Quotes & Sayings About Love Sarah Dessen

Wherever you will go, I will let you down, But this lullaby goes on. — Sarah Dessen

Well, here we are," Ethan said. "The end of the world."

I smiled, turning slightly to take in the full view. "It's different to what I expected."

"The big stuff always is," he said. — Sarah Dessen

You want to take me to a movie?" I asked.
"Well, not really," he said. "What I really want is for you to be my girlfriend. But I thought saying that might scare you off. — Sarah Dessen

As I shut the door and started to walk away, I heard him say, "Hey. Sydney."
"Yeah?"
"You had on a shirt with mushrooms on it, and your hair was pulled back. Silver earrings. Pepperoni slice. No lollipop."
I just looked at him, confused. Layla was walking toward us now.
"The first time you came into Seaside," he said. "You weren't invisible, not to me. Just so you know. — Sarah Dessen

If you try anything, if you try to lose weight, or to improve yourself, or to love, or to make the world a better place, you have already achieved something wonderful, before you even begin. Forget failure. If things don't work out the way you want, hold your head up high and be proud. And try again. And again. And again! — Sarah Dessen

I wasn't ready to think about the other yet: that it wasn't that I wasn't right for Macon, but that maybe he wasn't right for me. There was a difference. Even for someone who things didn't come easy for, someone like me. — Sarah Dessen

And to know me, as you have discovered, is to love me. — Sarah Dessen

It doesn't matter, anyway, why you like me. Just that you do. — Sarah Dessen

You asked me to go out with you. I know you probably changed your mind. But you should know, the answer was yes. It's always been yes when it comes to you. — Sarah Dessen

The fate of your heart is your choice and no one else gets a vote — Sarah Dessen

Everything in life had its phases, and if you were smart, you learned to appreciate them all.

What really mattered, though, were the people in those moments with you. Memories are what we have and what we keep, and I held mine close. The ones I knew well, like a night on the beach with a boy who would always live in my heart, and the ones yet to come with another. — Sarah Dessen

When you've never gotten love from someone, you don't know what it might look like if it ever does appear. You look for it in everything: any bright light overhead could be a star. — Sarah Dessen

Love is an excuse to put up with shit that you shouldn't — Sarah Dessen

He wasn't the type for displays of affection, either verbal or not. He was disgusted by couples that made out in the hallways between classes, and got annoyed at even the slightest sappy moments in movies. But I knew he cared about me: he just conveyed it more subtly, as concise with expressing this emotion as he was with everything else. It was in the way he'd put his hand on the small of my back, for instance, or how he'd smile at me when I said something that surprised him. Once I might have wanted more, but I'd come around to his way of thinking in the time we'd been together. And we were together, all the time. So he didn't have to prove how he felt about me. Like so much else, I should just know. — Sarah Dessen

Are those the only options? Nothing or forever? — Sarah Dessen

Who knew three dots could make such a difference? Like everything else, a love or a wish or whatever, it was all in the way you read it. — Sarah Dessen

He grinned again. We'd only been seeing each other for a few weeks now, but this easy give-and-take still surprised me. From that very first day in my room, I felt like we'd somehow skipped the formalities of the Beginning of a Relationship: those awkward moments when you're not all over each other and are still feeling out the other person's boundaries and limits. Maybe this was because we'd been circling each other for a while before he finally catapulted through my window. But if I let myself think about it much - and I didn't - I had flashes of realising that I'd been comfortable with him even at the very start. Clearly, he'd been comfortable with me, grabbing my hand as he had that first day. As if he knew, even then, that we'd be here now. — Sarah Dessen

Love is an excuse to put up with the shit that you shouldn't. That's how it gets you. It throws off the scales so that things that should weigh heavily don't seem to. It's a crock. A trap. — Sarah Dessen

Hollis " I said "you're messing with me right now aren't you You're in Paris or somewhere and just-"
"What " he replied. "No This is the real deal. Here I'll prove it."
There was a muffled noise followed by some static. Then I heard my mother recite at a distance in her most droll flat tone "Yes. It is true. Your brother is in love and in my kitchen. — Sarah Dessen

Maybe not," she said as we came to the car. "But maybe that isn't so bad. You can't love anyone that way more than once in a lifetime. It's too hard and it hurts too much when it ends. The first boy is always the hardest to get over, Haven. It's just the way the world works. — Sarah Dessen

Me and Ethan, dancing in the dark at the end of the world. — Sarah Dessen

The worst thing you can do if you miss or need someone is let them know it. — Sarah Dessen

The love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And that's the key. It's like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship has to be the biggest piece. Love can make up for a lot, Remy. — Sarah Dessen

But as I stood watching her, I realized how truly hard it was,really, to see someone you love change right before your eyes. Not only is it scary, it throws your balance off as well. This was how my mother felt, I realized, over the weeks I worked at Wish, as she began to not recognize me in small ways, day after day. It was no wonder she'd reacted by pulling me closer, frcibly narrowing my world back to fit insider her own. Even now, as I finally saw this as the truth it was, a part of me wishing my mother would stand up straight, take command, be back in control. But all I'd wanted when she was tugging me closer was to be able to prove to her that the changes in me were good ones, ones she'd understand if she only gave them a chance. I had that chance now. While it was scary, I was gong to take it.
~Macy, pgs 351 and 352 — Sarah Dessen

I opened my eyes to see a silver chain, like his but thinner, longer, with a saint pendant on it. I wasn't the same as his, though; the image was of a man's profile, his eyes turned upward.
'Who is it?' I asked.
'No idea. I found it in a jar my mom has full of them,' he said. 'I was looking for someone like mine, then just someone I recognized. But then I thought maybe it was cooler to have it be a mystery, you know? So it's not just about one thing, but anything. That way, it can be about what you want it to be.'
I turned it over in my hand. Like the image on the front, the back was well-worn, the few words there unreadable.
'Saint Anything.' I looked up at him. 'I love it. Thank you. — Sarah Dessen

There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment. — Sarah Dessen

It was just a tiny moment. Not a kiss, not even real contact. But for all the things it wasn't, it meant so much. — Sarah Dessen

I put my pen to the paper and began to write. I'd made so many wishes for so many couples quietly in my head as they drove away, but writing the words out made it seem more real, possible. For them, and maybe for me.
FOR YOU, I WISH FOR SECOND CHANCES.

I folded it shut, then put it on the wall before I could change my mind, right above Jilly's. As Michael Salem called out to her and she started his way, I crossed the backyard, moving toward the music. When I looked back at the wish wall from a distance, it was a sea of squares: I couldn't even find mine among them. So many things we ask for, hope for, prayers put out into a world so wide: there was no way they could all be answered. But you had to keep asking. If you didn't, nothing even had a chance of coming true. — Sarah Dessen

I love YA, and it's been a really good fit for me. But at some point, I would like to try something else: a collection of short stories, or writing about something other than high school. A lot has happened to me since I was eighteen. — Sarah Dessen

You can't measure love by time put in, but the weight of those moments. Some in life are light, like a touch. Others, you can't help but stagger beneath. — Sarah Dessen

Well, it's true that I have been hurt in my life. Quite a bit. But it's also true that I have loved, and been loved. and that carries a weight of its own. A greater weight, in my opinion. It's like that pie chart we talked about earlier. in the end, I'll look back on my life and see that the greatest piece of it was love. The problems, the divorces, the sadness ... those will be there too, but just smaller slivers, tiny pieces. — Sarah Dessen

Everything seemed bright and different after so long in the darkness. Even though most of the businesses were closed, there was one neon sign lit in the window of a narrow storefront. COFFEE AND PIE, it read. Two bikes were parked just outside.

On the boardwalk, in the thrown light of the neon sign, his head dipped down as I pulled my fingers through his hair. The night still in progress, with daylight hours away. — Sarah Dessen

We were willing to do so much for the people we loved, even if it meant hurting ourselves. Maybe that, in the end, was what love- all kinds- was really about. — Sarah Dessen

If he'd been any other boy, and this was any other world, I would have kissed him. Nothing could have stopped me. — Sarah Dessen

Finally he asks, "What if that's not enough? What if I need something else?"
And she replies, "Whatever you need, I will find a way to get it to you. I will give you the moon, and more. — Sarah Dessen

I think as a writer one of the benefits is that you can put things that you're interested in into your books. I always have put a lot of food and restaurants because I was a waitress and I love to eat. — Sarah Dessen

I have to admit, an unrequited love is so much better than a real one. I mean, it's perfect ... As long as something is never even started, you never have to worry about it ending. It has endless potential. — Sarah Dessen

So," she went on, "it got me thinking about what cost beauty. Or for that matter, what cost anything? Would you trade love for beauty? Or happiness for beauty? Could a gorgeous person with a mean streak be a worthy trade? And if you did make the trade, decide you'd take that beautiful swan and hope it wouldn't turn on you, what would you do if it did? — Sarah Dessen

Isn't that the way everything begins? A night, a love, a once and for all. — Sarah Dessen

I really just love to read, period, whether it be books or magazines or the back of the cereal box. It's the one thing I can always count on to calm me down, take me away and inspire me, all at once. — Sarah Dessen

But against love, the case was solid. Easily argued. And you could, indeed, hold it in your hand. — Sarah Dessen

I think she loves him," Lissa said. "And love is needing someone.
Love is putting up with someone's
bad qualities because they somehow complete you."
"Love is an excuse to put up with shit that you shouldn't," I replied, — Sarah Dessen

You bought me some forks. And knives. And spoons. Because you love me! — Sarah Dessen

You can't love anyone that way more than once in a lifetime. It's too hard and it hurts too much when it ends. — Sarah Dessen

No relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways you have to bend, to compromise, to give something up in order to gain something greater ... The love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And that's the key. It's like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship has to be the biggest piece. Love can make up for a lot. — Sarah Dessen

He was not my boyfriend. On the other hand, he wasn't just a friend either. Instead, our relationship was elastic, stretching between those two extremes depending on who else was around, how much either of us had to drink, and other varying factors. This was exactly what I wanted, as commitments had never really been my thing. And it wasn't like it was hard, either. The only trick was never giving more than you were willing to lose. — Sarah Dessen

It was a basic plot in any number of her books: girl strikes out, makes good, finds love, gets revenge. In that order. The making good and striking out part I liked. The rest would just be bonus. — Sarah Dessen

If I'd ever seen what love really could do, or was, maybe I'd have believed in it from the start. But too much of my life had been spent watching marriages come together and then fall apart. So I understood, yes. But sometimes, like lately, I wished that I didn't, not at all. — Sarah Dessen

Look," I said, "We knew Jason and Becky would be back, the break would end. This isn't a surprise, it's what's supposed to happen. It's what we wanted. Right?"
"Is it?" he asked. "Is it what you want?"
Whether he intended it to be or not, this was the final question, the last Truth. If I said what I really thought, I was opening myself up for a hurt bigger than I could even imagine. I didn't have it in me. We changed and altered so many rules, but it was this one, the only one when we'd started, that I would break.
"Yes," I said. — Sarah Dessen

I think my mother characters have changed a lot since Sasha was born, just because I understand what a hard job it is now, and I'm coming at it from another angle - like you just love and care about this person so much, and just want to protect them from everything. — Sarah Dessen

So," he said as we turned onto the main road, the muffler rattling, "I've been thinking."
"Yeah?"
He nodded. "You really need to go out with me."
I blinked. "I'm sorry?"
"You know. You, me. A restaurant or movie. Together." He glanced over, shifting gears. "Maybe it's a new concept for you? If so, I'll be happy to walk you through it."
"You want to take me to a movie?" I asked.
"Well, not really," he said. "What I really want is for you to be my girlfriend. But I though saying that might scare you off. — Sarah Dessen

It [I'm leaving] wasn't really necessary to say, especially if you were already walking away. Almost redundant. And yet, there was a comfort in being no question, no room for doubt. — Sarah Dessen

It was the best kind of love story ... until there was an ending to it. — Sarah Dessen

All I want is someone decent." She sniffled again, her eyes filling with tears. "You know? Kind. Good. Like in all those love stories I'm such an expert on. It can't just be fiction. It can't. Those guys are out there, I know it. I just can't find them." Those guys were out there. In fact, one was watching us right now, somewhere nearby. Keeping his distance, knowing she needed me to herself right then, but still, just outside the door. — Sarah Dessen

But all the love in the world won't save a sinking ship. You have to either bail or jump overboard. — Sarah Dessen

He doesn't love me. He might still love me as I was at fifteen, when I didn't know any better. When I trusted everyone. I'm not that person any more. He's just a boy. He was the first to really hurt me, but he's just a boy. There were a lot of them. — Sarah Dessen

For you, I wish for second chances — Sarah Dessen

It was like those songs I'd heard as a child, each so familiar, and all mine. When i got older and realized the words were sad, the stories tragic, it didn't make me love them any less. By then they were already part of me, woven into my conciousness & memory — Sarah Dessen

I would have thought this would make me feel better.. getting to be the one to leave and not the one left behind. But it didn't. Not at all. — Sarah Dessen

We didn't talk about our scars, the ones you could see and the ones you couldn't. — Sarah Dessen

With love like that, you can't get pick about how it finds you or the details. All that matters is that it's there. Better late than never. — Sarah Dessen

I realized how truly hard it was, really, to see someone you love change right before your eyes. Not only is it scary, it throws your balance off as well. — Sarah Dessen

I had no illusions about love anymore. It came, it went, it left casualties or it didn't. People weren't meant to be together forever, regardless of what the songs say. — Sarah Dessen

I understand that you are under a lot of pressure and that it's hard being a bride. That is all well and good. But it does not, ever, entitle you to be rude, selfish, uncaring, and generally obnoxious to me or Haven or anyone else. We've been very patient with you because we're your family and we love you, but it stops here. I don't care if the wedding is two weeks or two hours away, you were never raised to behave this way. — Sarah Dessen

So this had been all I wanted, a boy who understood how I felt. Now, though, I sometimes wished for more. — Sarah Dessen

It didn't make you noble to step away from something that wasn't working, even if you thought you were the reason for the malfunction. Especially then. It just made you a quitter. Because if you were the problem, chances were you could also be the solution. The only way to find out was to take another shot. — Sarah Dessen

Because you can never go from going out to being friends, just like that. It's a lie. It's just something that people say they'll do to take the permanence out of a breakup. And someone always takes it to mean more than it does, and then is hurt even more when, inevitably, said 'friendly' relationship is still a major step down from the previous relationship, and it's like breaking up all over again. But messier. — Sarah Dessen

Love can make up for a lot. — Sarah Dessen

You know, when it works, love is amazing. It's not overrated. — Sarah Dessen

I didn't pretend to know Eli at all, but even so, I'd noticed that his manner was slightly hard to read. It was something in the way he talked that made it difficult to tell whether he was kidding or serious or what. This bothered me. Or intrigued me. Or both. — Sarah Dessen

He had a nice smile. Seeing it, I felt like I'd won a prize, because he was so sparing with them. — Sarah Dessen

For as long as I could remember, other people had either overshadowed me or left me out in the open, alone. But Mac, as Layla had said all those weeks ago, was always somewhere nearby. He left me enough space to stand alone, but stood at the ready for the moment that I didn't want to. It was the perfect medium, I was learning. Like he was my saint, the one I'd been waiting for. — Sarah Dessen

You know, when it works, love is pretty amazing. It's not overrated. There's a reason for all those songs. — Sarah Dessen

That first love. And the first one who breaks your heart. For me, they just happen to be the same person. — Sarah Dessen

I'd never been in love, never felt that surge of feeling or that fall from its graces. I'd only watched as others weathered it: my mother in her garden, Sumner on the front lawn all those years ago, Ashley sobbing from the other side of a wall. I sat kerbside with my best friend and held her, trying to shoulder some of the hurt. There's only so much you can do, in these situations. — Sarah Dessen

Don't be a fool. Don't give up something important to hold onto someone who can't even say they love you. — Sarah Dessen

Love is so unpredictable. Sometimes you'll know a man for years and then one day, boom! Suddenly you see him in a different way. And other times, it's that first date, that first moment. That's what makes it so great. — Sarah Dessen

If what you're asking is how I debated whether or not to love her the answer is I didn't. Not at all. It just happened. I didn't ever question it; by the time I realized what was happening, it was already done. — Sarah Dessen

Again, this made me think of Daisy, and her white lie about the dresses. We were willing to do so much for the people we loved, even if it meant hurting ourselves. Maybe that, in the end, was what love
all kinds
was really all about. — Sarah Dessen

Sometimes love can be an ugly thing. — Sarah Dessen

It's you who i have thought of when i am at
my weakest & you who have pulled me through — Sarah Dessen

If you didn't love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love and everything that followed it is part of letting it go. — Sarah Dessen

Fall in love with someone who truly deserves your heart. Not with someone who plays with it. — Sarah Dessen

What did it feel like, I wondered, to love someone that much? So much that you couldn't even control yourself when they came close, as if you might just break free of whatever was holding you and throw yourself at them with enough force to easily overwhelm you both. — Sarah Dessen

Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you. — Sarah Dessen

But you never know what you can do until you try, and if you're lucky, what you love will always be waiting for you — Sarah Dessen

Like maybe it's forever, maybe it's not — Sarah Dessen

Listen,"Kristy said," the truth is,nothing is guranteed. You know better than anybody." She looked at me hard,making sure I knew what she meant.I did."So don't be afraid.Be alive. — Sarah Dessen

I want the white one — Sarah Dessen

After all, it's all kinds of things that make up a life, right? The big, like falling in love and spending time with your family, and the little ... like blow drying your hair, applying concealer, and cursing those magazine inserts. It all counts. It has to. — Sarah Dessen

We were there, together, and in the next room I could hear that monitor beeping. Keeping track of another heart's beat and giving enduring, solid proof of our own. — Sarah Dessen

You can't be together, which is exactly why you want to be. — Sarah Dessen

I like flaws. I think they make things interesting. — Sarah Dessen

I mean, it's not surprising, really. Once you love something, you always love it in some way. You have to. It's, like, part of you for good. — Sarah Dessen

The truth was I knew, after all those flat January days, that I deserved better. I deserved I love yous and kiwi fruits and warriors coming to my door, besotted with love. I deserved pictures of my face in a thousand expressions, and the warmth of a baby's kick beneath my hand. I deserved to grow, and to change, to become all the girls I could be over the course of my life, each one better than the last. — Sarah Dessen

But sometimes I longed for that sense of someone pulling me close, feeling another heartbeat against mine. — Sarah Dessen

It's not a switch you can just flip off", Dr. Marshall had told me once. "If you didn't love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love-and everything that followed is part of letting it go. — Sarah Dessen

But God!Who could live like this , anyway, with the kind of guesswork that was enough to make a person crazy, just sailing along, taking bumps here and there, no course navigated whatsoever, with any big wave capable of just tipping and sinking you entirely. IT was madness, stipidity, and- (then I saw him) — Sarah Dessen

Love is so unpredictable. That's what makes it so great. — Sarah Dessen

Holding people away from you, and denying yourself love, that doesn't make you strong. if anything, it makes you weaker. Because you're doing it out of fear. — Sarah Dessen