E. Lockhart Quotes & Sayings

I lie in my darkened room. Scavenger birds peck at the oozing matter that leaks from my crushed skull. — E. Lockhart

Our kiss was electric and soft,
and tentative and certain,
terrifying and exactly right.
I felt the love rush from me to Gat and from Gat to me.
We were warm and shivering,
and young and ancient,
and alive.
I was thinking, It's true. We already love each other.
We already do. — E. Lockhart

The problem is I can think whatever I think but I still feel the way I feel. — E. Lockhart

It is not mysterious to be home on a Saturday night, reading a novel in a pile of smelly golden retrievers. — E. Lockhart

These guys, they were so sure of their places in life
so deeply confident of their merit and their future
they didn't need any kind of front at all. — E. Lockhart

The song: Our youth is wasted We will not waste it Remember my name 'Cause we made history Na na na na, na na — E. Lockhart

Here is something I love about Gat: he is so enthusiastic, so relentlessly interested in the world, that he has trouble imagining the possibility that other people will be bored by what he's saying. Even when they tell him outright. But also, he doesn't like to let us off easy. He wants to make us think - even when we don't feel like thinking. — E. Lockhart

You would have been a light in the dark for so many people. — E. Lockhart

You are my girlfriend," whispered Matthew. " You're my girl and I'm your guy, and you're my girl and I'm your guy. Let's not fight." -pg 126 — E. Lockhart

You think Tide is better, or All?'
'Which has a prettier box?' I ask.
'I don't want a pretty box. I want a dude box.'
Uh-huh,' I deadpan. 'You want a dude box of laundry detergent.'
'Yes, I do.'
'Good luck with that. — E. Lockhart

We looked at the sky. So many stars, it seemed like a celebration, a grand, illicit party the galaxy was holding after the humans had been put to bed. — E. Lockhart

Now, he was free to go forth and make a name for himself in the wide, wide world.
And maybe,
just maybe,
he'd come back one day,
and burn that
fucking
palace
to the ground — E. Lockhart

Sometimes people are mean because they feel insecure about themselves. — E. Lockhart

We all know you went to India, — E. Lockhart

I don't know if there is a one for me. I think I might like variety. — E. Lockhart

But maybe I could be the wacky, unpredictable girl; the kind who always fascinates more conservative men in the movies. — E. Lockhart

I never got an explanation.
I just know he left me. — E. Lockhart

There is not even a Scrabble word for how bad I feel. — E. Lockhart

Also, I was living in the middle of my parents' marriage. No one ever says this about families, and maybe people who aren't only children don't even notice it, but half the time I feel like I'm this extra person watching them have a marriage. They fight, they kiss, they discuss the inlaws, they do projects, they take down the Christmas tree and reminisce about things I don't remember, they fight some more-and it's all this personal stuff that I really have no business witnessing, except I have nowhere else to go because I live here. I'm just trying to eat my dinner and instead I'm in the middle of this grown-up relationship that is complicated and disgustingly mushy and sometimes angry. — E. Lockhart

Just think before you complain about stuff other people would love to have. — E. Lockhart

I just-I don't want to get involved with you Jackson," I said, the words tumbling out. "You're a nice guy, but then, when it comes down to it-you're not, really. — E. Lockhart

They know that tragedy is not glamorous. They know it doesn't play out in life as it does on a stage or between the pages of a book. It is neither a punishment meted out nor a lesson conferred. Its horrors are not attributable to one single person. Tragedy is ugly and tangled, stupid and confusing. — E. Lockhart

Why is it a good idea for you and not a good idea for me? — E. Lockhart

The Sinclairs are athletic, tall, and handsome. We are old-money Democrats. Our smiles are wide, our chins square, and our tennis serves aggressive. — E. Lockhart

Now at the breakfast table, watching him eat my toast, "Don't take no for an answer" seemed like the attitude of a privileged guy who didn't care who got hurt, so long as his wife had the cute statues she wanted to display in her summer house. — E. Lockhart

My problem is I can think whatever I think - girl power, solidarity, Gloria Steinem rah rah rah - but I still feel the way I feel.
Which is jealous. And pissy about little things. — E. Lockhart

I seem to remember there was some hocus-pocus with that one."
"You mean hanky-panky!" shouted Ruth. "There was hanky panky. — E. Lockhart

Mirren took off her shoes and the rest of us followed. We tossed stones into the water. We just existed. — E. Lockhart

What a horrible death for those poor, dear, naughty dogs. — E. Lockhart

We shouldn't piss them off," explained Frankie, "because who knows what they'll do now that they've united. — E. Lockhart

Be a little kinder than you have to.
Never eat anything bigger than your ass
Do not accept an evil you can change
Always do what your afraid to do — E. Lockhart

Face it. There's not going to be a happy ending ... at least not with this hero. So don't go mooning around thinking that your breakup is only the crisis before the big romantic scene, because I'm here to tell you that it's not. When you are dumped, you are dumped, and the guy isn't going to change his mind and realize that suddenly he loves you instead of that girl he's flirting with in lunchroom, now that he's free. — E. Lockhart

It is true I do not suffer fools. I — E. Lockhart

Don't worry,' she told him. 'I am exceptionally good at keeping secrets.'
- Frankie Landau-Banks — E. Lockhart

I wanted so much for us: a life free of constriction and prejudice. A life free to love and be loved. — E. Lockhart

Don't take no for an answer. — E. Lockhart

She giggled in a goofy way when she was amused or embarrassed. She felt awkward around popular people, and couldn't figure out whether she was good-looking or freakishly ugly, because she often felt both within the space of an hour. — E. Lockhart

I wanted to touch him like he was a bunny, a kitten, something so special and soft your fingertips can't leave it alone. — E. Lockhart

I've never kissed anyone who talked so much about kissing," I told him.
Gideon laughed. "I like to be direct."
"Okay," I said. "But I warn you, I like to be evasive, inscrutable and generally send mixed messages. — E. Lockhart

I hate it when things are unfinished. — E. Lockhart

Someone is watching you. Or, someone is probably watching you. Or, you feel like someone's watching you. So you follow the rules whether someone's watching you or not. — E. Lockhart

She confused wit with intelligence, and made people laugh rather than lightening their hearts or making them think. — E. Lockhart

She made me act normal. Because I was. Because I could. She told me to breathe and sit up. And I did what she asked. Again. — E. Lockhart

Dances are generally more fun to think about and get ready for than they actually are when you get there. — E. Lockhart

Another thing that happens in the movies: They all have these dramatic crises where everything looks bleak and you think the couple will never, ever get back together. But then they realize they can't live without each other, and in the end they live happily ever after.
It's all a lie. When you hate someone you used to love, and you think he's done something awful-he probably has.
You're not going to love him again.
He's not going to apologize, or come back to you.
He probably doesn't even ever think about you at all, because he's too busy thinking about someone else. — E. Lockhart

There's something about seeing a guy's feelings written down, something about him taking that risk and committing that heart to paper, that means so much more than anything he could just say. — E. Lockhart

We are Sinclairs. Beautiful. Privileged. Damaged. Liar. We live, least in the summertime, on a private island off the coast of Massachusetts. Perhaps that is all you need to know. — E. Lockhart

His thumb rubbed the center of my palm. All my nerves concentrated there, alive to every movement of his skin on mine. — E. Lockhart

Or is that the nature of lust? It's like an urge that disregards all the stuff that your brain knows you actually think.
I wonder if guys feel like this all the time. Or maybe if everyone feels like this all the time - everyone besides me - and that's why people act like such half-wits. — E. Lockhart

He wasn't just Gat. He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee. All that was there, in the lids of his brown eyes, his smooth skin, his lower lip pushed out. There was coiled energy inside. — E. Lockhart

There will be all these fifty-year-old women wearing hot pants and squeezing themselves into pretzel shapes and then there will be me. Just reaching for my toes like they're China. 'Hello there! You're so far away, I can't get to you! Can you even hear me? — E. Lockhart

Frankie was beginning to realize that the kind of selective memory exhibited by Dean, Star, and their ilk was neither stupidity nor poor recollection. It was a power play - possibly subconscious on the part of the player - but nevertheless intended to discomfit another person who was in some way perceived as a threat. — E. Lockhart

I love him, but I am not sure I like him. — E. Lockhart

I do not suffer fools — E. Lockhart

Suffer. You could say it means endure, but that's not exactly right — E. Lockhart

When you hate someone you used to love, and you think he's done something awful - he probably has. — E. Lockhart

So she did not replay, but played the strategist. She retained more power by withholding an answer. — E. Lockhart

I flinch. "Don't feel sorry for me, okay? Not ever. It makes my skin crawl. — E. Lockhart

One day, she ventured to the palace library and was delighted to find what good company books could be. — E. Lockhart

She doesn't feel like crying anymore. — E. Lockhart

Why did you do all that, Frankie?" asked Porter. "I mean, it was brilliant, what you did, what you made us do - but why would you bother? That's what I can't figure out."
Frankie sighed. "Have you ever heard of the panopticon?" she asked him.
Porter shook his head.
"Have you ever been in love?"
He shook his head again.
"Then I can't explain it," Frankie said.
They went inside and took the geometry test. — E. Lockhart

I spun violently into the sky, raging and banging stars from their moorings, swirling and vomiting. — E. Lockhart

Things are messed up in the world, that's all. — E. Lockhart

Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you. — E. Lockhart

I am so angry. And so happy to see him. — E. Lockhart

I felt his eyes go over my body in my wet dress. — E. Lockhart

You have some balls.
Frankie hated that expression, ever since Zada had pointed out to her that it equates courage with the male equipment ... — E. Lockhart

In America, here is how we operate: We work for what we want, and we get ahead. We never take no for answer, and we deserve the rewards of our perseverance. — E. Lockhart

Better than chocolate, being with you last night. Silly me, I thought that nothing was better than chocolate. — E. Lockhart

We burned not a home, but a symbol.
We burned a symbol to the ground. — E. Lockhart

Being and Nothingness by Sartre. — E. Lockhart

I don't want to forget I'm trying to remember. — E. Lockhart

See the world as it is, not as you wish it would be — E. Lockhart

White Chocolate. Intense, sweet. But not deep. Okay for prom dates or flings, but not to get serious..Milk chocolates are guys you could date for like a few months, and dark chocolates are for love. — E. Lockhart

Shells. "I'm not going to supper at New Clairmont," says Mirren decisively. "And no breakfast, either. Not this year." "Why not?" I ask. "I can't take it," she says. "The aunts. The littles. Granddad. He's lost his mind, you know." I nod. "It's too much togetherness. I just want to be happy with you guys, down here," says Mirren. "I'm not hanging around in that cold new house. Those people are fine without me." "Same," says Johnny. — E. Lockhart

When there's a negative word or expression-immaculate, for example-but the positive is almost never used, and you choose to use it, you become rather amusing. Or pretentious. Or pretentiously amusing, which can sometimes be good. In any case, you are uncovering a buried word. — E. Lockhart

Always do what you're afraid to do. — E. Lockhart

It's good to be loved, even thought it will not last — E. Lockhart

In a profound, symbolic gesture, I am giving you this bar of Vosges I got when we went to Edgartown. You can eat it, or just sit next to it and feel superior. — E. Lockhart

I love the idea of the big life - the life that matters, the life that makes a difference. The life where stuff happens, where people take action. The opposite of the life where the girl can't even speak to the boy she likes; the opposite of the life where the friends aren't even good friends, and lots of days are wasted away feeling bored and kind of okay, like nothing matters much. — E. Lockhart

Okay, so I'm completely undignified. As soon as school got out, I ran up to Kim, Nora and Cricket on the quad and told them the news. They were completely surprised and excited: Cricket was even jumping up an down. "Shiv! Ag!" she yelled.
"He's fine," said Nora, giggling.
"Have you seen him in his rugby uniform? He has some serious legs," said Kim.
"How did it happen?" Cricket wanted to know.
I told all.
They wanted to know more.
"What did it feel like?"
Electricity. — E. Lockhart

No matter how puny your frontal equipment, don't wear the kind with the giant pads inside. If a guy squeezes them, he will wonder why they feel like Nerf balls instead of boobs. — E. Lockhart

It's just a house. Lots of houses seem scary at night, but in the morning, they are friendly again. — E. Lockhart

He cried like a man,not like a boy.Not like he was frustrated or hadn't gotten his way,but like life was bitter.Like his wounds couldn't be healed. — E. Lockhart

She makes the world seem shiny and sunlit.
-Noel — E. Lockhart

Why do you hate yourself?"
And before I know it, Gat is lying on the bed next to me. His cold fingers wrap around my hot ones, and his face is close to mine. He kisses me. "Because I want things I can't have," he whispers. — E. Lockhart

By now, you know everything about Jackson Clarke, probably way more than anyone on earth wants to hear. This is all I have to add:

I still think about him every day.
When I see him, my heart jumps up in my chest.
I long for him to talk to me, and whenever he even says hello, I feel a thousand times worse than I did before.
I wish he was dead.
I wish he still liked me. — E. Lockhart

I tore all the roses off a single sad bush and threw them, one after the other, into the angry sea. — E. Lockhart

I say, thirteen is too many dogs for good mental health. Five is pretty much the limit. More than five dogs and you forfeit your right to call yourself entirely sane.
Even if the dogs are small. — E. Lockhart

She wasn't a person who needed to be liked so much as she was a person who liked to be notorious. — E. Lockhart

She will not be simple and sweet.
She will not be what people tell her she should be. — E. Lockhart

Granddad's voice boomed across the yard. "This is the United States of America," he said. "You don't seem to understand that, Penny, so let me explain. In America, here is how we operate: We work for what we want, and we get ahead. We never take no for answer, and we deserve the rewards of our perseverance. Will, Taft, are you listening? — E. Lockhart

But if I am a criminal, am I, then, an addict? Am I, then, a failure? — E. Lockhart

His skin is warm and sandy.We intertwine our fingers and close our eyes against the sun.
We just lie there.Holding hands.He rubs my palm with his thumb like he did two summers ago beneath the stars.
And I melt. — E. Lockhart

It is good to be loved, even though it will not last. — E. Lockhart

If you don't want to be in an argument with someone, it is probably best to try to solve the problem, rather than lying around hoping the other person will do it for you. — E. Lockhart

They planned to know one another when they were ancient and gray-when we're doddering around with canes and have forgotten the names of our wives, we will still be Bassets,and still be young in our hearts. — E. Lockhart

Sex Ed - when I finally got to take it - was all about biology and birth control and nothing about anything that actually goes on between people. — E. Lockhart

I like to be direct." "Okay," I said. "But I warn you, I like to be evasive, inserutable and generally send mixed messages." "I doubt it." "Human interaction is not my strong point," I told him. — E. Lockhart

I had lost my dad. I had come here to this island from a house of tears and falsehood and I saw Gat, and I saw that rose in his hand, and in that one moment, with the sunlight from the window shining in on him, the apples on the kitchen counter, the smell of wood and ocean in the air, I did call it love. — E. Lockhart