Quotes & Sayings About Paper Towns

You were with Margo Roth Spiegelman last night? At THREE A.M.? I nodded. Alone? I nodded. Oh my God, if you hooked up with her, you have to tell me every single thing that happened. You have to write me a term paper on the look and feel of Margo Roth Spiegelman's breasts. Thrity pages, minimum! I want you to do a photo-realistic pencil drawing. A sculpture would also be acceptable. I was wondering if it would be possible for you to write a sestina about Margo Roth Spiegelman's breasts? Your six words are: pink, round, firmness, succulent, supple, and pillowy. Personally, I think at least one of the words should be buhbuhbuhbuh. — John Green

To find Margo Roth Spiegelman, you must become Margo Roth Spiegelman.
And I had done many of the things she might have done: I had engineered a most unlikely prom coupling. I had quieted the hounds of caste warfare. I had come to feel comfortable inside the rat-infested haunted house where she did her best thinking. I had seen. I had listened. But I could not yet become the wounded person. — John Green

I'm a big believer in random capitalization. The rules of capitalization are so unfair to the words in the middle. (32) — John Green

We're not going to break anything. Don't think of it as breaking in to SeaWorld. Think of it as visiting SeaWorld in the middle of the night for free. — John Green

It became a weekend of reading, of trying to see her in the fragments of the poem she'd left for me. — John Green

A Margo for each of us
and each more mirror than window. — John Green

As we walked, I kept taking glances at her through the crowd, quick snapshots: a photographic series entitled Perfection Stands Still While Mortals Walk Past. — John Green

You will leave to the paper towns and never come back. — John Green

And I wanted to tell her that the pleasure for me wasn't planning or doing or leaving; the pleasure was in seeing our strings cross and separate and then come back together. — John Green

Maybe all the strings inside him broke. — John Green

This was not a place you go to live. It was a place you go to die.- Paper Towns — John Green

You're cute when you're confident. And less when you're not. -John Green, Paper Towns — John Green

On time for us was thirty minutes before actually started, because the half hour before the first bell was the highlight of our social calendars: standing outside the side door that led into the band room and just talking. — John Green

ALSO BY JOHN GREEN Looking for Alaska ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... An Abundance of Katherines ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Paper Towns ... ... ... ... ... ... Will Grayson, Will Grayson WITH DAVID LEVITHAN — John Green

forever is composed of nows — John Green

How can you seperate those things though? The people are the place is the people. — John Green

All those poeple living in their paper houses, burning they paper future to stay warm. All the paper kids, drinking paper beer some bum bought for them at the paper convienience store ... All this things paper-thin and paper-frail. — John Green

Because it's kind of great, being an idea that everybody likes. But I could never be the idea to myself, not all the way. And Agloe is a place where a paper creation became real. A dot on the map became a real place, more real than the people who created the dot could never have imagined. I thought maybe the paper cutout of a girl could start becoming real here also. And it seemed like a way to tell that paper girl who cared about popularity and clothes and everything else: 'You are going to the paper towns. And you are never coming back. — John Green

I don't believe in prom,' I reminded her as she rounded a corner. I expertly angled my raisin bran to accomodate the g-forces. I'd done this before. — John Green

You're just a really loud, awkward ninja, but we are both ninjas. — John Green

I always got very nervous whenever I heard that Margo was about to show up, on account of how she was the most fantastically gorgeous creature that God has ever created. — John Green

Here's what's not beautiful about it: from here, you can't see the rust or the cracked paint or whatever, but you can tell what the place really is. You can see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town. I mean, look at it, Q: look at all those culs-de-sac, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters. — John Green

Margo was so beautiful that even her fake smiles were convincing. (54) — John Green

I'd been in the dark so long I was still craving it. — John Green

That poem is so damned long. You'd think old Walt could have taken a line or two to tell us how to unscrew the door from its jamb. — John Green

I think maybe the reason I have spent most of my life being afraid is that I have been trying to prepare myself to train my body for real fear when it comes. But I am not prepared. — John Green

I always like routine. I suppose I never found boredom very boring. — John Green

You will do to the paper towns and you will never come back — John Green

The last time I was this scared, I peed myself."
"The last time I was this scared," Radar says, "I actually had to face a Dark Lord in order to make the world safe for wizards. — John Green

It was psychological trick called empathic listening. You say what the person is feeling so they feel understood. — John Green

Remember that time in the minivan, twenty minutes ago, when we didn't die? — John Green

Was it animal pee or human pee? Someone asked.
How would I know? What, am I an expert in the study of pee? — John Green

I know it's impossible for you to see your peers this way, but when you're older, you start to see them
the bad kids and the good kids and all kids
as people. They're just people, who deserve to be cared for. — John Green

Foever is composed of nows. — Paper Towns - John Green

Pg. 231-232: They'd given me a minivan. They could have picked any car and they picked a minivan. A minivan. O God of the Vehicular Justice, why dost thou mock me? Minivan, you albatross around my neck! You mark of Cain! You wretched beast high ceilings and few horsepower! — John Green

At some point, you gotta stop looking up at the sky, or one of these days you'll look back down and see that you floated away, too. — John Green

But it was the last string. It was a lame string, for sure, but it was the one I had left, and every paper girl needs at least one string, right? — John Green

It's kind of great, being an idea that everybody likes. But I could never be the idea to myself, not all the way. — John Green

Do you guys remember that one time, in the minivan, twenty minutes ago, that we somehow didn't die? — John Green

Please stop," I said. "You're upsetting the black Santas. — John Green

What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person. — John Green

We bring the fucking rain Q, not the scattered showers. — John Green

I have never really thought of him as a person, either ... A guy whose strings were broken, who didn't feel the root of his leaves of grass connected to the field, a guy who was cracked. Like me. — John Green

I spy with my little eye a great story. — John Green

The town was paper, but the memory was not. — John Green

I felt so detached from all this shit, all this high-school-is-ending-So-we-have-to-reveal-that-deep-down-we-all-love-everybody bullshit. — John Green

From the front Rdar announces, "Don't you go talking bad about GoFast bars. Do you want me to stop this car?"
"Whenever I eat a GoFast bar," Ben says, "I'm always like, 'So this is what blood tastes like to mosquitoes. — John Green

These kids, they're like tied-down helium balloons. They strain against the string and strain against it, and then something happens, and that string gets cut, and they just float away. ( ... ) But once that string gets cut, kid, you can't uncut it. — John Green

Leaving feels too good, once you leave. — John Green

A cupcake is just a muffin with clown puke topping. And once you've got through the clown puke there's nothing but a fistful of quotidian sponge nestling in a depressing, soggy 'cup' that feels like a pair of paper knickers a fat man has been sitting in throughout a long, hot coach journey between two disappointing market towns. — Charlie Brooker

Getting you a date to prom is so hard that the hypothetical idea itself is actually used to cut diamonds," I added. Radar tapped a locker twice with his fist to show his approval, and then came back with another. "Ben, getting you a date to prom is so hard that the American government believes the problem cannot be solved with diplomacy, but will instead require force. — John Green

Ben, there are more important things going on," I answered.
"DESIGNATED DRIVER!"
"What?"
"You're my designated driver! Yes! You are so designated! I love that you answered! That's so awesome! I have to be home by six! And I designate you to get me there! YESSSSSSS!"
"Can't you just spend the night there?" I asked.
"NOOOO! Booooo. Booo on Quentin. Hey, everybody! Boooo Quentin!" And then I was booed. "Everybody's drunk. Ben drunk. Lacey drunk. Radar drunk. Nobody drive. Home by six. Promised Mom. Boo, Sleepy Quentin! Yay, Designated Driver! YESSSS! — John Green

But I had to kill you, because the only other possible ending was us doing it, which I wasn't really emotionally ready to write about at ten.'
'Fair enough,' I say. 'But in the revision, I want to get some action. — John Green

Paper Towns for a Paper Girl, who wants to think and read clearly — John Green

His research led him to one overwhelming conclusion, published in a seminal paper in 1975: big cities nurture subcultures much more effectively than suburbs or small towns. — Steven Johnson

I leave, and the leaving is so exhilarating I know I can never go back. But then what? Do I just keep leaving places, and leaving them, and leaving them, tramping a perpetual journey? — John Green

I am thinking that I don't want this to happen. I don't want to die. I don't want my friends to die. And to be honest, as the time slows down and my hands are in the air, I am afforded the chance to think one more thought, and I think about her. I blame her for this ridiculous, fatal chase
for putting us at risk, for making me into the kind of jackass who would stay up all night and drive too fast. I would not be dying were it not for her. I would have stayed home, as I have always stayed home, and I would've been safe, and I would have done the one thing I have always wanted to do, which is to grow up. — John Green

By the power of the superglue beer sword, I designate you my driver! — John Green

But then again, if you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all. Imagining isn't perfect. You can't get all the way inside someone else. I could never have imagined Margo's anger at being found, or the story she was writing over. But imagining being someone else, or the world being something else, is the only way in. — John Green

I feel like I might start crying and that I'm going to cry pee. — John Green

A poem can't do its work if you only read snippets of it. — John Green

It's more impressive," I said out loud. "From a distance, I mean. You can't see the wear on things, you know? You can't see the rust or the weeds or the paint cracking. You see the place as someone once imagined it. — John Green

You don't give a shit if people like you. — John Green

She loved so much misteries tha she became one — John Green

I looked down and thought about how I was made of paper. I was the flimsy-foldable person, not everyone else. — John Green

Tonight, darling, we are going to right a lot of wrongs. And we are going to wrong some rights. The first shall be last; the last shall be first; the meek shall do some earth-inheriting. But before we can radically reshape the world, we need to shop. — John Green

On some fundamental level we find it difficult to understand that other people are human beings in the same way that we are. — John Green

I shaved this morning for precisely that reason. I was like, 'Well, you never know when someone is going to clamp down on your calf and try to suck out the snake poison. — John Green

Its a paper town, with paper houses and paper people, everything is uglier up close. — John Green

You're upsetting the black Santas. — John Green

Physical space between us evaporates. We play the broken strings of our instruments one last time — John Green

Jesus, kid, you're almost a detective. All you need now is a gun, a gut, and three ex-wives. — John Green

I left the only way you can leave. You pull your life off all at once - like a Band-Aid. — John Green

It was a lame string, for sure, but it was the one I had left and every paper girl needs at least one string, right? (58) — John Green

I had not cried for Margo until then, but now finally I did, pounding against the ground and shouting because there was no on to hear: I missed her I missed her I missed her I miss her. — John Green

All I have to do is stay in between the lines and make sure that no one is too close to me and I am not too close to anyone and keep leaving. Maybe it felt like this for her, too, but I could never feel like this alone. — John Green

The thing is that I do believe in college, and jobs, and maybe even babies one day. I believe in the future. Maybe it's a character flaw, but for me it is a congenital one. — John Green

I can almost imagine a happiness without her, the ability to let her go, to feel our roots are connected even if I never see that leaf of grass again. — John Green

We imagine people as animals or gods. -But she was just a person, a girl. — John Green

Let's put it this way- if The Fault in Our Stars was a person I would marry them. Will Grayson, WIll Grayson would be my maid/man of honor. Alaska and Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines and Let it Snow would be my best friends. In short- you can't go wrong with John Green. Ever. — Emma Crape

Just deleting vandalism on the Chuck Norris page," Radar said. "For instance, while I do think that Chuck Norris specializes in the roundhouse kick, I don't think it's accurate to say, 'Chuck Norris's tears can cure cancer, but unfortunately he has never cried. — John Green

So maybe we won't ever win the lottery, or marry royalty, or make that last second shot. That doesn't mean we won't have amazing adventures, meet exceptional people, and make indelible memories. The trick is to notice before it's too late. — John Green