Renee Carlino Quotes & Sayings

I don't know what I'll do if I fall in love with him."
"If you fall, let him catch you. — Renee Carlino

Once my grandmother told me I needed to find God and I said, "Why don't you just tell me where to look and save me the trouble?" I was dead serious. Faith, destiny, all the shit you can't see, but yet people are so willing to take the leap. Not me. — Renee Carlino

I believe his exact words were cosmic, soul-shattering, air in your lungs kind of love. — Renee Carlino

Joy is family, life, all of it - the big stuff and the small stuff. Just holding the woman you love in your arms can make a hard day at work fade away. — Renee Carlino

Sometimes we're just along for the ride. We can't control everything; we can only do our best to control our reactions when life doesn't go our way. — Renee Carlino

I don't think there's any room for fear or doubt when it comes to love. I'm willing to take my chances. — Renee Carlino

You can hate him all you want but you know it's only what he did in the end, when he was a shell of a man, that you hate. Have some sympathy for his soul, Ava. — Renee Carlino

Love is not the same thing as a marriage or a relationship or having children. Love is not work. Love is a feeling, pure and simple. It's a feeling you can have one moment, in which you believe you could throw yourself in front of a speeding train for someone; and it can vanish the next, when they tear your heart out and steal every last beat for themselves. — Renee Carlino

I'm not sure why I had to weather the stages of grief after hearing the news that night. Maybe it was the death of my singledom or the death of my own childhood that scared me. For some reason, when you're faced with the realization that you're going to become a parent, it immediately changes how you view yourself. You no longer think of yourself as someone else's child because you can't be a parent and a child. It's an official good-bye, and good-byes always scared the hell out of me. — Renee Carlino

You know how they say behind every great man there's a great woman? My mother would say, No, the woman is three steps ahead. — Renee Carlino

The present is our own. The right-this-second, the here-and-now, this moment before the next, is ours for the taking. It's the only free gift the universe has to offer. The past doesn't belong to us anymore, and the future is just a fantasy, never guaranteed. But the present is ours to own. The only way we can realize that fantasy is if we embrace the now. — Renee Carlino

Forever is only now. Let's enjoy it and not think about tomorrow. — Renee Carlino

Yes, committing yourself to someone requires a leap of faith - that's why it's so hard for some. — Renee Carlino

There was nothing we could do; we were just a couple of powerless, poor kids, so desperate to find a way to be together. — Renee Carlino

I'm really into girls with big platelets. — Renee Carlino

There's a pizza place I want you to try, Ciccio's. You heard of it?"

"We can get good pizza on Fifth."

"No, you have to try this place, Matt. It's phenomenal."

"What's phenomenal, the pizza or the staff?" Since my divorce a few years ago, Scott - boss, friend, and eternal bachelor - had high hopes that I'd become his permanent wingman. It was impossible to talk him out of anything, especially when it involved women and food.

"You got me. You have to see this girl. We'll call it a work meeting. I'll put it on the company card." Scott was the type who talked about women a lot and about porn even more. He was severely out of touch with reality.

"I'm sure this qualifies as sexual harassment somewhere. — Renee Carlino

It's a fool who thinks love will set him free. Love equals a morbid and relentless fear of losing the other person — Renee Carlino

Weren't we though? Timeless? Nothing could change what we'd had all those years before, even if the idea of what might've been lingered between us. — Renee Carlino

Three seconds doesn't seem like a long time, but when you're gazing into someone's eyes, it's long enough to make a silent promise. — Renee Carlino

I'm going to kill him. Even as I said it, I couldn't believe my reaction. Apparently there's something in the Montana water that instantly transforms an agnostic, Starbucks-loving, vegetarian pacifist into a God-and-country-loving protector of all women and cattle. — Renee Carlino

Maybe that's what growing up was really all about. Adults always say how complicated life gets as we age, but really, I think we just look for bigger challenges to overcome. Our biggest fears stretch from sleeping without our beloved teddy bear to finding out that we have no purpose in life. Did time, maturity, and overcoming obstacles offer the kind of contentment so evident in Orvin? Or did we just simply give up and surrender to the life we were already living? — Renee Carlino

Everything is going to be fine."

"I don't want to live in a storm drain, Jackson."

"Not even with me?" He laughed.

"It's not funny, and no, not even with you!"

"You won't, and we won't. Everything will be fine. You are too fucking smart, Em. Hell, I'm too fucking smart, and we work too fucking hard for this shitty life. It won't happen."

"Swear to me." My voice was tiny.

"I swear on your life," he said, and I believed him. "But right now I'm kidnapping you in some loser's truck so I can hide you in my backyard. Let's just hope we can get past this part. I don't think colleges will look too fondly at a juvenile record. — Renee Carlino

Maybe you can escape your own slightly flawed love story for a bit and get lost in something more satisfying - even if it is fiction." I — Renee Carlino

In all my years, I've learned that life delivers many storms for us to weather. Some will be slow, brooding, quiet beasts, and others will be loud, thunderous, and frightening. But if you're willing to look close enough, no matter how devastating the storm may be, after the rain you'll always find new life sprouting in the aftermath. — Renee Carlino

I lay down beside him and stared directly into the sun. He turned on his side and propped his head on his elbow.

"You'll go blind doing that," he said in a low voice.

"Leave me alone."

"Why are you in such a bad mood? You PMSing?"

"What do you know about it?"

"A lot."

"I doubt that, and even if I were, it's beyond rude to talk to me about it." I hadn't started my period yet, but I wasn't going to tell him that. — Renee Carlino

In that moment I wondered if I
would ever be a mother, or if I even wanted to be. I thought maybe
if I found the perfect husband - stable, wealthy, business-
minded - it could be a possibility, but definitely not in the near fu-
ture. I decided if I did have children, I would surely have my shit
straighter than this lady. — Renee Carlino

I thought about every mundane moment that makes up that gray area of a person's life. It's the hour or two a day that you clean your kitchen or watch TV or do the laundry. All my gray moments with Mia were colored in: chasing her around the Laundromat, spraying water on her from the kitchen sink, or messing around with her on the couch while we spent whole days watching reruns of The Office. I looked forward to the rest of my life, even if the rest of my life only consisted of the humdrum day-in, day-out bullshit, it didn't matter because Mia turned the most unremarkable moments into moments I cherished. — Renee Carlino

There will always be something a little off, but like a three-legged dog, you'll learn to walk again. — Renee Carlino

We weren't wrong for being ourselves; we were wrong for each other. — Renee Carlino

For my Em. Don't wait this long. Come let me love you. — Renee Carlino

It's time." He opened his arms and I rushed into them with such force, like I was trying to jump inside of him so he could take me along, a stowaway inside his heart. He squeezed me hard and for a long time. "I'll see you, Grace." We let go of each other and stepped apart. "I'll see you later, Matt." He smiled and walked away. — Renee Carlino

Maybe it was fate that I sat next to her that day, or serendipity, divine intervention, who knows? However you look at, I got seated next to the first girl to ever really steal my heart. I was in love from that moment on. — Renee Carlino

It was about you... what I wrote. It was all about you." His bottom lip began to quiver.
"I know," I said, my voice shaky. I started to cry then. There was no holding back. "I loved it, every word. It was so beautiful. — Renee Carlino

It's often mistaken for good advice, but wisdom cannot be imparted to someone. Wisdom can only be earned; it's a by-product of experience, not necessarily knowledge, otherwise I would be stalking Oprah right now, begging for a transfusion. — Renee Carlino

You are your experiences and your fears and the love you let yourself feel. You are your degree and your talent and your passion. You are your pain, your joy, and your fantasies. — Renee Carlino

True love is the ironically selfless need to know that your person will be okay without you. — Renee Carlino

We can't go backward. There are too many regrets. Please just move forward with me? — Renee Carlino

I can still smell you on my pillow. I can still see you standing in my room, the light caressing your smooth legs, your dark hair cascading over your shoulders, and your gorgeous mouth smiling so effortlessly. I miss you. I ache for you, and I'm bordering on crazy without you. Come back to me. — Renee Carlino

Sometimes it takes the love of others to show us who we really are. — Renee Carlino

He was good-looking in a clean way, but he was fat. He looked like he'd eaten Ryan Seacrest for breakfast. — Renee Carlino

Just being your friend is going to be hard, but I'll try. It's just that . . . I like you. You're witty and sweet, and you happen to be the most infinitely beautiful woman I've ever met. — Renee Carlino

What do you want to do?" I asked.
"I just want to get wasted with you and find out if there is a god," he murmured into my neck before tugging on my earlobe with his teeth. — Renee Carlino

I wondered why, in all of the time that Jax and I had spent together, he hadn't tried to kiss me. He never even brought it up. I wasn't the prettiest girl in school - no butt, no boobs, just a beanpole with a mop of dark hair - but I had nice skin and he'd told me once that I had pretty eyes. Actually, he'd said they were weird and so big, he felt like he could dive in and swim around in them. So maybe "pretty" wasn't the right word . . . — Renee Carlino

There are at least five swear words I like better than fuck. My favorites are compound words like apeshit, craphat or batshit, but above all, my numero uno, all-time favorite swear word is assclown, without a doubt. Asshat runs a close second. I must say, very few things give me greater pleasure than calling someone an assclown when they really fit the bill. I love it more than puppies and baby seals. — Renee Carlino

the past would only fester and eat away at us if we tried to hold on to it too tightly. — Renee Carlino

And then his lips were on mine and we were in it, pulling away from the past and rushing fast into the future. — Renee Carlino

Well, Mia, the guy told you he wanted you to be his wife and the mother of his children and you basically said he was a loser. I believe his exact words were She ripped my soul out, poured gasoline on it, and watched it burn. — Renee Carlino

Love equals a morbid and relentless fear of losing the other person. It's a freak-accident fear, a piece of space junk falling from the sky and obliterating him, leaving nothing but his smoking boots. It's the unfortunate-organ-defect fear - suddenly, on his thirtieth birthday, the little crack in his heart that's been there since birth will rear its ugly head and take him in his sleep while he's spooning you. It's the only way to know you're really in love, when you ask the question would it be harder to watch him die, or to know he'll watch me die? Is there more mercy in being the one who does the watching or in being the one who does the dying? It's when you realize what mercy-killing actually means, it's when you actually care to the point of tormenting worry. It's not roses and white horses, it's fucking brutal and it can send a person running for the hills. To love is brave and Will was the bravest person I knew. — Renee Carlino

You have to learn to fly before you can soar. — Renee Carlino

I don't know much about fate, but I know something brought me back there. Maybe I fought that force for too long, or maybe everything happened exactly the way it was supposed to. The — Renee Carlino

Jason Dean Colbertson, how'd you get so great?" There was silence. He kept his eyes closed and said, "You made me this way, Em. — Renee Carlino

I hadn't slept with anyone in two years. Frankly, it was unnatural. The way I reacted to Will made me think that I really needed to give up the saint act, — Renee Carlino

I swear on your life, — Renee Carlino

Thank you." Isn't that all we need to hear sometimes - that you're a good mom or friend or daughter or wife? — Renee Carlino

Tears had poured from her eyes without any change in her facial expression. It's pure pain and pure surrender when your soul cries without any fight from your body and that's how I knew she was deeply affected. — Renee Carlino

In real life we have a hard time recognizing serendipitous moments because we're not making the story up as we go along. It's not a lie - it's really happening to us, and we have no idea how it will end. Some of us will look back on our lives and recall events that were a bit too perfect, but until you know the whole story, it's impossible to see the universe at work, or even admit that there is something bigger than us, making sure everything that should happen does happen. If you can surrender to the idea that there might be a plan, instead of reducing every magical moment to a coincidence, then love will find you. — Renee Carlino

It's impossible to really hate someone if you don't love them at least a little. — Renee Carlino

You're my first muse, Grace. — Renee Carlino

Why we acknowledge birthdays after death makes no sense, but I guess it's a way to stay committed to remembering somebody. Maybe it's because, after we die, we are so easily forgotten. I wondered who would remember me. — Renee Carlino

It was like the universe was teasing us; we saw each other just a second too late. — Renee Carlino

Pinot, the most romantic of wines, with so voluptuous a perfume, so sweet an edge, and so powerful a punch that, like falling in love, they make the blood run hot and the soul wax embarrassingly poetic. — Renee Carlino

There have been no women before you and there will be no women after you, — Renee Carlino

Things don't make a place feel like home. People do. — Renee Carlino

He paused then whispered, "You're beautiful."
"I have a boyfriend." I whispered back.
"You mentioned that. — Renee Carlino

Love is a thing that you can't take out of you. Once it's there, it doesn't go away, no matter what. Love can morph into hate and resentment, but it will always be there, buried under the bad feelings. — Renee Carlino

I've been looking for the same thing most of us are looking for."
"What's that?"
"Someone to come home to. — Renee Carlino

It's like reading a good book. The kind where you don't want to skip pages to see what happens at the end. Each moment is a story in itself. — Renee Carlino

I learned that you can't predict your future, there's no crystal ball or formula for happiness. You can't control the weather just like you can't control the way others behave, but what you can control is how much love you give. Surrendering to this crazy thing called life is hard, but we don't have to be the soulless sheets of paper tarrying along in the wind. We can find our people, love, respect them, and then hang on for dear life because it's not where you go on this journey but who you're with that matters the most. — Renee Carlino

Isn't there a word for friends that mess around?"
"Yeah, it's called girlfriend and boyfriend. — Renee Carlino

You are your mother and your father. You are your experiences and your fears and the love you let yourself feel. You are your degree and your talent and your passion. You are your pain, your joy, and your fantasies. You are me and Sheil and Jenny and Will and every person that touches your soul..but most of all you are you, whoever you dream that to be. — Renee Carlino

To exist in each other's souls so strongly that you are bound without a physical tie is the greatest mark of love ... — Renee Carlino

It's the only way to know you're really in love, when you ask the question would it be harder to watch him die, or to know he'll watch me die? Is there more mercy in being the one who does the watching or in being the one who does the dying? It's when you realize what mercy-killing actually means, it's when you actually care to the point of tormenting worry. It's not roses and white horses, it's fucking brutal and it can send a person running for the hills. To love is brave. — Renee Carlino

Whatever you need me to be, I'll be! Friends? Fine! Best friends? Great! I'll do it, because I want you in my life more than anything I have ever wanted. — Renee Carlino

You're my best friend." I said to him.
"I'm so in love with you." His eyes were pleading. — Renee Carlino

There are moments when clear images finally begin to emerge within the abstract painting of your life. — Renee Carlino

that I had to know you, that I needed you in my life. I've never felt that way about anyone, ever. Whatever happens will be up to you, but I'll be a different man if I can't have you. I will never breathe as deeply as I did when I was with you. I'll never see the range of color on a perfectly cloudless sky. I will never smell anything as sweet as you or hear a voice that fills my heart up as much as yours does. That night in my truck, when I had the low, I knew without a doubt, even though I had never been in love before . . . I knew that I was in love with you. — Renee Carlino

Share your special soul with me
And I promise to
Give you all of mine — Renee Carlino

Once there was you and me
We were lovers
We were friends
Before life changed
Before we were strangers
Do you still think of me? — Renee Carlino

Friends forever might have been a tired expression, but when he asked, it was like music or poetry. I knew it meant something. I knew it meant I need you in my life — Renee Carlino

Wilbur, I want to have like a million of your babies."
He looked happier than I had ever seen him.
"Really? Should we start now?"
"Definitely. — Renee Carlino

We didn't know it at the time, but we were lovesick. Our innocence was beautiful, impossible to capture again, impossible to re-create. — Renee Carlino

Do you believe people are made for each other, like there's a force we can't see that brings us to the person we're meant for? — Renee Carlino

For Jackson: The best damn dog in the world. RIP, Buddy. — Renee Carlino

People shouldn't lie to each other to begin with. People shouldn't have to fear hell in order to tell the truth. They should fear that their lies will ruin relationships or get them in trouble, here now, on Earth, with the people they love. — Renee Carlino

I loved you before you existed, and I'll love you after I'm gone. — Renee Carlino

We were victims of bad timing. But here we are again. — Renee Carlino

I cried because I knew that if I gave myself to Will, I would be left in pieces ... left behind. The only way I could hang on was to be his friend, even though every part of me wanted more. — Renee Carlino

I was convinced we had lived twenty thousand lives, and in each one, we had found each other, like two tiny magnets in a drawer the size of the universe. — Renee Carlino

Leave your life. Leave everyone you love, every care, every stress, every commitment. Live alone. Understand what it feels like to know that if you go into cardiac arrest, choke on a piece of hot dog, or get electrocuted, no one will find you. You'll rot. No one will mourn you. Imagine this feeling haunting your thoughts for the rest of your life. You'll wither and vanish, and some stranger will take care of your things and your burial, and you may not even get a placard. Imagine that, live it, and let yourself believe that you should be alone, and then go back to the people who love you. — Renee Carlino

And in that moment, you realize how little control you have over your own destiny. From the time you're born, you have no control; you can't choose your parents, and, unless you're suicidal, you can't choose your death. The only thing you can do is choose the person you love, be kind to others, and make your brutally short stint on earth as pleasant as possible. — Renee Carlino

I loved you, I love you now, but I'll be able to go on. I know that I can. You taught me that. Not being with you is far from my dream, but like our hearts, dreams can be broken and repaired again. It's hard for me not to wonder if I scared you away with all these letters. I hope not. I hope it just made you see how beautiful and amazing you are. I guess I'm realizing now that I just want you to be happy and safe. That's the most I can hope for now. I brought some of your boxes here but I didn't open — Renee Carlino

I was learning the hard way what happens when you take the people who love you for granted. — Renee Carlino

Whispers, that's what she calls them. They're signs, small sounds, or little reminders, letting you know that there's something bigger than us out there. That there's a force working hard to make things right in the universe. — Renee Carlino

Fifteen years is too long to be holding on to a few heart-pounding moments from college. — Renee Carlino

They projected an illusion of warmth with their home-cooking and hand-stitched quilts, yet underneath the facade was an institutional rigidity, as if they were running an orphanage where children would be fed and cared for but never loved. Love was such a key ingredient in molding humans, yet it was inaccessible to kids inside of the system. — Renee Carlino

I realized a long time ago that if you keep all that stuff inside, the stuff that makes you most uniquely you, then you will never find your person. You'll just wither from within and forget who you are, and if you can't see you, then he can't see you. Don't be scared. I've seen you, Kate, who you really are, and you're worth it. You're worth all of it. — Renee Carlino

He reached his thumb out and wiped tears from my cheek. "Em, can we please go back to the way things were?"

"Yes . . . definitely."

He pulled me into his chest. "I mean, Hunter Stevens? Really? That guy's such a slimeball."

I wiped my tears and laughed into his shirt. "Come on, Desiree Banks? She's a slut and everyone knows it . . . and those boobs, my god."

"For the record, I'm not really a boob guy. Well, I mean . . ."

"I get it, dork! I can't believe she was your first kiss."

He pushed my shoulders back to look at me. "Desiree wasn't my first kiss."

"She wasn't?"

"No. I kissed Katy Brown in the seventh grade. We made out in the reading room in the back of the library." He scratched his chin. "And then there was Chastity Williams, and then Lizzy Peters, and . . ."

"Okay, okay, geez, I guess Desiree's not the slut here. — Renee Carlino

His smile was a pitying, sad kind of smile, reserved only for when a person knows there's nothing that can be said to make things right. — Renee Carlino

Wisdom is not the same as information; it's something entirely different. It's often mistaken for good advice, but wisdom cannot be imparted to someone. Wisdom can only be earned. — Renee Carlino

I was static, standing on the platform, watching train after train go by, wishing I knew which one to be on. — Renee Carlino