HAVING A PANIC ATTACK. — Cammie McGovern

I thought helping someone else might take me out of my own head for a while. — Cammie McGovern

Don't worry. Here's the thing I've learned about pregnancy. Everything feels like a crisis and everything turns out to be heartburn. — Cammie McGovern

Her idea had a beautiful simplicity at first. — Cammie McGovern

This is what we do, my mother's life said. We find ourselves in the sacrifices we make. — Cammie McGovern

Scratch a female inmate, I've discovered, and you'll usually find a girl whose mother had terrible taste in men. — Cammie McGovern

The real problem with his type of OCD
chronic fear of hurting other people
was that you thought so much about not running over children, not sideswiping pedestrians, not poisoning strangers with germs on your hands
essentially not killing a world full of strangers
that you ended up hurting the people you loved most. He saw that now. — Cammie McGovern

Stains were a patchwork of mistakes you couldn't get rid of. They showed the world your real self, even the parts you didn't want it to see. — Cammie McGovern

He had no idea how wonderful he was. How his hands were so beautiful she could hardly look at them. How his truest smile was crooked and lifted higher on the left side than the right, which made her feel like he might understand her better, her hemiplegic face that was all crooked half smiles, too. But it couldn't be denied. He was also slightly crazy. Maybe more than slightly. — Cammie McGovern

According to Sarah, who had gone two years ago, prom was famous for being an overpriced disappointment where most people had no fun. — Cammie McGovern

There isn't any one big test or way to validate ourselves in the world. There's just a long, quiet process of finding our place in it — Cammie McGovern

I've decided that it's possible to love someone for entirely selfless reasons, for all of their flaws and weaknesses, and still not succeed in having them love you back. It's sad, perhaps, but not tragic, unless you dwell forever in the pursuit of their elusive affections. — Cammie McGovern

JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO SCARED TO TAKE ANY RISKS DOESN'T MEAN THE REST OF US SHOULD BE. — Cammie McGovern

It surprised me because she put it as well (or better) than I could have and made a simple point she didn't even intend: being disabled wasn't the main thing about her. — Cammie McGovern