Sarra Manning Quotes & Sayings

[She] had occasionally glimpsed a series of interchangeable well-groomed blondes accompanying him to work events, then Grace had rocked up with her funny-coloured hair and her funny-coloured tights, and Vaughn had been smitten. Well, as smitten as Vaughn could be. — Sarra Manning

Vaughn folded his arms. 'The reason why you've lasted longer than most of your erstwhile colleagues is because you don't do drama. I don't like drama. I get enough drama at home. My wife could teach the RSC a few things about drama.'

For someone who claimed that he didn't do drama, Vaughn was one of the biggest drama queens she knew. — Sarra Manning

Each kiss was like biting into the richest darkest chocolate and pausing to savour the taste. — Sarra Manning

You're in my light and this is my special spot so go away. — Sarra Manning

You should never let secrets fester. — Sarra Manning

Adorkable is a freeform, loose-knit, organic network of like-minded souls who might get pushed to the ground for the way we think and the way we look and because we're not afraid of who we are, but my God we're looking up at the stars. — Sarra Manning

People were so scared of telling the truth because the truth was chaotic and complicated and decidedly uncool, but uncool was the way I rolled. Or it would be if I used tired old phrases like 'That's the way I roll', which I so don't. — Sarra Manning

It's so stupid how someone touching you - just their skin on your skin - can make you feel all sorts of things you don't want to feel. — Sarra Manning

Another reason why people take me seriously is because I never apologise even when - no, especially when I should,' he told her coolly. 'No pleases, thank yous or sorries - remember that and you might have that interesting year I was talking about. — Sarra Manning

Being drunk really brought out her inner vicious bitch. — Sarra Manning

I think sometimes she lies in bed at night and plots ways to make my life suck.
There can be no other explanation. — Sarra Manning

Stayed. I feel like life happens to other people, and I drift in and out of their lives without ever making any kind of impact. I want to matter to someone. — Sarra Manning

So you don't fancy meeting up again?' Max persisted, though Neve didn't know why, because she thought she'd made her position perfectly clear. 'Swap war stories?'
'I don't have any war stories,' Neve said, and in that moment she felt that she never would. That every night would be spent creeping round her flat in her socks with the telly turned down so low that she could barely hear it, so in the end she'd have no other option but to escape into the pages of books where there were other girls falling in and out of love but not her. Never her. She stared down at the scuffed toes of her faux Ugg boots in sudden and tired defeat.
'If you don't have any war stories, then at least you don't have any war wounds,' Max said, so quietly that Neve had to strain her ears to catch his words. 'Take my number. — Sarra Manning

No, the single most humiliating part of the whole fucking humiliating exercise in abject humiliation was that somewhere between then and now, Grace had actually thought Vaughn was a nice guy, — Sarra Manning

Like, if you're right for someone then shouldn't everything fall into place really easily..? — Sarra Manning

Having a relationship and not even a sexual one is so straight, it's practically perverted. — Sarra Manning

What you look like is just one part of who you are - but it's not all you are. — Sarra Manning

Can this really call itself a cake when its main ingredients are cheese and carrots? — Sarra Manning

. . . Do you want to share a black cab?'
Black cabs were an extravagance that Neve couldn't afford, not this far away from payday, but that wasn't the reason why she declined. 'No, thank you. I'm perfectly all right with catching the tube.'
'OK, tube it is,' Max agreed, because he was quite obviously emotionally tone deaf and couldn't sense the huge 'kindly bugger off' vibes that Neve was sure she was emitting. — Sarra Manning

Maybe relationships shouldn't be such hard work ... — Sarra Manning

What she lacks in poetry she makes up for in venom — Sarra Manning

He didn't say anything and I thought I'd shocked him, because I tend to do that. Not just with Michael but with pretty much anyone who can't deal with being honest and admitting that you have wants and needs and desires and all those other fun things. — Sarra Manning

Immediately, I wanted to gather up everything I'd just said and stuff it back into my mouth. But once you've said stuff, you can't unsay it. Your words are out there, aren't they? Buzzing around in the quiet of the room so you can hear them echoing back at you... — Sarra Manning

Don't ever leave us again. Vaughn has been horrible. Like pre-Grace horrible. — Sarra Manning

It was just she was so full of bullshit and someone needed to call her on it and ... and ... she reacted so beautifully. — Sarra Manning

God! Molly, will you just stop and listen to me?" he begged, trying to wrap himself around me again.
I pushed him away. "What could you possibly say that I'd want to hear?" I demanded, slapping his lying arms away.
"I love you," he pleaded.
And it broke my heart into a thousand tiny pieces. Because it was only now, when I knew that I could never stand to be near him again, that he was telling me what I'd always wanted to hear. — Sarra Manning

Can we have a time-out on the self-criticism for the rest of the evening?"
"Not the rest of the evening. I can do about half an hour and then force of habit takes over. — Sarra Manning

I'd always thought that my awkwardness was a thin veil disguising the real me. The me that was funny and could write songs that touched people. The me that would one day find some beautiful, intelligent boy who'd recognize me as his soul mate. The me who was secretly pretty and stylish if only someone would lift the veil and see. But I was beginning to suspect that underneath the awkwardness there was just more awkwardness and not much else. And that would explain why I stood in a room full of people and felt like the loneliest girl in the world. — Sarra Manning

I just couldn't understand how you could go from being alive, from having molecules and blood cells constantly shifting around inside you, and thought processes and a mind full of memories and dreams and love and hate, and in just one tiny second these miraculous things stop and you're dead. How could all that disappear? What happened to your soul, your essence, your wonder? Just because a muscle stops beating? It made absolutely no sense. — Sarra Manning

The thing about love was that it caught you unawares, turned up in the most unexpected places, even when you weren't looking for it. — Sarra Manning

I think Vaughn has Social Anxiety Disorder but he's too much of a control freak to give in to it. — Sarra Manning

It would be like Cinderella moaning about getting blisters from her glass slippers. — Sarra Manning

My whole life had split in two: Smith and not Smith. I liked the Smith parts of it so much better.
— Sarra Manning

Why are you talking? Who gave you permission to talk?' Vaughn demanded. 'In circumstances like this, we close ranks. Never complain, never explain, right? — Sarra Manning

She settled for snatching up the apple strudel still warm in its tinfoil shroud and throwing it at him. 'I'll give you darkness, you sanctimonious fucker! — Sarra Manning

Veronique and Dylan having the mother of all arguments. I mean, it had a plot and a subplot and several walk-on parts ... — Sarra Manning

That was the deal with the really good-looking boys: they automatically assumed you were pining and panting for them and wouldn't be satisfied until you'd had their babies, no matter how ugly their personalities might be. — Sarra Manning

I was a heartless, ungrateful wench of a girl who promised everyone who came into contact with me a one-way ticket to pain and hurt. I didn't know how to love and I didn't deserve to be loved back. — Sarra Manning

When will being independent and strong and not following the pack and daring to be different and being brave in my opinions, my fashion choices and my hair colour be enough? — Sarra Manning

I went out with Veronique to take my mind of you, and when I'm with you I don't feel like I'm on a rebound, I feel like I've come home. It's like my world is just different combinations of black and white, but when you're around everything goes Technicolor. You're still the coolest girl I know. — Sarra Manning

It wasn't a perfect body but it was the body she deserved. Not just from every bar of chocolate or bag of crisps or laden plate of food that she'd eaten. This body was also testament to all the hours in the gym and cycling up hills on her bike and glugging down two litres of water a day and learning to love vegetables and fruits that didn't come as optional extra with a pastry crust. She'd earned this body.
This was her body and she had to stop giving it such a hard time. — Sarra Manning

I was rolling my eyes so hard that I was sure one of my retinas had just detached itself — Sarra Manning

We don't stop, not even when we reach the finish line. It's a journey for life, Neve. — Sarra Manning

Max didn't take his hands off her. As they walked to where he'd parked the hired car, he kept his arm round her shoulders, even though he was carrying her cases in his other hand and they kept bumping him. — Sarra Manning

Then May gave way to June, and it felt as if time was slipping through her fingers. — Sarra Manning

It wasn't like I'd woken up and decided to be a bitch, it was more like I'd woken up to find bitchiness thrust upon me. — Sarra Manning

Thought about having one last kiss, but in the end the only way she could leave was to walk away without looking back. — Sarra Manning

But really it says everything that's wrong about the publishing industry, that a quarter of a million people bought and read a sex and shopping novel that wasn't even written by one of those footballer girlfriends, and yet most of the shortlisted titles on the Orange Prize, which is an award for women writers, don't even sell ten thousand copies. It's just not right. — Sarra Manning

But Neve, you can't start a book and leave it halfway through,' he'd said implacably. 'It's almost as bad as turning down the corner of the page, instead of using a bookmark. — Sarra Manning

Despite their difference, because of their differences, they were a perfect mismatched set. Two sides of the same tarnished penny. — Sarra Manning

We're broken. It's like we have all these jagged edges that scare other people off, but when we're with each other, our jagged edges fit together and we're almost whole. — Sarra Manning

Because, when everything else is gone, all we're left with is our imaginations. — Sarra Manning

Think of something to say. Keep him here. Something funny and interesting and cool.
"I put my wellies on because I was sure it was going to rain and now my feet are getting horribly moist," Ellie said, and it was the single worst thing she'd ever said to anyone. — Sarra Manning

But I had to admit that maybe the reason I'd had a meltdown wasn't just about the shower. I think the shower door was, like, a metaphor. It represented everything that was bad. — Sarra Manning

So, you know what? I'm not ready to write Gen Y off just yet and neither should you, because I think we're going to grow up just fine. Yeah, it pains me to admit it, but the kids are all right. — Sarra Manning

You took out a book on blow-job technique from the British Library? They shouldn't have books like that in there! — Sarra Manning

It was hard to understand how you could know someone all your life, think that you knew everything about them, then one Sunday they'd be standing in the kitchen of the flat that you both owned and seem like a total stranger — Sarra Manning

She was so fed up with unrequited love and platonic love and all the other kinds of love that weren't passionate, romantic, can't-live-without-you, I-have-to-have-you-right-now, the-beat-of-your-heart-matches-the-beat-of-mine love. — Sarra Manning

I think I needed to be really hurt on the outside so the hurt on the inside would realize that it wasn't on its own and that it had to come out. — Sarra Manning

No one gets through life scot-free. Shit happens. I's how you deal with it that shapes you, not the actual event itself. — Sarra Manning

And once again, there was a table and several worlds between them. — Sarra Manning

But please eat at the table and use a coaster. — Sarra Manning

What the hell was an acquisitions consultant? An arms dealer? A white slave trader? — Sarra Manning

Happiness really isn't that hard to find. — Sarra Manning

Just once, I'd like to find a boy. And I like him and he likes me. And we have a laugh and the kissing's really good and there's no-one getting in the way of the laughing and the kissing. Is that too much to ask? — Sarra Manning

Now, Neve, are you about to say no to me?' 'Well, it's just that - ' 'Because the word "no" is not in my vocabulary, along with the words "can't" and "Victoria Beckham". — Sarra Manning

Excuse me?' she spat, and as Dougie and Celia always pointed out, it didn't matter that Neve never swore because she could make 'Excuse me?' sound like 'Go fuck yourself. — Sarra Manning

Like that whole Nicole Richie look was SO over — Sarra Manning

Ari had discovered a contraband Barbie bangle in her weekend case and had gone on an hour's rant that contained words like 'body fascism' and 'third-wave feminism', then made Ellie write out fifty times, 'Barbie is a toxic plastic tool of a patriarchal culture. — Sarra Manning

He was old-fashioned looking, Grace decided. Not just the suit, which made him look as though he should be taking the air in one of those fifties movies on the French Riviera, but as if he was the second male lead in one of those same films. Not matinee-idol handsome enough to get the girl, but good enough to be the best friend of the one who got the girl. Or the arch nemesis of the one who got the girl who had his comeuppance ten minutes before the credits began to roll. — Sarra Manning

When I saw you on the stairs before, I'd forgotten how beautiful you are,' he whispered against her skin.

'Spotty, not beautiful,' she corrected gently, running her finger along his crooked nose. 'Now you, you're beautiful.'

'I even missed your inferiority complex.' Max smiled and shifted against her.

'Not being inferior. It's a point of fact. I'm covered in zits,' Neve said and she didn't know why she felt the need to share that with Max but then she was glad that she had because he was kissing each one of the angry red bumps along her forehead and chin and cheeks, even though a few of them were starting to suppurate. 'Don't do that, it's completely unhygienic. Kiss my mouth instead. — Sarra Manning

Secrets aren't the same as lying,' Vaughn commented, because they both had the muddiest of ethics, which was an odd thing to have in common. — Sarra Manning

She knew exactly what he meant. Despite their differences, because of their differences, they were a perfect mismatched set. Two sides of the same tarnished penny. An out-of-step Fred and Ginger. Vaughn was just as fucked up as she was - he was just so much better at hiding it. — Sarra Manning

I guess they're called moments because they don't last very long. — Sarra Manning

Was there a better sound in the world than a champagne cork popping? Hell, no. — Sarra Manning

You are bad and mean and I'm going to spit on your cupcakes. — Sarra Manning

The only people who spoke to her were Jimmy Vaughn, who was sweet when he wasn't wasted, though he was wasted all the time ... — Sarra Manning

I did get lost but I wanted someone to find me. — Sarra Manning

When your mother doesn't want to have the sex talk with you any more but instead wants to talk about the possibility that you might have sex on her soft furnishings, it's a watershed moment in any girl's life. I know I'll remember it fondly for many years to come. — Sarra Manning

Never shield your oddness, but wear your oddness as a shield. — Sarra Manning

Neve: 'Have I told you how much I hate you lately?'
Celia: 'All the time and right back at you. — Sarra Manning

Then what he said and how he said it won't be important any more. What will be important are all the things you never got to say. — Sarra Manning

One day you'll wake up and find that the pain's still there but it doesn't hurt quite so much. — Sarra Manning

I smile. I smile all the time, but you're just not around to see it these days. — Sarra Manning

Getting money from my dad is a finesse job. Luckily, I have finesse coming out of my arse. I barged into his study without knocking, marched across to his desk, and held out my hand. "Give me twenty pounds," I snapped. "I need twenty pounds. Give it to me. Now! — Sarra Manning

I'm going that way too. I live in Crouch End. Do you want to share a black cab?'
Black cabs were an extravagance that Neve couldn't afford, not this far away from payday, but that wasn't the reason why she declined. 'No,
thank you. I'm perfectly all right with catching the tube.'
'OK, tube it is,' Max agreed, because he was quite obviously emotionally tone deaf and couldn't sense the huge 'kindly bugger off' vibes that
Neve was sure she was emitting. 'You're still mad at me, aren't you?'
'You apologised, why would I still be mad at you?'
'One day we'll laugh about this. When little Tommy asks how we met, I'll say, "Well, son, I threw an ice cube at your mother, then slapped her
arse, and we've been inseparable ever since. — Sarra Manning

That was the worst thing about having a relationship with someone, even a pretend relationship. You opened up, let someone in, and when it was over, they had all the ammunition they needed to completely destroy you. — Sarra Manning

And suddenly I got what the big deal was about kissing. How someone could suck on your bottom lip and make you come completely undone. That someone stroking the hair back from your face could make you swoon and someone sliding his hands underneath your top could make you feel wanted for the first time in your life. — Sarra Manning

I suppose the things that you always take for granted, that you don't even notice, are what you miss the most. — Sarra Manning

Anyway, I don't want anyone else, I just want Vaughn.' It was good to finally say it, as if Grace said it out loud then maybe the universe would get the message and send him back to her. — Sarra Manning

And being alone and being lonely were two different things but they felt exactly the same: they felt horrible. — Sarra Manning

Dorkdom isn't something you can choose. It's something you are. But instead of dividing the world up into dorkside and darkside, I've realised that we all have a little bit of dork inside us. — Sarra Manning

How is dear Charlotte?' Celia asked sweetly, then launched into an account of how they'd been having their usual 'Fucking shut up', 'No, you fucking shut up', row a couple of evenings ago, when Yuri had opened the front door of their flat to scream up the stairs, 'Why don't both of you fucking shut up? — Sarra Manning

People don't want you to be yourself, they just want you to be the person that they've decided you should be. — Sarra Manning

...my awkward silence default setting kicked in. — Sarra Manning

How strange that the years and ocean between us have brought us closer together. — Sarra Manning