Diana Peterfreund Quotes & Sayings

We've known each other for a while," I said. "And our feelings just ... blossomed."
"Like fungus off rotted meat?" Josh snarked. — Diana Peterfreund

Do you know what you need?" Malcolm was saying now.
To get laid, I thought.
"To get laid," Malcolm said.
Shocker. — Diana Peterfreund

I found the hum of his computer rather soothing, but it was the complete lack of unicorn carcasses that really pulled the room together. — Diana Peterfreund

How did anyone see the stars and not wish for more than the confinement they were born to? — Diana Peterfreund

I said go away!"
"No, you said 'get out'. I'm out."
"Now go away."
Silence. And then, "No. — Diana Peterfreund

Three syllables and three thousand memories. — Diana Peterfreund

I don't do drugs, I've never been arrested, and from what I hear, I'm not too shabby in bed. Not that any of you people will ever have the opportunity to discover that first-hand! — Diana Peterfreund

She knows your mother isn't here to protect you any more. But you know what the solution is: stay out of her way. Stay here. Stay with me. — Diana Peterfreund

I'd hoped being tapped meant they were willing to listen to someone like me. Apparently, what it really meant is that they hoped they could make someone like me listen to them. — Diana Peterfreund

I was afraid I sounded a bit comical with all my threats. As if I needed a mustache to twirl like some sort of ancient villain. — Diana Peterfreund

Unicorns are man-eating monsters. They don't have wings, they aren't lavender or sparkly, and you could never catch one to ride without its goring you through the sternum. And even if it somehow managed to miss your major arteries-and it never misses-you'd still die from the deadly poison in its horn. — Diana Peterfreund

Pleasanter surprise," he managed, backing us away from the threshold. There's the idea. I pushed him gently against the wall and started tugging on his shirt.
"About to get even pleasanter," I murmured against his neck as my fingers found the drawstring of his pants.Bad grammar is such a turn- on. — Diana Peterfreund

The last time I had sex," I said, "was Halloween."
He nodded slowly. "That was my birthday."
I choked on my waffle. This was getting worse and worse. "No!"
"Why do you think they called me 'Poe'?" I had always guessed it was because he was morose and taciturn and creepy.
"Um ... because 'Hotstuff' was taken? — Diana Peterfreund

There was that word again.Mature. Was this what maturity was? Giving up on the things we wanted because we knew we'd never get them? — Diana Peterfreund

We can only be responsible for what we ourselves do. — Diana Peterfreund

Sometimes bad things happen when you try to do something good. — Diana Peterfreund

Come with me, Elliot. I have wanted to ask you for weeks, but I have waited, out of fear and doubt and the belief that it's nothing but my own selfishness that wants you with me. I wrestled with this, and chance after chance passed me by. I can't afford to lose this one.
Please accept. This time, please accept.
And please believe that no matter what, I am, ever,
Your
Kai — Diana Peterfreund

No one is innocent in the tide of history. Everyone has kings and slaves in his past. Everyone has saints and sinners. We are not to blame for the actions of our ancestors. We can only try to be the best we can, no matter what our heritage, to strive for a better future for all. — Diana Peterfreund

Love was magma, shooting from the Earth. It had the potential to form pillars of rock that would last for a thousand years or plumes of ash that choked the sky. — Diana Peterfreund

I want to take their money and let them build their ship and get off my land. That's all I want."
"Good to know," said a voice above her head.
Elliot and Dee looked up, and there, shadowed against the light from the swinging sun-lamps, stood Kai. — Diana Peterfreund

Around this time, I decided to go back to the bathroom and, oh, I don't know, wash my hands, brush my hair, maybe pluck my eyebrows.
Stuff. — Diana Peterfreund

Ti voglio bene ... It means everything. It means I love you. It means I want you. It means I want you to be okay. It means everything. — Diana Peterfreund

There's nothing wrong with Plan B.Play it right, and no one will even know it wasn't your first choice. — Diana Peterfreund

See, Jace never learned how to flirt properly, because he was raised by a murderous sociopath. — Diana Peterfreund

Remember the Russians! — Diana Peterfreund

Poe was standing on the border of the clearing, acting most peculiarly. He took a few steps toward the cabin, the paused, shook his head, and marched back out. He repeated the move a few times before stomping off for good.
I stood at the window, confused as hell. Why in the wild ... and then it hit me, way, way harder than the water when I'd fallen off the boat.
Poe liked me. — Diana Peterfreund

Brandon was a natural at whatever he put his mind to. It was one of the things that made him so attractive. That and his complete lack of pretense. He was brilliant, but didn't brag, popular, but not cliquish, comfortable in his skin, and utterly forthright about his needs and desires. — Diana Peterfreund

There are a few things that even sarcasm can't protect you from. — Diana Peterfreund

Kai held firm to her with one hand, and pointed up with the other. 'I can see them, Elliot. I can see them all. In the night, in the day, through clouds and storms and the setting sun.'
She stared at him in wonder. This was his miracle, and he was sharing it with her. 'Thank you,' she said, 'for coming back for me.'
'Elliot.' He bent his head close to hers, and looked deep into her eyes. His gaze was no longer strange to her. He was just her Kai, the man he'd been born to become. 'No matter where I went, I always knew my way back to you. You are my compass star.'
And he was hers. — Diana Peterfreund

It's always a better choice to write a new book than it is to keep pounding your head against the submissions wall with a book that's just not happening. The next book you write could be the book, the one that isn't a fight to get representation for at all. — Diana Peterfreund

When people have guns, you run in the other direction or you're meat. We have a half-dozen deer heads on the wall at home that can tell you that."
"Or would," Howard added," if they weren't dead. And deer. — Diana Peterfreund

Dear Elliot,
I know. When will I see you again?
Yours,
Kai — Diana Peterfreund

I really wish your boyfriend would stay out of my love life."
"Funny. I bet Felicity wishes her boyfriend would stay out of it, too. — Diana Peterfreund

If you can stand on your own, it's better that you walk back rather than making someone from the fleet take you." Elliot rose, then swallowed the bile she tasted in her throat. "I have stood on my own for many years." He didn't look away this time, and his eyes were like a stranger's. "You're not the only one. — Diana Peterfreund

The tiniest of earthquakes seemed to rustle through him, the kind that shakes petals off flowers, as Justen became aware of the gulf between what he was supposed to feel for Persis Blake and what he actually did. — Diana Peterfreund

I have only this cave to call my own. — Diana Peterfreund

For four years she'd subsisted on memories of this - his voice, his face, the sound of his breath and his heartbeat. She felt him like a leaf feels the sun, like a magnet feels metal. — Diana Peterfreund

I can't pretend this isn't important. I can't act like it doesn't exist. It's ironic, but true. There are a lot of things I'm really good at keeping secret. But I've learned I'm not too good at that with you. I can't pull it off. I don't want to just hook up. I don't want a secret relationship."
"Well, that's a relief," I said, grabbing for both of his hands and holding on for dear life.
Doubt started giving way to recognition, but he needed to hear it. "Why's that?"
"Because I'm really sick of secrets. — Diana Peterfreund

He hesitated. "Nothing, man. What are you doing right now?"
I looked down. "Petting my snake."
Malcolm laughed. "With anyone else, that would be a metaphor. Good thing I can always count on you. — Diana Peterfreund

The real stars don't even fascinate me as much as they used to when I was ... younger."
"I'm sorry for that, as well. — Diana Peterfreund

Beer is fine," I said.
"For now." Adam waited as I put in my order. "You'll need something stiffer after Mike really starts getting to you."
"Oh, he's getting to me," I said, as the bartender brought my beer. "Usually, I drink Sprite. — Diana Peterfreund

One never notices how nice it is to be worshipped until one has fallen from grace, — Diana Peterfreund

There was Malcolm in the front row, his hand resting on the shoulder of the knight I knew as Poe. I looked at the list of names beneath the photo.
-James Orcutt.
What a ridiculously normal name. I'd half been expecting Darth Vader — Diana Peterfreund

I think it's vital that we do not sleep together. You know, for the safety of the world." His eyes sparkled and there was just a hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth.
"Okay," I said, and smiled back at him. "But kissing is allowed, right?"
"Oh, definitely," he said, pulling me close. "After all, the warrior always wins the heart of the fair young ... man. — Diana Peterfreund

How much of her life had she spent waiting? Waiting for a plant to sprout? Waiting for her father's judgment? Waiting for another letter
to appear in the knothole from Kai? Waiting for years after Kai left to feel at peace with her decision? She fed the Reduced, she did her chores, she avoided her father and her sister, and she waited.She did the duties she'd been taught as a Luddite, and she lied with every breath. — Diana Peterfreund

Hey, Mom and Dad, this is my "friend" Jamie. My boyfriend Jamie. We're going to England together. Also, I met him in a secret society. We're Diggers,folks. And Eli graduates. And in love.What do you think? — Diana Peterfreund

And put myself in the hands of total strangers?"
She snapped the lid shut, "What do you take me for? Of course I checked out their stories. I am a researcher, you know. They are who they say they are, and their stories are verifiable. You have nothing to fear. I wouldn't put my daughter in any danger."
"Any danger!" I cried. "what do you call hunting unicorns? Big, sharp horns; fangs ... " And those were just the goat-sized ones.
"I call it your birthright." Lilith stood tall. "Honey, I know you've been down ever since that stupid boy broke up with you but this is about more than a prom date. Don't you realize that? You have a destiny. Most people would kill for something like that."
If Lilith and this Cornelius guy had their way with me at this boot camp, I was going to kill. — Diana Peterfreund

The world changes. Now, one needs no army and no sword to conquer the world. — Diana Peterfreund

She lifter the shade and bathed the room in silver. Moonlight glinted off the glass and metal instruments on her desk and vanished into the eaves. Moonlight skimmed over her floorboards and made Nero's eyes a shimmering green. It wasn't enough to work by. It wasn't enough to read by. But who needed to read? She knew them by heart. — Diana Peterfreund

True hunger was a weapon stronger
than any of his abstract desires. It's what toppled countries and made men desperate. — Diana Peterfreund

Does P-Jamie ... like me?"
Malcolm blinked. This was clearly not the kind of dirt he'd been expecting.
"I mean,like me, like me." I clarified quickly.
"What are you? Twelve?" he asked, incredulous.
"You aren't supposed to make fun of me!" I scolded.
"You never said you were going to act like a teenybopper. That's a special circumstance. Any judge would agree."
"Fine." I started to rise. "Like I said, forget I asked."
"Wait, Amy. Sit down," he said with a sigh. Malcolm was leaning his fits against the wood, staring down at his knuckles.
I sat. "What?"
He didn't look up. "This is all just between us, right?"
"Yeah."
"I wouldn't say he likes you."
"Oh." Oh. Of course not. How stupid of me. How ridiculous, really-
"He's pretty much in love with you. — Diana Peterfreund

It's the underlying inequality. Someone is always the one who loves more, and it eventually drives the other - the less loving one - away. Just the pressure of it. — Diana Peterfreund

In every letter, in every line, she saw him. He hadn't changed - he'd only grown into the man he'd meant to be. — Diana Peterfreund

Elliot folded her hands in her lap as Felicia entered the building. She figured Kai would follow, but he remained still, standing over her like a guard. His shadow fell across her lap, and she traced its edges with her hands. The places he's touched her - her torso, her chest, her elbow - still tingled. His words echoed in her ears. He hadn't spoken a word to her directly since that night in the barn. She soaked up every syllable like it was rain on parched soil.
"You're all right"
"Careful"
"Can you stand on your own? — Diana Peterfreund

Kai whirled around and his face was sadowed by the angle of the sun. Still, she knew his tone. Anger. "What's so funny? That our project has been set back several says? That we're stuck here longer? That you take a little spill from a horse and everyone wants to rearrange the world so you don't suffer a moment of inconvenience?"
"No," she said, and her voice was even. "That I would wait a month in agony just to hear you insult me. I'm a miserable girl indeed, don't you think? — Diana Peterfreund

You should know that you're exactly the person you think you are.
Elliot turned away as the tear escaped. That's what she was afraid of. — Diana Peterfreund

I hadn't gone to Andover, or Horace Mann or Eton. My high school had been the average kind, and I'd been the best student there. Such was not the case at Eli. Here, I was surrounded by geniuses. I'd figured out early in my college career that there were people like Jenny and Brandon and Lydia and Josh - truly brilliant, truly luminous, whose names would appear in history books that my children and grandchildren would read, and there were people like George and Odile - who through beauty and charm and personality would make the cult of celebrity their own. And then there were people like me. People who, through the arbitrary wisdom of the admissions office, might share space with the big shots for four years, might be their friends, their confidantes, their associates, their lovers - but would live a life well below the global radar. I knew it, and over the years, I'd come to accept it.
And I understood that it didn't make them any better than me. — Diana Peterfreund

She still loved the man who called himself Malakai Wentforth. She knew that. But that didn't matter, just as it hadn't mattered four years ago. Then, she'd chosen to stay behind. But it didn't mean she wasn't curious. It didn't mean she didn't want to stand at the edge of the cliffs and stretch her face out toward the sea, toward a world she'd never be allowed to know. — Diana Peterfreund

It was amazing, all the thoughts that oozed out as soon as a single crack appeared in the surface of your beliefs. — Diana Peterfreund

You know Case, who oversees the dairy? He saw us together in the loft last week. He says I'm the biggest fool who ever lived. I don't think he's right. But, just to be safe, I'll put out the lamp. We'll pretend we're the ancient explorers, and find our way by the stars.
Yours,
Kai — Diana Peterfreund

So, fill me in, what's been going on here?"
"All kinds of scandal," Clarissa said. "Amy almost drowned, Demetria is going to beat up a patriarch's wife, our room was trashed by conspiracy theorists, Dragon's Head broke into the tomb in Connecticut, and Jenny has a crush on Harun."
"Do not!" Jenny said.
"In other words," said Demetria. "The usual."
Odile laughed. "Man, I love this society. — Diana Peterfreund

She knew that the paint and the clothes and the hair were more than fashion for Persis Blake. They were armor. — Diana Peterfreund

Why the coy drama? I want him and he wants me; who needs subtext? — Diana Peterfreund

I briefly considered giving the Myerson kids the same lecture I'd given the other first graders on the playground:
Unicorns are man-eating monsters. They don't have wings, they aren't lavender or sparkly, and you could never catch one to ride without its goring you through the sternum. And even if it somehow managed to miss your major arteries - and it never missed - you'd still die from the deadly poison in its horn. But don't worry. My great-great-great-great-great-great-aunt Clothilde killed the last one a hundred and fifty years ago.
Except now I guessed it would be more like a hundred and sixty. How time doth fly in a unicorn-free world. — Diana Peterfreund

When we have the ability to save someone's life, and we decide they aren't worthy of being saved - isn't that playing God as well? — Diana Peterfreund

Soze shook his head. "If someone checks our Internet search records, don't you think it will look suspicious that before we called the police, we checked up on the evidence?"
Poe laughed mirthlessly. "We're Rose & Grave, junior. Everything we do looks suspicious. — Diana Peterfreund

She could smell the sea in the air, but more than that, she could smell the scent of the grass as it awoke from its winter slumber. She could hear the sound of crickets as they sang to the emerging stars. It was springtime on the North Island. It was springtime for the world. — Diana Peterfreund

Envy hurt exponentially more than heartbreak because your soul was torn in two, half soaring with happiness for another person, half mired in a well of selfpity
and pain. — Diana Peterfreund

You want to know what's even more troublesome?" I scooted up. "Our real names rhyme."
He chuckled. "Yeah, they do. I never thought of that. — Diana Peterfreund

We all deserve to live in a world where our rights aren't violated at the whim of our leaders. It doesn't matter if our leaders are kings and queens, or the people who claim to save us from them. — Diana Peterfreund

Topher? Dude, how many oaths did this kid plan to break in his first month as a Digger?Who did he think he was?Me? — Diana Peterfreund

Look at us. You look like death, my friend, and I'm sure I do, too. We'll never stop blaming ourselves. I guess that's the price of love? — Diana Peterfreund

P - Jamie!" I called.
He waded back toward me. "I'm starting to think my name is Pajamie."
"Your name should be Pajerky. You said it wasn't deep."
"Pajerky?" He gave me a skeptical look. "That's Pathetic."
"We'll see how smug you are once I'm on dry land. — Diana Peterfreund

I mean being a knight," she said."Was it worth it?"
The drama, the heartache, the stress? The friendships, the conspiracies, the pranks, the bonding ... Was it worth it?Oh, yeah.But then her words sunk in. Was. Past tense. For I was no longer an active knight of Rose & Grave.I was a patriarch. — Diana Peterfreund

Because I can tell that I'm different from the others. And they can tell, too. The rest of the taps look at me and ask themselves what I'm doing here. I know they do. — Diana Peterfreund

The key to a frittata," Mike told the camera, "is to use a really hot pan. Because that, my friends, is what makes it" - he paused dramatically - "fluffy. — Diana Peterfreund

Gordian pays you to sleep with unicorn hunters. That's the definition of a whore. — Diana Peterfreund

This whole time, I wasn't waiting for something in particular.
Just someone who wanted me.
Not sex.
But me. — Diana Peterfreund

Maybe she's helping him because his hands are full," Lydia suggested.
The girl kissed a trace of chocolate from the corner of his mouth.
"Or not. — Diana Peterfreund

I have a question for you, but it's kind of ... um, personal."
"Yes, I'm gay."
"You really are a fan of saying that, aren't you?"
"Once you start, you just can't stop. — Diana Peterfreund

For Darkness Shows the Stars is a breath-taking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know who can break it. — Diana Peterfreund

It's not a boys" club," I said. Not anymore. "It's one of the most powerful secret societies in the world." I should know. I'm a member. — Diana Peterfreund

My best friend, a liar. My society brothers, my lover, and now my best friend. Any second now, my parents would call and tell me they were actually space aliens. Or European royalty. Or Republicans. — Diana Peterfreund

You should know you're exactly the person you think you are. — Diana Peterfreund

She was nothing like me; she was everything like me. How was that even possible? — Diana Peterfreund

That wonderful, terrible night when her mother died and her whole world had been destroyed, when she realized she loved Kai and her whole world had been created anew. — Diana Peterfreund

Sometimes it's only the young ones who are crazy enough to change the world. — Diana Peterfreund

Ancestors who had held themselves higher than God, and had been brought lower than man. — Diana Peterfreund

And if the boat sinks?"
"And if the sun explodes?" Elliot countered. — Diana Peterfreund

You would say that, Malakai. You've loved one all your life. — Diana Peterfreund

Good riddance. After all, it's not as if the jerk had done me any favors recently. Well, he'd washed my clothes and bought me two breakfasts (like a Hobbit). There was that. But he'd also dragged me into a Battle of the Sexes that should have been over and done with a good thirty years ago, all because he needed a warm body to fill a slot. — Diana Peterfreund

The old poems said that lovers were made for each other. But that wasn't true for Kai and Elliot. They hadn't been made for each other at all - quite the opposite. But they'd grown together, the two of them, until they were like two trees from a single trunk, stronger together than either could have been alone. — Diana Peterfreund

If they didn't take you seriously, they would never see you coming. — Diana Peterfreund

Amazing how being bathed in arterial blood can wash out any lingering romantic disappointments. — Diana Peterfreund

Dear Kai,
Come back. Come back for me. I didn't mean it. I've changed my mind. I can't bear this, Kai. I can't bear this farm, this life, this world without you. — Diana Peterfreund

Hey," he pulled away and put his hand on my face. "What are you thinking about?"
"Your butt," I admitted. — Diana Peterfreund

Do you ... want to grab a slice of pizza or something?" I blurted out.
He hesitated. "You want to be seen in public with ... " a microsecond pause, " ... your face looking like that?" I cocked my head to the side.
"The real question is, do you want to be seen in public with a face like this?"
"I'd consider it." He stood, his expression still wary. — Diana Peterfreund

No matter where I went, I always knew my way back to you. You are my compass star. — Diana Peterfreund

Sometimes you met someone that changed the pattern, who wormed their way past the cracks in your heart, caulked them up, sealed themselves in, and stayed there. Sometimes they did it by insisting you meet them at every step, as Jamie had done to me. — Diana Peterfreund

I don't need to see the trail to know you're at the end of it. My grandfather's compass may not work, but mine is still true. — Diana Peterfreund