Levithan Quotes & Sayings

Even though it was hard to see you, it was good to see you. — David Levithan

It was so much easier when I don't want anything. Not getting want you want want can make you cruel. — David Levithan

People in Ohio are late all the time. — David Levithan

Maura: is there anything you want to tell me?
me: yeah. I want to tell you that my third nipple is lactating and my butt cheeks are threatening to unionize. what do you think I should do about it?
maura: I feel you're not telling me something. — David Levithan

What i want is for what i want to actually matter. — David Levithan

There was something about our silence that made me comfortable. He wasn't talking to me, but I didn't feel ignored. I felt we were part of the same moment, and it didn't need to be defined. — David Levithan

I don't want to throw everything away for something uncertain. — David Levithan

But now it's the museum backdrop for the exhibition of grief. — 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

We've all done this - created our mix-and-match families, our homemade safety nets. — David Levithan

You say that someday your prince will come. More than anything, you want him to reply, "But what if your prince is right under your nose?" Instead he says, "Well, as long as he's mot one of those deposed princes ... "
You wish he weren't such a prince. You wish he were a frog. — David Levithan

Why are there so many people out here?' Boomer asked as we bobbed and weaved roughly forward.
'Christmas shopping.' I explained.
'Already? Isn't it early to returning things?'
I really had no sense of how his mind worked. — David Levithan

Seeing it erases any premonitions I might have had, because even if I felt something was wrong, I never would have pictured this. — David Levithan

Sorry to be so cynical, but this is New York — David Levithan

Every time two boys kiss, it opens up the world a little bit more. — David Levithan

Mostly I was spending time in the Strand, that bastion of titillating erudition. Not so much a bookstore as a collision of 100 different bookstores, with literary wreckage strewn over 18 miles of shelves. — David Levithan

This is my life, I think. I am an accumulation of objects. — David Levithan

She loves the way Vic looks, using the world debonair instead of dapper. — David Levithan

You will always be my always", he assured me. — David Levithan

The body is the easiest thing to adjust to ... It's the life, the context of the body, that can be hard to grasp. — David Levithan

The three of us do not go out very often as the three of us. I think Daniel is perfect for Jed, which is the highest compliment I can give. But my friendship isn't with him, and Jed understands that. When we hit the road, we hit it together alone.
We get to the bridge, out undestined destination. Even though there's no sign, no arrow, Jed turns at the last minute and parks us in a verge right before the bridge leaves the ground.
The trunk pops open, and Jed runs round back to retrieve a bag of oranges and a sweatshirt that fits me better.
Shall we make like lizards and leap? he asks.
I never felt the urge to jump off a bridge, but there are times I have wanted to jump out of my life, out of my skin.
Would you stroll me down the promenade instead? I ask back.
Most certainly, my splendid.
There is no word for our kind of friendship. Two people tho don't see each other a lot, but can make each other effortlessly happy. — David Levithan

How did you know it was me?' I have to ask.
'The way you looked at me,' she says, 'It couldn't have been anyone else. — David Levithan

How could this happen? some of our parents asked us near the end. We knew what they were really asking, and some of us found the grace to say, It was nothing you did. — David Levithan

How the things that hold us are only as strong as the faith we have in them-you go on the bridge because you trust it will not fall the fingers will clasp because we trust them to. — David Levithan

We saw our friends die. But we also see our friends live. So many of them live, and we often toast their long and full lives. They carry us on. — David Levithan

In the darkest part of our hearts, we used to think that maybe they were right.
We don't think that anymore. — David Levithan

Void is when there is absolutely nothing there and the nothing is natural, a complete vacuum. But empty - with empty, you are aware of what's supposed to be there. Empty means something is missing. — David Levithan

So finally, as a pair of twentysomething men passed by holding hands, Austin said, "Hey, that could be us in ten years."
And Hugo said, "Or ten months."
And Austin said, "Or ten days."
And Hugo said, "Or ten minutes."
And Austin said, "Or ten seconds."
Then they each counted to ten, and held hands for the rest of the day. — David Levithan

Yeah," I said. "You might be human, Jack, but Ariel's mathematics. She's all mathematics."
There are so many things I wish I hadn't said. — David Levithan

He wants to know, "Why would you fuck up Tris's Barbies?" and now I'm like, Shit, is this the price of the sacrifice for Caroline passing out unexpectedly early - that Nick has taken over the melancholy stage that usually follows Caroline's inquisitive one? "I have three sisters and I know that's some serious business, messing with another girl's Barbies." Okay, maybe he's not being melancholy because his sarcastic smile lets me know he's back to being standard-issue band-boy irony creature. Damn him that it somewhat makes me wanna jump his bones. — David Levithan

She's holding it together, too, and I want to tell her she doesn't have to do that for me, because I might not be able to do it or her. I can tell she's also trying not to look back, but she does it - she looks over her shoulder - and the tears won't leave her eyes. — David Levithan

Breathing, n
You had asthma as a child, had to carry around an inhaler. But when you grew older, it went away. You could run for miles and it was fine.
Sometimes I worry that this is happening to me in reverse. The older I get, the more I lose my ability to breathe. — David Levithan

I hate that would. Straight. At the very least, those of us who are nonstraight should get to be called curvy. Or scenic. Actually, I like that: 'Do you think she's straight?' 'Oh no. She's scenic. — David Levithan

No more looking at a wall and pretending it's a mirror. No more shelving fiction in the non-fiction section. No more thinking I could get away with it. — 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

I still don't know if this is a good quality or a bad one, to be able to be in the moment and then step out of it. — David Levithan

Any time I let it, the weight of living creeps in and starts to drag her down. It would be too easy to say that I feel invisible. Instead, I feel painfully visible, and entirely ignored. People talk to her, but it feels like they are outside a house, talking through the walls. There are friends, but they are people to spend time with, not people to share time with. There's a false beast that takes the form of instinct and harps on the pointlessness of everything that happens. — David Levithan

I prayed last night, too,' she said to me, glaring at Mary Catherina's direction. 'I prayed for a good long time to God to do the right thing in Kansas. That's all I said
the right thing. And I guess that's the difference between Mary Catherine and me: I don't feel I need to tell the Lord what the right thing is. I have faith the Lord knows. — David Levithan

Dead is dead. For whatever reason. And in choice between life and death, there is no other choice. — David Levithan

You have to believe there are kisses and laughs and risks worth taking. — 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

is where I am destined to live. — 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

There are all these moments you don't think you will survive. And then you survive. — David Levithan

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

I have seen this too many times before. The unwarranted devotion. Putting up with the fear of being with the wrong person because you can't deal with the fear of being alone. The hope tinged with doubt, and the doubt tinged with hope. — David Levithan

When one of my teammates botches a shot, the coach tells him to stop being a girl. I wish I could tell him that I was a girl two days ago, and two days before that. Nothing is different. A shot is a shot. — David Levithan

Things are going so well. We're volleying words back and forth. Everything she says, I have something I can say back. We're sparking, and part of me just wants to sit back and watch. We're clicking. Not because a part of me is fitting into a part of her. But because our words are clicking into each other to form sentences and our sentences are clicking into each other to form dialogue and our dialogue is clicking together to form this scene from this ongoing movie that's as comfortable as it is unrehearsed. — 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 don't even know what I'm looking for, although I hope I'll know it if I find it along the way. Sometimes I want to simplify my life into a simple bare thing. And other times I want to complicate it so thoroughly that everything I touch will become bound in some way to me. I've become quite aware of my contradictions, but there's no true resolution in that. — 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

If you let the world in, you open yourself up to the world. Even if the world doesn't know that you're there. — 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

School is not like church.
I know a lot of people in my school are happy about this,
but I think that's because they've known the wrong kind
of churches, the ones that hold back instead of lifting up. — David Levithan

The weight does not life itself, although over time it lightens. Sometimes we need to push. And sometimes that is very hard. — 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

Once the storm comes out, the landscape changes. What you had before is altered in some way. And you have a choice: build something new and better from what is left or abandon it. — David Levithan

I think that this might be the easiest way to live - just concentrate On the small things, and never let your mind wander on big things, — David Levithan

If you zoom close-if you get really close to someone, if you really get close to yourself-then you lose the other person, you lose yourself entirely. You get so close you can't see anything anymore. — David Levithan

the history is there, but it's not visible. — David Levithan

The world is full of people who think different is synonymous with wrong. — David Levithan

Brothers are not like sisters. — David Levithan

The world loves stupid labels. I wish we got to choose our own. — David Levithan

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

If you demonize a person's pleasure, then you can control his or her life. — David Levithan

Is that what relationships become? A reduced version of the hurt, nothing else let in. — David Levithan

Part of my music is being alone, having that time to shut down all other noises to hear the tune underneath. — David Levithan

The world, right now, is only us. — David Levithan

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

right at this moment, I cannot imagine it being any worse
right here, I have been turned into nothing
right now, I am negated — David Levithan

When it comes to true dance, it's not about how you look, it's all about the joy you feel. — David Levithan

Defunct, adj.
You brought home a typewriter for me. — 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

When nothing else is left, art will become the truth of the time. — David Levithan

If I don't shut down my brain soon, my imagination will take off so far about what could be with this guy, that nothing will ever just be.-- Norah, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist — Rachel Cohn

As soon as Neil is out of the shower, he texts Peter.
You up? he asks.
And the reply comes instantly:
For anything. — David Levithan

When I was younger, I craved friendship and closeness. I make bonds without acknowledging how quickly and permanently they would break. I took people lives' personally. I felt their friends could be my friends, their parents could be their parents. But after awhile, I had to stop. It was too heartbreaking to live with too many separations. — David Levithan

If you were a country," I said, "what would your national anthem be?"
I meant a pre-existing song
"What a Wonderful World" or "Que Sera, Sera" or something to make it a joke, like "Hey Ya!" ("I would like, more than anything else, for my nation to be shaken like a Polaroid picture.") — David Levithan

The had compatible silences. — David Levithan

Ignorance is not bliss. Bliss is knowing the full meaning of what you have been given. — David Levithan

The song "Dream a Little Dream of Me" comes on Tariq's playlist, which makes Harry think of the movie Beautiful Thing, as Tariq no doubt knew it would. Harry can feel Craig smile under his lips, and knows he must be sharing the same thought. As confirmation, Harry feels Craig's finger on his back, tracing the letter B, then T. They start to shuffle and slow-dance. It feels good to move their legs. — David Levithan

I had gotten so used to being alone, but never entirely used to it. Never used to it enough to stop wanting the alternative. — David Levithan

Exacerbate, v.
I believe your exact words were: You're getting too emotional. — David Levithan

I worry
about you
and i tell him
don't
and he says
that's exactly
why — David Levithan

At some point last year, her gloom met my doom and she thought it was a good match. i'm not so sure, but at least i get coffee out of it. — David Levithan

Next to it was a dvd called 'as i get laid dying,' which had a hospital scene on the front. it was like grey's anatomy, only with less grey and more anatomy. — David Levithan

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

The smell of the nail polish made me think of Amber and the rest of my friends. I missed them, but in theory. It wasn't them I missed, but friendship. QUITE YET. — David Levithan

When you live as I do, you cannot indulge in jealousy. If you do, it will rip you apart. — David Levithan

Slowly would be better than not at all. — 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

There's been a lot of things said about me
Since that awful day
I'm not the person that I used to be
And that I'll never be the same
That's true - no doubt
But I know more now what life is about
I laugh louder
Cry harder
Take less time to make up my mind
and I
Think smarter
Go slower
I know what I want
And what I don't
I'll be better than I've ever been — David Levithan

Limbo is the state where there are only questions. That was as far as I'd gotten. — David Levithan

Fuck, I loved her then. And 'then' is blurring into 'now'. I'm thinking 'why not?' I'm thinking 'we're still the same people. — David Levithan