Jennifer E. Smith Quotes & Sayings

It can't be epic if there's no challenge to it. — Jennifer E. Smith

Ellie looked over at him, and her stomach fluttered. They'd only just found each other again. And for the first time in a long time, there was still so much to say. — Jennifer E. Smith

When there was nothing but space between you, everything felt like a leap. — Jennifer E. Smith

Wait till next year. I know some people might find this depressing, and are understandable impatient for next year to finally come, but I think there's something sweetly hopeful in it. It's comforting in a way, believing that no matter what happens now, the best is still yet to come. — Jennifer E. Smith

Something like that, he said, his eyes shining, and she realized just how much there was she didn't know about him. He was like one of her novels, still unfinished and best understood in the right place and at the right time. She couldn't wait to read the rest. — Jennifer E. Smith

Well, I guess we all can't have epic loves at such a young age. — Jennifer E. Smith

I might not say it, but I obviously show you how I feel," she says. "Why do the words have to be so important?"

"They just are," he says, standing up and brushing off the back of his jeans. "Not because you're saying them, but because you're not. — Jennifer E. Smith

As if it were far easier to start over completely than to try to put everything back together again. — Jennifer E. Smith

There was something intoxicating in the anonymity of it all. — Jennifer E. Smith

And when the time finally comes to say good-bye, she'll swallow hard against the tightness of her throat and the weight of her heart. She'll think I'll miss you and she'll think don't go and she'll think please. But what she'll finally say is simply thank you, and it will mean all of these things - everything promised and remembered, everything wordless and spoken and understood - and so much more. — Jennifer E. Smith

As a kid, I couldn't sleep without this ratty stuffed elephant," she explains, not sure what made her think of it now. Maybe it's that she'll be soon seeing her dad again, or maybe it's just the plane keying up beneath her, prompting a childish wish for her old security blanket.
[Oliver]"I'm not sure that counts"
"Clearly you've never met Elephant"
He laughs, "Did you come up with that name all by yourself?"
"Damn right," she says — Jennifer E. Smith

And here's the amazing thing: Now it was. — Jennifer E. Smith

She shakes her head. "I can't think of a single good reason to break up with you right now."
"That's because you're not thinking big enough," he says. "It's gotta be something huge, something grand."
"Like world peace?"
"If world peace were a possible side effect of you breaking up with me, then yes, sure, that would definitely count as a noble reason."
"Maybe," she says after a moment, "it's just that we love each other too much. — Jennifer E. Smith

They were nearly to Annie's by now, and they made the rest of the trip in silence, Peter frowning out at the road with a look of deep concentration. Emma didn't blame him; after all, she'd insulted his entire system of beliefs. But how were you every supposed to get anywhere if you always stuck to the same route? He spent so much time charting out the world that he barely had a chance to get lost in it. — Jennifer E. Smith

Graham glanced up at the sky, which was pale and pocked with birds, the whole thing like a negative of yesterday's fireworks display. — Jennifer E. Smith

Salutations," he said, and she smiled.
"Good morning."
"Yeah," he said. "It really is. — Jennifer E. Smith

Maybe this was why Owen had been so desperate to travel, why she'd longed for it herself without ever really knowing why. It wasn't just that you got to be somewhere else entirely. It was that you got to be someone else entirely, too. — Jennifer E. Smith

Because as far as she was concerned, there was no in-between: She wanted all or nothing, illogically, irrationally, even though something inside her knew that nothing would be too hard, and all was impossible. — Jennifer E. Smith

By the time they finished eating, it was fully dark and a little bit chilly, the kind of night that's caught somewhere between summer and fall, old and new. — Jennifer E. Smith

So what? You act all mysterious to seem more interesting?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're always wandering off or running away," he said. "But you're a lot more
interesting when you're just being yourself you know. When you're actually here."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Emma said coldly. "Where else would I be?"

"You know what I mean," he said, a rough edge to his voice. "It's like you're so busy trying not to act like your family that you've never even stopped to consider that it might not be such a bad thing."

"Well what about you?" she shot back, aware of the bitterness in her words.
"You complain about your dad not wanting you around, and then you complain when he wants you to stay home for school. You can't have it both wars."

"Well neither can you," he said. " You can't keep everyone at arms length and then expect them to be there for you when you need them. — Jennifer E. Smith

She filed those moments away like precious documents, wore them smooth with memory, collected them like bits of prayers. — Jennifer E. Smith

Graham leaned toward her, so that their faces were only inches apart. 'So that means we can do this now?' he asked, and then he kissed her, a kiss that seemed to go on forever.
She grinned as they finally broke apart. 'I guess so.'
'That's not such bad news then.'
'No, I guess not, when you put it that way.'
'As long as you're okay,' he added, and she nodded. — Jennifer E. Smith

It's not the changes that will break your heart; it's that tug of familiarity. — Jennifer E. Smith

There's a formula for how long it takes to get over someone, that it's half as long as the time you've been together. — Jennifer E. Smith

You say you can be honest with me?" Hadley asks after a moment, addressing Oliver's rounded shoulders, and he twists to look at her. "Fine. Then talk to me. Be honest."
"About what?"
"Anything you want.
To her surprise, he kisses her then. Not like the kiss at the airport, which was soft and sweet and full of farewell. This kiss is something more urgent, something more desperate; he presses his lips hard against hers, and Hadley closes her eyes and leans in, kissing him back until, just as suddenly, he breaks away again, and they sit staring at each other.
"That's not what I meant," Hadley says, and Oliver gives her a crooked smile.
"You said to be honest. That was the most honest thing I've done all day. — Jennifer E. Smith

There's a space between forgetting and moving on, and it's not easy to find. — Jennifer E. Smith

Someone once told her there's a formula for how long it takes to get over someone, that it's half as long as the time you've been together. Hadley has her doubts about how accurate this could possibly be, a calculation so simple for something as complicated as heartbreak. — Jennifer E. Smith

It was exactly as he'd thought it would be, like the first time and the millionth time all at once, like being wide awake, like losing his balance. Only this time, it wasn't just him; this time, they were losing their balance together. — Jennifer E. Smith

He'd thought this was the start of something. But clearly she'd changed her mind, and he felt stunned by how quickly the whole thing had unraveled, the end coming before the beginning really even had a chance to begin. His poor telescope heart - that fragile, precious thing - would have probably been better left in the box. — Jennifer E. Smith

Talking to you is one of my favorite things to do."
"Top 10?" she asked.
"Top 5 at least," he said with a wink. — Jennifer E. Smith

There's a difference between loneliness and solitude. — Jennifer E. Smith

Hadley didn't know it was possible to miss someone who's only a few feet away, but there it is. — Jennifer E. Smith

Good," Violet says. "Because I'll expect you to come back over when Monty and I get married."
"Monty?" Hadley asks, staring at her. She tries to successfully to recall if she's even seen them speak to each other. "You guys are engaged?" "Not yet," Violet says as she starts walking toward the dinning room. "But you don't look so gobsmacked. I've got a good feeling about it." Hadley falls into step beside her. "That's it? A good feeling?" "That's it," she says. "I think it's meant to be. — Jennifer E. Smith

The end coming before the beginning really even had a chance to begin. — Jennifer E. Smith

This," I say softly, "is going to change everything."
I don't mean it the way I usually do.
I don't mean that change is hard or scary, though it's definitely both.
I mean only to say this: that sometimes, through good luck or bad, through curses or fate, the world cracks itself open, and afterward nothing will ever be the same.
All I mean is that this seems like one of those times. — Jennifer E. Smith

The most basic sort of love: to be worried about the one who was worrying about you. — Jennifer E. Smith

He'd mistaken loneliness for independence, and had become so good at closing himself off from the world that it took an e-mail from Ellie to remind him what it was like to have a real conversation. — Jennifer E. Smith

And though it seemed odd that she still didn't know his name, something kept her from asking. Those two little words, she knew, would inevitably set off a chain reaction: first Google, then Facebook, then Twitter, and on and on, mining the twists and turns of the internet until all the mystery had been wrung out of the thing. — Jennifer E. Smith

Chemistry wasn't something you could just create anyway; it was either there or it wasn't. — Jennifer E. Smith

Yeah," Violet says from where she's stooped on the floor. "But those weren't family tears." Whitney rakes her fingers through Hadley's hair. "What were they, then." "Those were boy tears," Violet says with a smile. — Jennifer E. Smith

How are you supposed to find what you're looking for if you're not convinced it's even out there? — Jennifer E. Smith

You can't know the answer until you ask the question. — Jennifer E. Smith

Now it was like her brain was split in two. One half understood that the person writing to her was just down the street. But the other half still couldn't let go of the more general idea of him, the comforting and mysterious stranger with whom she could talk about anything. His sudden presence here had thrown her wildly off balance, and even as she noticed
with a little thrill
that a new email from him had indeed arrived, there was something disconcerting about it. — Jennifer E. Smith

We have all sorts of words that could describe us. But we get to choose which ones are most important. — Jennifer E. Smith

Perhaps if there were more time, or if time were more malleable; if she could be both places at once, live parallel lives — Jennifer E. Smith

When he'd kissed her, it had felt like the striking of a match, something hard and bright in his chest, a part of him he hadn't even realized was waiting to be lit. — Jennifer E. Smith

It was one thing to count on someone who was dead and gone, to rely on an idea or a memory, a personal with no real influence over her life outside of her imagination. But it was another thing entirely to have someone actually want to be there for you, unfailingly and unquestioningly, someone who listened carefully and told you the truth and waited patiently until you were ready to be there for them, too. — Jennifer E. Smith

Happy Graduation," he said.
"Now go get her. — Jennifer E. Smith

Just because you painted a house didn't mean the furniture inside was any different. It had to be the same with people. — Jennifer E. Smith

Sometimes it seemed as if his whole life was an exercise in waiting; not waiting to leave, exactly, but simply waiting to go. He felt like one of those fish that had the capacity to grow in unimaginable ways if only the tank were big enough. But his tank had always been small, and as much as he loved his home- as much as he loved his family- he'd always felt himself bumping up against the edges of his own life. — Jennifer E. Smith

And like every ending, it was a strange mix of exuberance and sorrow. — Jennifer E. Smith

Once," he says, "I was flying to California on the Fourth of July."
She turns her head, just slightly.
"It was a clear night, and you could see all the little fireworks displays along the way, these tiny flares going off below, one town after another. — Jennifer E. Smith

Even if she were telling the truth, she would somehow manage to appear guilty. — Jennifer E. Smith

Is the kind of smile she loves best: It's like a sneeze, a reflex, a twitch, helpless and automatic, and it only happens when he looks at her. — Jennifer E. Smith

When you're on the other side of it," she says, "fifty-two years can seem like about fifty-two minutes. — Jennifer E. Smith

Too bad I don't want to be an actress. Or a reality TV-star or something,'Quinn said. 'This would be such a great opportunity.'
'Yes,' Mom said, regaining herself. ' It's a terrible shame you only want to be a marine biologist. I suppose it would be much more useful to have been asked out to dinner by a whale. — Jennifer E. Smith

Hi,' he says.
'Hi,' she says back, and then to her great surprise, she begins to cry.
'You know,' Nick says as he hands her a tissue from the bedside table,' for all this talk about how you don't cry, you sure are sprouting a lot of water. — Jennifer E. Smith

Beside her, she can feel each breath he draws. How is it possible to be so close to a person and still not know what you are to each other? With baseball, it's simple. There's no mystery to what happens on the field because everything has a label
full count, earned run, perfect game
and there's a certain amount of comfort in this terminology. There's no room for confusion and Ryan wishes now that everything could be so straightforward. But then Nick pulls her closer, and she rests her head on his chest, and nothing seems more important that this right here. — Jennifer E. Smith

Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything? — Jennifer E. Smith

Around them the stubbled land was marked off by plaques and signs that explained to visitors what had happened here on a long-ago July day not unlike this one. But Peter already knew all they said and more. He looked around at the people with their noses tucked in brochures and guidebooks, and those trailing, sheeplike, after tour guides and park employees. He was used to feeling somewhat out of place most everywhere he went
at school or the barbershop, even at home, but here, where he knew everything, all the names and dates and facts, he somehow seemed to fit, and the knowledge of this welled up inside him. It was like he'd been born a blue flower in a field full of red ones and had only now been plunked down in a meadow so blue it might as well have been the ocean. — Jennifer E. Smith

People talk about books being an escape, but here on the tube, this one feels more like a lifeline ... The motion of the train makes her head rattle, but her eyes lock on the words the way a figure skater might choose a focal point as she spins, and just like that, she's grounded again. — Jennifer E. Smith

She wondered if there was a word for loneliness that wasn't quite so general. — Jennifer E. Smith

I love Graham Larkin," she said quietly, her voice full of emotion, and there was a flicker of surprise on his face, and then his expression softened. "You're supposed to shout it," he said, smiling as she tugged on the brim of the cap, forcing him to lower his face, bringing him closer and closer until their lips met. And even though they were in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world, lost in a sea of concrete and wood and metal, she could almost swear he tasted like the ocean. — Jennifer E. Smith

What does it really look like?
Isn't it obvious?
Not especially ...
You. It looks like you. — Jennifer E. Smith

What are you doing a study on right now?"
"A study on the statistical probablity of love at first sight. — Jennifer E. Smith

Maybe it was possible that you could take someone out of their life and drop them in the middle of another place entirely and they could seem like someone completely different. But even if that were the case, she thought, it wasn't really 'they' change - it was just the backdrop, the circumstances, the cast of characters. Just because you painted a house didn't mean the furniture inside was any different. It had to be the same with people. Deep down, at the very core, they'd still be the same no matter where they were, wouldn't they? — Jennifer E. Smith

They were like a couple of asteroids that had collided, she and Owen, briefly sparking before ricocheting off again, a little chipped, maybe even a little scarred, but with miles and miles still to go. — Jennifer E. Smith

But the crowds are surging around them and her backpack is heavy on her shoulders and the boy's eyes are searching hers with something like loneliness , like the very last thing he wants is to be left behind right now. And that's something Hadley can understand, too, and so after a moment she nods in agreement, and he tips the suitcase forward onto it's wheels, and they begin to walk. — Jennifer E. Smith

Nothing," he said.
"I've just been wondering when you'd get around to telling me about her." He stared at him, unable to hide his surprise.
"You knew?"
"I thought you were to busy ... "
"Being sad?" Owen gave him a rueful grin.
"Well ... yeah."
"You know what made me less sad?"
"What?"
"Seeing you happy," he told him.
"And for a while there, it seemed like those postcards were the only thing that did the trick. — Jennifer E. Smith

Soon enough, his shapeless future would start to mold itself into something more concrete. In the meantime, he was in no hurry. — Jennifer E. Smith

But no escape route." "Ah," he says. "So you're looking for an escape route." Hadley nods. "Always. — Jennifer E. Smith

So that means your mom's okay with everything?"
"She will be," Ellie said. "We both will."
Graham nodded. "I'm glad."
"She took it better than expected. If you'd asked me yesterday, I would've guessed I'd be locked in my room tonight."
He waved this away. "I'd have to come to rescue you," he told her. "I might not have a white horse, but I do have a very portly pig."
"How romantic," Ellie said. — Jennifer E. Smith

Maybe they were never meant to have more than just one night. After all, not everything can last. Not everything is supposed to mean something. — Jennifer E. Smith

It was real," she said, her voice thick. "Wasn't it?" He looked up at her. "What was?" "Us," she said. "Last summer." "Yeah," he said, stepping back again. "It was. — Jennifer E. Smith

And the boy's eyes are searching hers with something like loneliness, like the very last thing he wants is to be left behind right now. — Jennifer E. Smith

I want to be able to stand in front of a room full of people and actually be able to say the thing I want to say," she told him. "And I want to be able to stand in front of just one person and say the thing I want to say." She lifted her head. "Graham ... " But he only slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him again. "Your turn. — Jennifer E. Smith

Together they waited for the sky to flip over like the turning of a page, the bone-colored moon giving way to a brilliant sun, the promise of a new day, and Ellie was surprised to find herself thinking of the little town in France, the one with all the miracles. She could only hope that in a place filled with so many wonders, it would have still been possible to appreciate something as remarkable and ordinary as all this. — Jennifer E. Smith

Maybe the world isn't full of signs so much as it's full of people trying to use whatever evidence they can find to convince themselves of what they hope to be true. — Jennifer E. Smith

This wedding will put a period at the end of a sentence that wasn't supposed to have ended yet. — Jennifer E. Smith

But it's there in his face, a fleeting reluctance that matches her own. They stand there together for a long time, for too long, for what seems like forever, each unwilling to part ways, letting the people behind them stream past like a river around rocks. Page: 91 — Jennifer E. Smith

He'd come back to her, it was true. He was the one to walk out of the woods and onto the beach, to cross the space between them. But he wasn't the only one. It was there in her eyes: she was coming back to him too. — Jennifer E. Smith

There are different kinds of happy, some kinds don't need any proof. - Ellie O'Neill — Jennifer E. Smith

Hadley's never been out of the country before, but she knows enough to know that London is enormous; it is, in her limited experience, a big enough place to lose someone entirely. — Jennifer E. Smith

It took a moment to right himself, and he pulled his shoulders back as he regained his equilibrium. He didn't want to be half asleep the first time he kissed Ellie. For that, he wanted to be wide awake. — Jennifer E. Smith

They'd become unaccustomed to the brightness of their own city, and, faced with it now in all its intensity, they cupped their hands over their eyes as if staring into the sun. — Jennifer E. Smith

And see those clouds?'
'Hard to miss'
'Those are cumulus clouds. Did you know that?'
'I'm sure I should.'
They're the best ones.'
'How come?'
Because they look the way clouds are supposed to look, the way you draw them when you're a kid. Which is nice, you know? ... — Jennifer E. Smith

It's not about winning or losing, really," he's saying. "It's just the showing up every day. It's stepping up to the plate and whiffing, and then doing it over and over again, whether you get a hit or not. It's getting up every morning and failing and being disappointed and getting beat up and being let down, and then doing it all over again the next day. — Jennifer E. Smith

Maybe the answer to all of his problems was nothing more than a darkened sky and a glittering city, a lofty perch above the world below. It seemed entirely possible that it was all just a matter of setting and location, and Peter wondered why he hadn't thought of it before. — Jennifer E. Smith

She understands now what she, in all her worry, had forgotten. That even as she hesitates and wavers, even as she thinks too much and moves too cautiously, she doesn't always have to get it right. It's okay to look back, even as you move forward. — Jennifer E. Smith

He's looking at her like she's the answer to some sort of riddle. — Jennifer E. Smith

This house is about two dictionaries away from caving in,' she'd say, 'and you're buying duplicates? — Jennifer E. Smith

He smiled. "All that stuff can be learned," he said. "What you're doing now, that's instinct. And it counts for a lot. — Jennifer E. Smith

They discover that sometimes it is a person rather than a place that anchors you most in the world. — Jennifer E. Smith

[Hadley] "I have a fear of mayo, so I've actually gotten pretty good at it over the years."
[Oliver] "You have a fear of mayo?"
She nods again."It's in my top three or four."
"What are the others?" he asks with a grin. "I mean what could possibly be worse than mayonnaise. — Jennifer E. Smith

That's the way these things work, kiddo," he says. "Love isn't supposed to make
sense. It's completely illogical. — Jennifer E. Smith

He looks at her and smiles. "You're sort of dangerous, you know?"
She stares at him. "Me?"
"Yeah," he says sitting back. "I'm way too honest with you. — Jennifer E. Smith

He could be a fan of rock stars or tennis stars or the countless stars in the sky. — Jennifer E. Smith

So you're just here - "
"For a couple of days," she said, ducking her head. "To see you."
He smiled. "Really?"
She nodded, wincing already, and he understood why; he knew better than anyone how it sounded, realized how crazy it was to fly halfway around the world to see a person you hardly knew. But he also knew exactly what to say to make her feel better.
"Me too," he said, moving close so that there was only the rustle of clothing and limbs and beating hearts as he looped an arm over her shoulder. "I only came to see you. — Jennifer E. Smith

Exactly. How can you know it makes you happy if you've never experienced it?"
"There are different kinds of happy," she said. "Some kinds don't need any proof. — Jennifer E. Smith

Husbands make the best kinds of heroes. - Lisa JacobsonMarriage is a mosaic you build with your spouse. Millions of tiny moments that create your love story. — Jennifer E. Smith