Emily Henry Quotes & Sayings

There is always more to see and feel — Emily Henry

Beau, what is it you want?"
"A porch," he says softly. He says it like it's my name, and right then, I think, what both of us want more than anything is something we can never have. "All I really want is to build a house with a nice, big porch that gets used every day. — Emily Henry

Growing up is going to hurt. Only you can decide if the pain is worth the love. — Emily Henry

The way to make the best decisions is to listen to all the stories and to know them by heart and to feel them in your bones — Emily Henry

Letting go is not forgetting. It's opening your eyes to the good that grew from the bad, the life that blooms from decay. — Emily Henry

(W)rite the things you have the most to say about and the things you're afraid of messing up. — Emily Henry

I hear him in the creak and groan of the floorboards as the summer nights stretch them, can visualize him sitting at the foot of my bed, saying, Other houses have support beams and foundations. Ours has bones and a heartbeat. I — Emily Henry

Grief is an unfillable hole in your body. It should be weightless, but it's heavy. Should be cold, but it burns. Should, over time, close up, but instead it deepens. — Emily Henry

Maybe you are Saul's quarter-life crisis, but so what? Maybe he's yours. Or maybe you two are the luckiest people in the world and you've just found your fireworks-in-the-sky, holding-hands-until-you-die Forever Person. Guess what? There are drawbacks either way.
Maybe you break up and it sucks, but then you heal and move on and fall in love again. Or maybe this is it, the last person you'll ever have butterflies for, your last first kiss, but you get to grow up together, start your life together sooner. And you know what else? You don't have to be afraid to walk away either way... — Emily Henry

He wants to have your glorious, blue-eyed babies," I whisper.
"So as long as no one tells him he doesn't have a uterus, I have a chance?" she murmurs back. — Emily Henry

And when you see those good things--and I promise you, there are so many good things--they're going to be so much brighter for you than they are for other people, just like the abyss always seems deeper and bigger when you stare at it. If you stick it out, it's all going to feel worth it in the end. Every moment you live, every darkness you face, they'll all feel worth it when you're staring light in the face. — Emily Henry

Mom would hate it if she knew I told Coco this stuff. She'd hate it, and she wouldn't even admit that to me, because she'd be too worried about making me uncomfortable or ashamed. She's like a silverware divider with a conscience, trying to keep us all separate and safe without making the forks feel bad about not being spoons or the spoons feel worried that the forks shouldn't be so poky. — Emily Henry

I sometimes think I wouldn't feel so lost if she didn't try so hard to make me feel okay about looking for myself — Emily Henry

The world is going to keep right on being beautiful and terrible all at once — Emily Henry

Love is giving the world away, and being loved is having the whole world to give. — Emily Henry

There are certain people you can just be silent with - like Dad, and Megan - and it's every bit as good as a long heart-to-heart. — Emily Henry

If you want the good, you can't give up. — Emily Henry

Funny thing about belonging to two worlds: Sometimes you feel like you belong in zero. — Emily Henry

God is a thing I think I see in glimmers all over: an enormous and vague warmth I sometimes catch pulsing around me, giving me shivers and making tears prick my eyes; a mysterious and limitless Thing threaded through all the world and refusing to be reduced to a name or a set of rules and instead winding itself through millions of stories, true and made up, connecting all breathing things. And — Emily Henry

And that's when I'm lost, and in my place, the world gets born. — Emily Henry

I twist my fingers through his hair, press my lips to his cheek. The words tangle in my throat, being born and dying a thousand times. I love you. — Emily Henry

For a moment we're both silent, staring. I wonder if either of us really sees the other clearly anymore or if we stuck looking at the frozen images of who we used to be. — Emily Henry

The voice came again. "Stop. Set down Death's knife. I've seen your heart and that you withhold nothing for yourself. You know my face. You recognize my love for you, as you know your own for the ghost boy. You know what you would do for him, and so you understand now that, for you, my beloved, I would fix the whole world. — Emily Henry

There's nothing scarier than hearing someone you love cry, except imagining a world where that sound stops. Suddenly I can't breathe. Can't be here. There's nothing scarier than loving someone. — Emily Henry

When I was your age, I knew nothing. Nothing about myself, nothing about the universe or about heartbreak. I remember being terrified to grow up, afraid of losing my friends, sure I'd lose my mind. Life felt like a blender that wanted to eat me. — Emily Henry

Thresholds are more than randomly chosen divisions between rooms. They're places where change -- transformation -- happens. — Emily Henry

Being around people is exhausting. Being around Beau is like a really good version of being alone, as easy but more fun. — Emily Henry

Sometimes the whole world feels like that horse to me, I say aloud. Does that make sense? Like everyone's just groaning & screaming through the pain, hoping something better comes out. — Emily Henry

I promise you. I promise you the stars. I promise you the lake and falls, coywolves and robins. I promise earth and heaven: I will love you long after the last human has taken his last breath. When the stars burn out and the oceans freeze over and the whole world is ash and dust and ice, our names will still be carved into this tree of life, side by side, and I'll still be loving you. — Emily Henry

...I'd realized how much I'd always love someone at the same moment I realized that person and I might never fit together again. — Emily Henry

I wonder what that must feel like, to know that for sure. This is home. — Emily Henry

No story is truer than any other story that has the truth in its heart — Emily Henry

And because she jumped, our world began — Emily Henry

It wouldn't matter," he says. "If we were in the same world, the one where Kincaid was in love with you, I'd still be here. If you wanted me, I'd be here."

"Why?" I ask.

He hides a grin and runs his thumb over my lips. "I'm not sure the world and me are as complicated as you think, Natalie. I didn't mean to choose you or anything. I just know if I only get to build one porch in my life, I'd like it to be yours, and if there's one person I never have to hurt or disappoint, I'd want that to be you too. — Emily Henry

Just because you don't know what you want yet, it doesn't mean that there's nothing to want. — Emily Henry

Maybe for some people, falling in love is an explosion, fireworks against a black sky and tremors rumbling through the earth. One blazing moment. For me, it's been happening for months, as quietly as a seed sprouting. Love sneaked through me, spreading roots around my heart, until, in the blink of an eye, the green of it broke the dirt: hidden one moment, there the next. — Emily Henry

Miss you so much it hurts.

Seconds later, she texts back, The feeling is mushrooms,followed by a second text reading, Yes, autocorrect, I meant to say mushrooms, not mutual. Good catch.

Life without you does feel a little bit like fungus, I reply. But definitely less tasty. — Emily Henry

Personal style is my mom, after some red wine, walking like she intends to restore order and beauty to the world with her posture alone. — Emily Henry

And then one day, our parents look at us and notice we're whole people. We're not a part of them anymore, even if they're a part of us. And for the ones who never really wanted to be parents anyway, that's probably a relief. — Emily Henry

You don't have to be afraid to walk away because... there's no expiration date on soul-love. — Emily Henry

Sometimes you change your mind about a person. Or your feelings for them change, or they change, or, I don't know, you just want to make a different decision. And that's always okay. You don't owe anyone anything. — Emily Henry

So tell me, okay? Tell me what you need, and tell me every single time you need it, and I'll be there. — Emily Henry

And sometimes, we don't talk about things because we don't want to be comforted. We don't want anyone to tell us it wasn't our fault, or that they forgive us, or that we did the best we could. We want to hold on to that pain because we think that's what we deserve. We worry that if we let it go, we're dishonoring it. — Emily Henry

I don't love Beau yet, I don't think. But being with him feels like a better version of being alone, and in that way, I think we are each other's. — Emily Henry

I'm getting my things for class when I feel a pair of hands slide down around my eyes.
"Guess Who."
"Harry Styles?"
"So close it's insane."
"Okay, give me a clue."
"I'm one of your biggest fans."
"I'm having a hard time, because the only thing that's coming to mind other than Harry Styles is the ghost of River Phoenix, and I wouldn't be able to feel his hands. — Emily Henry

The song is sad, heartbreaking even, and I'm overcome with frustration that I don't have a better word to describe it. It occurs to me then that Grandmother would. She'd have a whole story that would sound exactly like this song. — Emily Henry

Being with him feels like a better version of being alone. — Emily Henry

I told you so you'd see how this whole world was made for you, how it warms when you smile and aches when you hurt. I told you so you could stop being afraid. — Emily Henry

No matter how hard it feels, you don't need to be afraid to move on, and you don't need to be afraid to stay either. There's always more to see and feel. — Emily Henry

We may be different, but in this moment we're feeling the exact same thing: the sad kind of bliss where you realize, suddenly, how perfect your life really has been all along. So perfect it hurts, and you could let yourself weep if you wanted. So perfect that even though everything you know is ending, you truly believe life will continue to be beautiful, even - or maybe especially - in those pure moments of loss. — Emily Henry

Just seems like all parents start out thinking their kids are part of them, another mouth they've gotta make sure eats, another body they've got to get dressed. And then one day, our parents look at us and notice we're whole people. We're not a part of them anymore, even if they're a part of us. And for the ones who never really wanted to be parents anyway, that's probably a relief. But for a mom like yours - I don't know, she must've been sad when she realized your life was gonna be different then hers. She must've been scared when she realized she wasn't gonna be able to protect you, and that you were gonna deal with things she never did. — Emily Henry

God is a thing I know when I see, and I see It all over, in Megan, in the night sky and the morning sun, and especially in Grandmother. — Emily Henry

You're a beautiful and wonderful and sensual and strong golden fawn, she says, followed by That was supposed to say "my best friend," but my phone... — Emily Henry

Judging a story by the ending alone, or life by its death alone, is as pointless as judging a long hike through the mountains by the fact that when you get back to where you parked your car, there's a pit toilet full of you know what and beer cans. — Emily Henry

Dance used to do that for me too: a place where there was nothing to do but be me and let everything else fall away. For a lot of the girls on the team, it was all about the performance, but for me, I think it was always about communication. — Emily Henry

Recognizing someone as a part of you before they've even become that person in your life, and knowing, without a doubt, that neither of you will ever be who are you in this exact moment ever again and believing, against all odds, you will continue to belong to one another despite that. — Emily Henry

Honey, you're a smart kid, and you're sensitive too. That's not a bad thing, but it is a hard thing. For you, the dark's going to feel a whole lot darker, and you won't be able to hide from it. But I want you to listen to me. Listen good. You don't know everything, not yet you don't. And when you see those good things-and I promise you, there are so many good things-they're going to be so much brighter for you than they are for other people, just like the abyss seems deeper and bigger when you stare at it. — Emily Henry

Why did they have to sacrifice anything?"
"It was a symbol," Grandmother explains. "Of an innocent dying on behalf of someone else - the greatest act of love. A choice to die so someone else doesn't have to. — Emily Henry

It's true that nothing has the potential to hurt so much as loving someone, but nothing heals like it either. — Emily Henry

Rachel," I snap, "I don't care if Janelle wants to work at Hooters. I don't care if you and the rest of the world want to go spend your money on dried-out chicken and ketchup-based sauces. And least of all - less than almost anything else I can imagine - I don't care how much sex your sister is or isn't having. That's kind of the deal with the whole uptight feminazi thing - we don't care when other women want to wear stupid orange Soffe shorts with white tennis shoes and have a lot of sex, or when they want to wear habits and live in a convent, or if they want to walk around in pasties and never French kiss, so long as they're allowed to do what they want. And right now, all I want is to go to bed. Okay? — Emily Henry

She may be a bitch, but she's a genuine bitch with a heart — Emily Henry

Sometimes the most beautiful moments in our lives are things that hurt badly at the time. We only see them for what they really were when we stand at the very end and look back. — Emily Henry

Maybe we can stay in denial together forever?' I suggest.
...
'No, I mean, maybe there's a town called Denial, and we can literally move there and forget about college. — Emily Henry