David Levithan Love Quotes & Sayings

I think they would like the songs better
if I left out the names, or changed
the pronouns. — David Levithan

There is no word for the recipient of the love. There is only a word for the giver. There is the assumption that lovers come in pairs. — David Levithan

Breath is not aware of its history; it is just breath.
I wish I could be like that, or love could be like that. — David Levithan

Most of the time when we think we're looking for death, we're really looking for love. — David Levithan

They never played games with each other, they never had tow worry where they stood, because if either of them had a moment of wavering, the other would say I love you and would mean it and all doubts were forgiven because in this one case it was found that love conquers all. — David Levithan

I know there are epic tales of romance, where love means you're supposed to die. Where it's all about sacrifice. But I don't want to die. I don't want Stephen to die. I'm looking for the scenario where we both get to live. Where we can continue this marvel that is love and discovery and trust. — David Levithan

But there was something about you that made me think of sparks and motion. — David Levithan

To get something, you must give something away.
To hold something, you must give something away.
To love something, you must give something away. — David Levithan

That is all I need to make a room full of happiness-two boys, one love, and a song. — David Levithan

How to Be Alone
Remember that at any given moment
There are a thousand things
You can love — David Levithan

And Avery looks up at just that moment and sees the blue-haired boy glancing his way.
Some of us applaud. Others look away, because it hurts too much. — David Levithan

It's heaven, heaven, heaven when you
When you find love and romance on the menu. — David Levithan

Abyss, n.
There are times when I doubt everything. When I regret everything you've taken from me, everything I've given you, and the waste of all the time I've spent on us. — David Levithan

People read vampire novels and say, 'Oh I want to read another vampire novel.' People read fantasy, and they're like, 'Oh I love fantasy.' I don't know that people are necessarily finishing 'Hunger Games' and immediately wanting to read another dystopian tale. — David Levithan

Exemplar, n.
It's always something we have to negotiate- the face that my parents are happy, and yours have never been. I have something to live up to, and if I fail, I still have a family to welcome me home. You have a storyline to rewrite, and a lack of faith that it can ever be done.
You love my parents, I know. But you never get too close. You never truly believe there aren't bad secrets underneath. — David Levithan

Brothers are not like sisters [ ... ] They don't call each other every week. They don't have secret worlds to share. Can you think of two brothers who are really, inseparably close? No, for brothers it's a different set of rules. Like it or not, we're held to the bare minimum. Will you be there for him if he needs you? Of course. Should you love him without question? Absolutely. But those are the easy things. Do you make him a large part of your life, an equal to a wife or a best friend? At the beginning, when you're kids, the answer is often yes. But when you get to high school, or older? Do you tell him everything? Do you let him know who you really are? The answer is usually no. Because all these other things get in the way. Girlfriends. Rebellion. Work. — David Levithan

For the Jesus Revolutionaries, the answer was clear: Jesus would not be out waging "preventative" wars. Jesus would not be withholding medicine from people who could not afford it. Jesus would not cast stones at people of races, sexual orientatons, or genders other than His own. Jesus would not condone the failing, viperous, scandalplagued hierarchy of some churches. Jesus would welcome everyone to his his table. He would love them, and he would find peace. — David Levithan

Just be warned", you said. "Some day you will ask me to give up something I really love, and then it's going to get ugly. — David Levithan

Breathtaking, adj.
Those mornings when we kiss and surrender for an hour before we say a single word. — David Levithan

You can't actually have a romance between friends. That sort of defeats the definition of the word "romance." The word you're looking for is "love." It's a love between friends, just as there's also love between lovers, or possible lovers, or even ex-lovers. Same holds true for "bromance" - it's just a clever word used to avoid the word love, for straight boys who don't want that old-fashioned taint of gayness. Dudes, you love each other. Deal with it. — David Levithan

You like someone who can't like you back because unrequited love can be survived in a way that once-requited love cannot. — David Levithan

Falling in love with someone doesn't
mean you know any better how they feel. It only means you know how you feel. — David Levithan

Loss takes as much as love does, sometimes more — David Levithan

We always see our worst selves. Our most vulnerable selves. We need someone else to get close enough to tell us we're wrong. Someone we trust. — David Levithan

Is that all we need? Can the way we say each other's names encompass all our history, all our love, all our fear, all our fights, all our reunions, all of what we know about each other, all of what we don't know? — David Levithan

Now I just want it to end. I've always wanted the happy ending, but now I'll just settle for the ending. — David Levithan

Life tells you to take the elevator, but love tells you to take the stairs. — David Levithan

I want to write my life. I want to be able to write my life.
You are a second away from saying it.
You have no idea how much I love you. — David Levithan

Love means never having to lose your limbs. — David Levithan

On 9/11, all the hatred and murder could not compare with the weight of love, of bravery, of caring. I have to believe that. I honestly believe that. I think we saw the way humanity works on that day, and while some of it was horrifying, so much of it was good. — David Levithan

I liked this guy a lot. And I thought he liked me a lot, but in truth he didn't really like me at all. He was my first boyfriend, and I made him my everything-he was my new life, my new love, my new compass point. I guess that's the danger with flirts-you lose all sense of proportion. So I made a fool of myself, even though I didn't realize it at the time. I was so devoted to him. — David Levithan

I mean, being with someone for over a year can mean that you love them ... but it can also mean you're trapped. — David Levithan

There is always something new to learn about the person you love. — David Levithan

Libidinous, adj.
I never understood why anyone would have sex on the floor. Until I was with you and I realized: you don't realize you're on the floor. — David Levithan

Deep down, you see, I long to be arcane, esoteric. I would love to confound people with their own language. — David Levithan

We have fallen through the surface and are deep in the trenches of need — David Levithan

We have become - although I'd never say this out loud - something like a model couple. The secret? We like each other. I mean, we really like each other. We know when to keep our space and when to share it. — David Levithan

So that's what we did - rocketing down Sixth Avenue, dashing around the rest of the post-concert crowd, splashing our tracks until our ankles were soaked. You took the lead, and I started to lose my sprint. But then you looked back, stopped, and waited for me to catch up, for me to take your hand, for us to continue to run in the rain, drenched and enchanted, my words to Amanda no longer feeling like a requirement, but a foretelling. — David Levithan

You know the reason The Beatles made it so big? ... 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand.' First single. Fucking brilliant. Perhaps the most fucking brilliant song ever written. Because they nailed it. That's what everyone wants. Not 24/7 hot wet sex. Not a marriage that lasts a hundred years. Not a Porsche ... or a million-dollar crib. No. They wanna hold your hand. They have such a feeling that they can't hide. Every single successful song of the past fifty years can be traced back to 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand.' And every single successful love story has those unbearable and unbearably exciting moments of hand-holding. — David Levithan

Love and I once had a great relationship, but I fear we've broken up. It cheated on me, wrecked my heart, and then went on to date other people. A lot of other people. And I can't stand to watch it, since love's going to cheat on them too. — David Levithan

Yes, we could talk to you for days on end about all the bad first dates. Those are stories. Funny stories. Awkward stories. Stories we love to share, because by sharing them, we get something out of the hour or two we wasted on the wrong person. But that's all bad first dates are: short stories. Good first dates are more than short stories. They are first chapters. On a good first date, everything is springtime.
And when a good first date becomes a relationship, the springtime lingers. Even after it's over, there can be springtime. — David Levithan

But it doesn't say that dude shall not fall in love with dude, because that's just impossible, right? The gays are animals, answering their animal desires. It's impossible for animals to fall in love. And yet- — John Green

I wanted love to conquer all. But love can't conquer anything. — David Levithan

harbinger, n.
When I was in third grade, we would play that game at recess where you'd twist an apple while holding on to its stem, reciting the alphabet, one letter for each turn. When the stem broke, the name of your true love would be revealed. Whenever I played, I always made sure that the apple broke at K. At the time I was doing this because no one in my grade had a name that began with K. Then, in college, it seemed like everyone I fell for was a K. It was enough to make me give up on the letter, and I didn't even associate it with you until later on, when I saw your signature on a credit card receipt, and the only legible letter was that first K. I will admit: When I got home that night, I went to the refrigerator and took out another apple. But I stopped twisting at J and put the apple back. You see, I didn't trust myself. I knew that even if the apple wasn't ready, I was going to pull that stem — David Levithan

This isn't a book that I could have written ten years ago. And as much as I'd love to credit that to my growth as a writer, I know it's not really that. Instead it's because of all the people I've met and talked to as an author. And, just as important, it's about all of the things I've been exposed to as a reader, particularly of YA fiction. I am so lucky to be a part of a community of writers that constantly inspires me to write whatever I want to write, no matter how hard it seems. My peers are my role models, and my role models are my peers. Which is extraordinary. Thanks — David Levithan

Abstraction, n.
Love is one kind of abstraction. And then there are those nights when I sleep alone, when I curl into a pillow that isn't you, when I hear the tiptoe sounds that aren't yours. It's not as if I can conjure you up completely. I must embrace the idea of you instead. — David Levithan

When it all come down to it, the thing that matters most in a relationship is principles [ ... ] We have the same idea what's right and what's wrong, and that's got us through any number of things. If you can have that with someone, then you're most of the way toward love. Not just lover-love. Any kind of love. — David Levithan

The key to a successful relationship isn't just in the words, it's in the choice of punctuation. When you're in love with someone, a well-placed question mark can be the difference between bliss and disaster, and a deeply respected period or a cleverly inserted ellipsis can prevent all kinds of exclamations. — David Levithan

It's Miranda who speaks up. "You're gay," she says, with complete seriousness. "And I love you. — David Levithan

I decided if I were ever to get into booze and woman, my line would be Excuse me, madam, but I would really love to bed and muss you ... Are you perchance free this evening? — David Levithan

it's like kissing a boy, finally, a boy — David Levithan

I'm just wondering why people stay together," I say. "Why they connect in the first place, and what keeps that connection is strong. I want it to be all things inside
who you are,
what you believe. But what if the things on the outside are just as important? When I was little, I was always worried I'd fall in love with someone ugly. Like Shrek. Then I figured that love would make anyone beautiful to me, if I love them enough. I want to believe that. I want to believe that you can love someone so strongly that none of it will matter. But what if it does? — David Levithan

If you tell me, I will leave you alone," I said. "And if you don't tell me, I am going to grab the nearest ghostwritten James Patterson romance novel and I am going to follow you through this store reading it out loud until you relent. Would you prefer me to read from Daphne's Three Tender Months with Harold or Cindy and John's House of Everlasting Love? I guarantee, your sanity and your indie street cred won't last a chapter. And they are very, very short chapters."
Now I could see the fright beneath the defiance. — David Levithan

Love is so painful, how could you wish it on anybody? — David Levithan

No, Tiny. Words. Passion. The danger of falling in love is you mistakenly believe the loved one is the only source of passion in your life. But there is passion everywhere. In music. In words. In the stories you tell and the stories you see. Find passion everywhere, and share it widely. Don't narrow it down to one thin line. — David Levithan

Making love without noise is like playing a muted piano-fine for practice, but you cheat yourself out of hearing the glorious results. — David Levithan

To love
to fall
is not a question. To touch
to kiss
to speak
those are questions. There is nothing worse than a ruined friendship. There is nothing better than a companion. Somewhere in between lies risk. Somewhere in between, lies. — David Levithan

But that's the part that's so unfair. I have nothing else on my mind. How come I have to be the one sitting around analyzing him in like microscopic detail, and he gets to be the one with other things on his mind? — David Levithan

I wanted every word to last for hours, every gaze to last for days. — David Levithan

Person after person after person ... they all converge at one moment, irrevocably changing the course of a thousand more live.
As it is with accidents, so it is with love. — David Levithan

I'll see you later, he says, and as he does, he runs his finger briefly over my wrist. It passes over me like air, and makes me shiver like a kiss. — David Levithan

It doesn't work," she continues, unclasping her hands, smoothing her skirt. "What you're feeling right now doesn't work. You can't wander around and think the wandering will call them back. Believe me. I know you don't want to hear the long view, but let me tell you. You are so young. I know it's none of my business. But still. — David Levithan

A lot of the time, love feels like it's about figuring out what the other person wants and giving it over. Sometimes that's impossible. But sometimes it's pretty simple. — David Levithan

If he said anything to me, I would gather the sentences like a shell seeker. — David Levithan

What's Valentine's Day about except the desperate search to find someone to spend Valentine's Day with? It just shows that love has become a marketing campaign, like everything else. You buy into it and lose everything. — David Levithan

I have no idea what truth has to do with love, and vice versa. i'm not even thinking in terms of love here. it's way, way, way early for that. but i guess i am thinking in terms of truth. i want this to be truthful. and even as i protest to tiny and i protest to myself, the truth is becoming increasingly clear. it's time for us to figure out how the hell this is ever going to work. — David Levithan

Danger comes in many forms, I suppose. For some people, it might be jumping off a bridge or climbing impossible moutains. For others, it could be a tawdry love affair or telling off a mean-looking bus driver because he doesn't like to stop for noisy teenagers. It could be cheating at cards or eating a peanut even though you're allergic. For me, danger might be getting out from the protective cloak of my family and venturing into the world more of my own, even though I don't know what- or who- awaits me. — David Levithan

Fraught, adj.
Does every "I love you" deserve an "I love you too"? Does every kiss deserve a kiss back? Does every night deserve to be spent on a lover?
If the answer to any of these is "No," what do we do? — David Levithan

Belonging. Togetherness. These words are as complicated and confusing as the word love. It's probably all the same thing. Or it would be if we let it be. — David Levithan

What is it about the moment you fall in love? How can such a small measure of time contain such enormity? — David Levithan

What's gone is gone. — David Levithan

You can't wander around and think the wandering will call them back. — David Levithan

Don't look at the package. Look at what's inside. — David Levithan

She had been lost on her own and I had been lost on my own, so it was natural that once we found each other we wanted to keep being unlost with each other. But that, at heart, had made us exist. — David Levithan

I am stronger than words and I am bigger than the box I'm in, and then I see her in the crowd and I fall apart. — David Levithan

Love is love. I have never fallen in love with a gender. I have fallen for individuals. — David Levithan

We stay this way until twilight colours the window and the hour calls me home — David Levithan

I always think of each night as a song. Or each moment as a song. But now I'm seeing we don't live in a single song. We move from song to song, from lyric to lyric, from chord to chord. There is no ending here. It's an infinite playlist. — David Levithan

There are hundreds of reasons for Daniel and me
to be impossible. History has not been kind
to two boys who love each other like we do.
But putting that aside. And not even considering
the fact that a hundred and fifty years ago,
his family was in a small town in Russia
and my family was in a similarly small town
in Ireland- I can't imagine they could have
imagined us here, together. Forgetting our gender,
ignoring all the strange roads that led to us
being in the same time and place, there is still
the simple impossibility of love. That all of our
contradicting securities and insecurities,
interests and disinterests, beliefs and doubts,
could somehow translate into this common
uncommon affection should be as impossible
as walking to the moon. But instead, I love him. — David Levithan

I should talk to him
I know I should talk to him.
But I do not talk to him.
I watch after him from afar
and love him. — David Levithan

You didn't move your arm. You let me rest there. You didn't pull away. You pulled closer. You were so good to me. You knew and pretended
you didn't.
"Let's always love each other, and never be in love with each other."
And I agreed. — David Levithan

If I woke up in a different body every day
if you never knew what I was going to look like tomorrow
would you still love me? — David Levithan

It's been said of me that I know how to love well, if any person alive can possess such knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us.
It is all such a blessing - in the beginning, and the end, and the during. — David Levithan

But once upon a time - that would be our time - a telephone cord seemed like nothing less than a lifeline.
It was your attachment to the outside world and, even more than that, your attachment to the people you loved, or wanted to love, or tried to love.
Everything about it was fitting - the way it curled in on itself, the way it got so easily tangled, the way you could pull it only so far before it kept you in place.
Twisted and knotted and essential. — David Levithan

That no matter what i did, I would always be missing something else. And the only way to live, the only way to be happy, was to make sure the things I didn't miss meant more to me than the things I missed. — David Levithan

When first love ends, most people eventually know there will be more to come. They are not through with love. Love is not through with them. It will never be the same as the first, but it will be better in different ways. — David Levithan

The running commentary, the loving support, the jokes and the observations and the random thoughts that are made a little less random when they're shared. The desire to be heard is as deeply seeded as the desire to be loved. — David Levithan

You really think love needs to have a future?"
"Absolutely."
"Good," Lily said. "So do I."
"Good," I echoed, leaning in. "So do you."
"Don't repeat what I say," she told me, swatting at my arm.
"Don't repeat what I say," I murmured, smiling.
"You're being silly," she said, but the silliness was falling out of her voice.
"You're being silly," I assured her.
"Lily is the greatest girl who ever was."
I drew closer. "Lily is the greatest girl who ever was."
For a moment, I think we'd forgotten where we were.
And then the officers returned, and we were reminded once again. — David Levithan

We found out a long time ago that we weren't meant to fall in love with each other. But a part of me still fell in hope with him. — David Levithan

This is as much a part of my story as anything else. Friendship is love as much as any romance. — David Levithan

Love, n.

I'm not going to even try. — David Levithan

I want love to conquer all. But love can't conquer anything. It can't do anything on it's own.
It relies on us to do the conquering on its behalf. — David Levithan

I love you-I do-but I am afraid of making that love too important. Because you're always going to leave me, A. We can't deny it. You're always going to leave. — David Levithan

If I lose it now, I will lose you, too. I know that. I hate it. — David Levithan

You're believing in love more than I do; you're standing up for someone who is less than deserving. — David Levithan

We lost track of time because we felt like time had lost track of us. — David Levithan

I want to talk to you and be random with you and be ridiculous with you. — David Levithan

What about you?" I ask her. "What do you think I should read next?" She takes my hand and leads me to the children's section. She looks around for a second, then heads over to a display at the front. I see a certain green book sitting there and panic. "No! Not that one!" I say. But she isn't reaching for the green book. She's reaching for Harold and the Purple Crayon. "What could you possibly have against Harold and the Purple Crayon?" she asks. "I'm sorry. I thought you were heading for The Giving Tree." Rhiannon looks at me like I'm an insane duck. "I absolutely HATE The Giving Tree." I am so relieved. "Thank goodness. That would've been the end of us, had that been your favorite book." "Here - take my arms! Take my legs!" "Take my head! Take my shoulders!" "Because that's what love's about!" "That kid is, like, the jerk of the century," I say, relieved that Rhiannon will know what I mean. "The biggest jerk in the history of all literature, — David Levithan

There are boys lying awake, hating themselves. There are boys screwing for the right reasons and boys screwing for the wrong ones. There are boys sleeping on benches and under bridges, and luckier unlucky boys sleeping in shelters, which feel like safety but not like home. There are boys so enraptured by love that they can't get their hearts to slow down enough to get some rest, and other boys so damaged by love that they can't stop picking at their pain. There are boys who clutch secrets at night in the same way they clutch denial in the day. There are boys who do not think of themselves at all when they dream. There are boys who will be woken in the night. There are boys who fall asleep with phones to their ears. — David Levithan

And love. I am here because of love. — David Levithan