Cora Carmack Quotes & Sayings

We are team. We win and loose together. So, we'll screw up and get better together, too. — Cora Carmack

But sex ... that was the opposite of control. There were emotions, and attraction, and that pesky other person that just had to be involved. Not my idea of fun. — Cora Carmack

I pulled, allowing her body to slide down mine. I kept my hands at her waist to slow her descent. The shifting of her body against mine was heavenly. She sucked in a breath, and when our faces were level, her eyes were not narrowed, but closed. Her lips weren't pursed, but her bottom lip was caught between her teeth in a way that made my mouth dry. Her cheeks were still flushed, but I had a feeling it wasn't about anger anymore.
"You did that on purpose," she said.
I laughed, and it came out raspy. She wasn't the only one affected by our closeness. "I definitely did that on purpose. I think we should make this a post-show ritual actually. — Cora Carmack

Life's too short to waste time living it any other way. — Cora Carmack

He stepped away from me to talk, and I leaned heavily against the wall beside his door. Clearly, I was not meant to have sex. This was God telling me that I was meant to be a nun. Get thee to a nunnery, and all that crap. I was so delirious I was confusing God and Shakespeare. — Cora Carmack

I don't know that dancing fixes anything. I don't feel magically happy because of it. My problems don't disappear when the music ends. But I understand life better when I dance, and understanding is half the fight of surviving. — Cora Carmack

Me? Are you telling me what to do? — Cora Carmack

Sometimes, it's the scary things in life that are the most worthwhile. — Cora Carmack

As readers, as people, we might not have the capacity to change the justice system. But as Dylan says in the book, we can change one person's perspective at a time. We can notice. We can speak up. We can teach this generation, my generation, that the way sexual assault is viewed and treated in this country is not okay, so that when it is our turn to step into the shoes of political office and criminal justice, we can continue changing the narrative from a place of power.
And more than anything, we can support. And we can empower. We can love.
We can be better. — Cora Carmack

You are unbelievably sexy. — Cora Carmack

What was he doing in there? Was he just getting dressed reeeaaally slowly? Was he looking through my things? Was he trashing my place because I'd run out and left him there like the biggest jerk this side of Kanye West at the 2009 VMA's? — Cora Carmack

Dudes who look dangerous should just be dangerous. Period. The end. They should not be dangerous and beautiful all at the same time. It leaves the universe out of balance, and it makes me do stupid things like stare. — Cora Carmack

The only thing we can do is try to find people whose scars compliment our own. — Cora Carmack

The kind of tired that sleep doesn't fix. Just tired of ... being. — Cora Carmack

Was cool and lovely and I melted into the sensation. — Cora Carmack

Because try as I might, perfect doesn't guarantee me anything. I can't control whether other people will want me or love me or even like me. I can only control how I feel about myself. — Cora Carmack

I drop my head against the steering wheel and groan. "You are in so much trouble, Dylan Brenner." And trouble's name is Silas Moore. — Cora Carmack

Silas doesn't know how to be friends with girls. Either he'll break your heart or you'll break his. — Cora Carmack

Just looking for a piece of adventure, my ass. You already have an adventure. Who is he?"
An enigma.
"Just a guy I met the other night," I answered.
"And why the hell would you not want to see him? Did he have herpes or something? Because that's a damn shame. Like paint splattered all over a Van Gogh. Or a naked Ryan Gosling. — Cora Carmack

The past is frozen. Written in stone. But the future isn't. — Cora Carmack

You could have just thought of me. I would have known and come running. I'm practically a superhero in that regard. — Cora Carmack

He took my hand, and pulled me into his living room where a book was open on his sofa. It was poetry, of course, because he was perfect. — Cora Carmack

His face makes a satisfying crack when my fist connects. — Cora Carmack

Garrick: "The only thing I care about is fucking you so hard you can't see straight."
Bliss: Annnd ... aneurysm. — Cora Carmack

No matter how close, you are always too far
My eyes are drawn everywhere you are.

I'm tired of the way we both pretend Tired of always wanting and never giving in
I can feel it in my skin, see it in your grin
We're more. We always have been.

Think of everything we've missed.
Every touch and every kiss.
Because we both insist.
Resist.

Hold your breath and close your eyes Distract yourself with other guys
It's no surprise, your defeated sighs
Aren't you tired of the lies?

Think of everything we've missed.
Every touch and every kiss.
Because we both insist.
Resist.

No matter how close, you are always too far
My eyes are drawn everywhere you are.

I'm done. I won't ignore. I won't pretend or resist.
I want more. — Cora Carmack

I'm already there. — Cora Carmack

Hold your breath and close your eyes
Distract yourself with other guys
It's no surprise, your defeated sighs
Aren't you tired of the lies? — Cora Carmack

I don't know why, but most of my life has felt . . . conditional, like my parents and Henry and everyone else accepted me because I filled these holes in their lives. And I made sure I filled them perfectly because that was how I belonged, how I guaranteed my spot, by never failing to live up to their expectations. As long as I was perfect, they would have no need to cut me loose. — Cora Carmack

I just ... this wasn't my life. Things like this didn't happen to me, and if they did, it never lasted. Girls like me didn't get guys like Cade. — Cora Carmack

I can't say no to you. — Cora Carmack

There are only stupid decisions waiting for me here. But I've never cared all that much for being smart. — Cora Carmack

Suddenly there was this intensity to everything we did and everything we said. Like my life had been itelicized. — Cora Carmack

I don't know how I feel yet. I'm so used to pretending, to shoving it all away and pasting a smile that sometimes I don't even realize I'm doing it. I'm trying, but I don't know. — Cora Carmack

You're really hitting on me? After we just met in jail?"
"Is it working? — Cora Carmack

Why does the world hate me? They both laughed, but it wasn't funny. SERIOUSLY. Why does the world hate me? — Cora Carmack

Legs shaved?"
I nodded
"Other ... things ... shaved?"
"As much as they are ever going to be, yes, now move on." That was where I drew the line of this conversation. — Cora Carmack

There was no room for unhappiness when squeezed between two sets of washboard abs.
New life motto, right there. — Cora Carmack

Because sometimes in life, you just have to stand there and do nothing. Overwhelmed by all the versions of ourselves that exist in our minds - who we want to be, who we should be, who we're not, and who we are - it's a jungle that can ensnare your feet and confuse your eyes. But sometimes if you stand still, all those things will snap back into place like a rubber band. And if you can get past the sting, you can keep moving, not quite whole, but held together for the moment. — Cora Carmack

Yours made you Golden. Mine just made me angry." One — Cora Carmack

I'm glad you fought for me. — Cora Carmack

When you live a hard life, you spend years wishing for the easy stuff, but then when you get it, it never feels right. You get used to having to fight and claw for the things you want, and when you don't have to do that anymore, everything feels a little bit muted. — Cora Carmack

Just stay with me. We'll beat it together, okay? Say you'll stay with me. — Cora Carmack

Tell me I'm not crazy, He said. I couldn't do that. I was nowhere near sane enough at the moment to advise anyone else on rational behavior. — Cora Carmack

This was a catastrofuck of colossal proportions. — Cora Carmack

WAIT, WAIT! JUST one more!"
"Bliss, there are children waiting."
And they probably hated us, but I was just so glad to see her smiling that I didn't care.
"Yeah, well, they all just jumped on the bandwagon. Most of them weren't alive when I read Harry Potter for the first time."
I turned to the Canadian family behind me and said, "I'm so sorry. This is the last one, I promise." Then I took one more picture of Bliss pretending to push the luggage cart through the wall at the Platform 9¾ monument at King's Cross Station.
A little boy stuck his tongue out at Bliss as we left. I pulled her away before she could follow suit.
"That kid better watch it. I'm totally a Slytherin."
I shook my head, smiling.
"Love, I'm going to need you to pull back on the crazy a bit."
"You're right. Realistically, I'm a Ravenclaw. — Cora Carmack

I never dated a girl like her, and she's probably never dated a guy like me. But sometimes you don't know what you're looking for until it's already knocked you flat on your back. — Cora Carmack

You're lucky this is a big night for you, Bliss. Normally, nobody gets between me and my tequila. — Cora Carmack

Bliss, wait one second."
I took my time packing up my stuff, waiting for everyone else to leave the computer lab.
When we were alone I asked, "What's up?"
He smiled, "Nothing."
Then he pressed me into the computer table behind me and kissed me. — Cora Carmack

I told you I would never let anything bad happen to you. — Cora Carmack

New Life Realization #1:
Being an adult is hard work. I know people tell you this growing up, but it doesn't really sink in until you're living it, waist deep in the swamps of no-free-time and not-enough-money.
New Life Realization #2:
It's worth it. — Cora Carmack

I didn't want to be a virgin. That much I knew. I didn't want to feel like the immature prude who knew nothing about sex. I hated not knowing things. The trouble was ... as much as I didn't want to be a virgin, I also didn't want to have sex. — Cora Carmack

Present, I flee you: absent, I find you again.(Shakespeare)

Present, I fled him. But no matter the distance between us, I kept coming back to him. It all kept coming back to him. — Cora Carmack

Fact is, knowing what you want and knowing who you are ... those are two separate things. One is complicated. The other isn't. You're trying to take something simple and make it hard, and there's enough hard things in life without you adding more for yourself. — Cora Carmack

Phaedra keeps saying she's being selfish. That she hates herself for it, but she does it anyway. She can't deny herself what she wants, even if it brings about her downfall and his." "And have you learned anything from our literary parallel?" "Not really, I keep thinking that she would do it all over again if there were a chance ... a chance that it could go right. Even if 99 times out of a 100 the story ends badly, it's worth it if only once she gets a happy ending. — Cora Carmack

Don't. Don't do that. — Cora Carmack

Her heart is racing, blood pulsing fast beneath my finger, and she's taking these tiny sharp breaths. It turns me on in a way I don't even understand. Normally, the skittish, inexperienced types send me running. But the thought of teaching her anything makes my jeans feel too tight. I want her on her back in my bed, legs spread wide, eyes big and blue, lips parted, mouth babbling that nervous nonsense until I make her forget what she's saying, forget how to talk altogether. I want to forget myself in her, too, steal some of her sunshine, and give this pristine, perfect girl a taste of what it's like to get a little dirty. — Cora Carmack

We spend so much time defending our choice to do this that it becomes hard to show any vulnerability at all. There's only so many times you can handle someone asking about your fall back for when things don't work before you start thinking that maybe the fall back should just be your plan. — Cora Carmack

He was flabbergasted. That was the best word. His flabber had been thoroughly gasted. — Cora Carmack

I'm figuring out what I want by trial and error, and maybe that's not the best way, but it's all I've got. All I know is that I need to be my own person, someone shaped by my desire, not fear of disappointing the people who are supposed to love me. — Cora Carmack

Cant we own each other?
If brains could have orgasms, I'm pretty sure this is what it would feel like. — Cora Carmack

Getting angry at him won't change the fact that you're angry at yourself. — Cora Carmack

Trust me. This was much better than the alternative. I'm exactly where I want to be. He glanced down at me and gave me a half-smile. — Cora Carmack

We all just live in this giant cycle where we screw things up and hurt people we love, and then we turn around and try to atone for that by fixing other things. And maybe we're all just waiting on our turn for a broken heart and the person who will fix it. — Cora Carmack

But fear lets us know we're alive. It tells me that you care about what happens between us because the mind doesn't waste time being scared about things that don't matter. — Cora Carmack

You're not trying to pick up a girl?"
"I wasn't. — Cora Carmack

After what could have been an eternity or a few seconds, Cade whispered, Pain changes us. Mine made me want to be perfect, so that no one would ever want to leave me again. — Cora Carmack

Adventures don't happen when you're worried about the future or tied down by the past. They only exist in the now. And they always,always come at the most unexpected time,in the least likely of packages. An adventure is an open window; and an adventurer is the person willing to crawl out on the ledge and leap. — Cora Carmack

The best parts of our life are the things we can't plan. And it's a lot harder to find happiness if you're only searching in one place. Sometimes, you just have to throw away a map. Admit that you don't know where you're going and stop pressuring yourself to figure it out. Besides ... a map is a life someone else already lived. It's more fun to make your own map. — Cora Carmack

It's such a stupid thing. I've had my arm around more girls that I could possibly remember, but in this moment with this girl, who is so far above me I might as well be trying to scoop up the stars, it feels a little bit like a hard-earned first down. — Cora Carmack

Go Red. Fight Red. Bleed Red. — Cora Carmack

There's a fine line between broody and potential sociopath. Right now you're walking the line. — Cora Carmack

Do me a favor? Be a gentleman tomorrow? — Cora Carmack

And all the restless energy floating through me keeps connecting to him and coming back twice as strong, like we're this closed circuit, and the longer we stay linked, the more powerful the pull between us becomes. — Cora Carmack

I'm frustrated. I just don't know what you want from me. — Cora Carmack

You told me to be myself, so I am. — Cora Carmack

Every day. I will prove every day how much you mean to me. How real this is. — Cora Carmack

Cade Winston, by drinking this shot, you hereby swear to do something out of character tonight. Should you fail, you'll be cused to a lifetime filled with premature ejaculation.'
'Seriously, man?'
He held up his hands and laughed, 'Hey, the alcohol gods giveth and they taketh away. — Cora Carmack

We want what we can't have. It's human nature. — Cora Carmack

I'm not one for speeches."
A few feet behind me Torres calls out, "Riiiiight."
The crowd laughs and Coach whirls around like he's searching for the culprit. Torres is the picture of innocence, and I sigh and shake my head when he grins at me.
"Fine. I'm not one for speeches that don't involve yelling. — Cora Carmack

You're bruised and battered from dealing with things you should not have had to face, but you are not less because of that. You're more. — Cora Carmack

If we're not trying to get to any particular place, we can't ever really be lost. We're just exploring. — Cora Carmack

You're mad at me. — Cora Carmack

We should live like we smoke - inhale the present and exhale the past. — Cora Carmack

Like they were part of two different solar systems, neither revolving with or around the other, and both were just with each other for a passing moment. — Cora Carmack

I love her, and I love Mom, and I would do just about anything for them. But when you think stuff like that ... you think of grand, heroic gestures. Pushing someone out of the way of a moving vehicle. Standing between them and danger. Sacrificing something important. But it's not like that. Not at all. It's not one big moment, it's a thousand. It's every day. And you don't sacrifice just one important thing, you sacrifice a little more and a little more until you start to feel hollowed out. It's not the sacrifice that hurts so much as the thought that it will never end. That you're stuck in your fate, and nothing and no one can change it. You'll just keep giving and giving until you don't even know who you are. — Cora Carmack

He's right you know. I will pull you down with me."
I lift my chin and reply, "If I go down, it will be because I jumped, not because you made me fall. — Cora Carmack

And now suddenly there was this intensity to everything we did and everything we said. Like my life had been italicized. — Cora Carmack

If there's anything I learned with you, it's that one more day was never enough — Cora Carmack

I've spent too much time pretending, too much time on the outside, too much time feeling spineless. This time... I'm going after what I want. — Cora Carmack

Oh shit. Shit taking a shit on a shit. — Cora Carmack

Don't tell me your speechless, princess. — Cora Carmack

What nourishes me also destroys me — Cora Carmack

Close your eyes. Remember what we talked about that night after your concert? Living is hard. It was hard when you were thirteen, it's hard today, and it will be hard again in the future. So, you close your eyes and you breathe. Breathe with me. — Cora Carmack

Her eyes were a bottomless ocean that I would give up air to explore. — Cora Carmack

I fought back the tears that came with experiencing something as perfect and powerful as the performance I'd just had. That was what theatre was about - that kind of experience. We would never be able to recreate that again. Only the people here tonight would ever know what that show was like. Theater is once in a lifetime ... every time. — Cora Carmack

Apparently having emotions equated to having a vagina. — Cora Carmack

There are some things that are worth fighting for, no matter the outcome, and you are one of them. — Cora Carmack

Because Mateo Torres is loud, and I'm quiet. Because he's reckless, and I'm cautious. Because he belongs everywhere, and I don't.
Because I think I'm in danger of falling in love with him. — Cora Carmack

He looked at me, finally. I wanted to believe I saw softness in his eyes, but I could have imagined it. I did that all the time. All I had to do was close my eyes and I could see him reaching toward me, his lips millimeters from my own. But always ... always I opened my eyes and it wasn't real. — Cora Carmack

It's a quiet thing when your heart breaks. I thought it would be loud, ... I thought it would drown everything else out. But it happened like a whisper. A small, clean split. It broke in a second, and the pain was little more than a pinprick. It's the echo that kills you ... that tiny little sound kept bouncing around the cavern of my ribs, getting louder and louder. It multiplied until I heard a hundred hearts breaking, a thousand, more. All of them mine. — Cora Carmack