Young Adult Contemporary Quotes & Sayings

He wasn't kissing me like I was going to break; he was kissing me like he thought he would break without this kiss. — Christie Cote

I love you when you're happy.
I love you when you're sad.
I love you if you're angry,
And I love you if you're bad.
No matter how you feel,
I love you all the time.
Oh my sweet, dear baby,
I love you all the time. — Carla J. Hanna

You said my name and my heart went rogue — Zandile

It's funny how books can change you. You open up a book and one minute you are who you've always been, then you read some random passage and you become someone else. — Brian Joyce

I'm going to turn my life around. Make a complete three sixty."
"Don't you mean one eighty?" he corrected. "If you do that, you'll end up right back where you started."
"Maybe. But at least I'll have a chance of coming out of it a different person - a better version of me. — Megan Duke

My mouth dropped open, because even if it wasn't my best friend, I knew the guy who was presently rubbing the short stubble on his chin. The only new thing about him was the little scar on his left eyebrow. It was Gabriel Green, known to me as Gabe the douche bag. Great! — Stephanie Witter

Kyle must have seen my panic, because when I looked up at him again, his jacket and shirt were off and he was handing me his shirt. The sight of him with no shirt on hit me. Holy hell, what was he doing? — Christie Cote

No, it's okay. It was just ... weird. No one has ever called me hot before."
"Really?" Trace frowned. "Well, that changes right now."
He ceased walking, stopping in the dead center of the pathway and reached for my hands. "Jade Cannon, you are totally hot!" Trace announced loudly, and people nearby stopped to stare at us after his outburst. I couldn't help but laugh. — Chelsea Lynn Charters

While there are memories I wish I could dispose of, sometimes my memories are the only things that keep me sane. — Shaun David Hutchinson

How have we lived in the same place for all these years and only just met?

Because we weren't meant to meet then. This is our now. — Micalea Smeltzer

The pure menace radiating from my younger sister is undeniable. She can hate me, but I need her to know that she has something that Stella never did: a place to fall. "And if he hurts you or if anyone hurts you...you have me."
It feels unnatural, but I hug my sister. Her arms are limp at her sides, but she doesn't push me away.
"Remember, you have me," I repeat. — Katie McGarry

Fair enough ... No inhaling battery acid," I smirk. "We can't breathe battery
acid, can we? — M.A. George

I just want to know - are you rooting for me? Are you hoping I pull this off?"
Cath's eyes settled on his, tentatively, like they'd fly away if he moved.
She nodded her head.
The right side of his mouth pulled up.
"I'm rooting for you," she whispered. She wasn't even sure he could hear her from the bed.
Levi's smile broke free and devoured his whole face. — Rainbow Rowell

He felt torn. He wanted her to feel safe with him, but he also wanted her to feel the sort of heady excitement that any young girl should feel when they fall in love. He wanted to give her everything she craved, and he was not quite sure he could do it. — Emily Arden

LAST YEAR,
Honesty and I still talked,
Laughed,
Planned weekend activities together.

Last year,
I used to have friends,
Speak,
Live.

Last year,
Honesty lived,
Loved,
Laughed.

But now -
Now I live with the knowledge that
Some things
Kill others — Elana Johnson

She might have been there for you in the aftermath, but I was there when everything came crashing down. — Megan Duke

Congratulations," she said. "You win. — Megan Duke

The absence of adult males upsets the natural order in our species and in others. For example, game wardens in South Africa recently had to kill several teenage male elephants that had uncharacteristically become violent. These young elephants behaved like a contemporary street gang - and perhaps for the same reason: There were no adult males in their lives. To solve the problem, park officials imported adult male elephants from outside the area. Almost immediately, the remaining juveniles stopped misbehaving. Testosterone ungoverned by experience is dangerous, and older males temper the craving for dominance - merely by being dominant themselves. — Gavin De Becker

What is that?" Addison inspects the food with a look of sheer revulsion on her face. You'd swear I just handed her a plate full of arsenic.
"The Works Burger with fries and extra onions and cheese, exactly as you ordered." I keep my voice level.
She sends me a scathing look. "Do I look like I'd ever consume that amount of saturated fat? — Siobhan Davis

Perhaps all adult life was an attempt to keep alight the fires that burned when you were young. — Barney Norris

The lights disappear,
The elevator shudders,
Stalls,
Quits.
All in the same nanosecond.

All that exists is darkness so thick I can't think,
And Travis so close I can't breathe. — Elana Johnson

There are moments in our lives that define the people we will become in the future, like a symptom before an ailment, or the catalyst before the cure. — Brian Joyce

You naked in my bed is even more unbelievably beautiful than I thought it would be ... and trust me I've thought about it. A lot. — Abbi Glines

We promised we'd all stay in touch. Even joked about a yearly reunion. These kinds of goodbyes are the scary goodbyes. The goodbyes where you know the chances of seeing each other again are very slim. — Estelle Maskame

Cinna slid down the bar, sassing three groomsmen and
winking at a fourth on her way.
"I totally get why some animals eat their young," Pepper said. — Jamie Farrell

Let me just unsubscribe to my own mind already, because I don't get any of it. — Jandy Nelson

It feels like the city is telling secrets down here, privy only to those who think to listen. — Gayle Forman

Art was my little private pleasure. Nobody had seen my art, not even my parents. Andy didn't know about it. My dream was to become a publisher, not an artist lost in New York. — Stephanie Witter

I remember ... watching that separation of sea and sky ... and for the first time I realize that none of us are seeing the same thing. That all our horizons end in different places. — Huntley Fitzpatrick

Quick, somebody call the caretaker!' Gemma's stage voice rang out loud and clear. 'There's some trash here that needs to be taken out.' She earned a chorus of laughs as she walked towards us, then came to a standstill right beside me. 'Christ, it reeks, too,' she said, pinching her nose. 'What did you do, Malice? Douse yourself in the whole bottle? Oh, never mind. I don't expect you to have heard of the adage "less is more". — Aurelia B. Rowl

I had fallen too far. I was in love with Rush Finlay. — Abbi Glines

A future as lonely as the surface of the moon and still just the sight of him feels like a homecoming, like a song I used to know but forgot. — Katie Cotugno

In no mood for one of her silly games, I snatched it off her and scanned the page. It turned out to be a list of names, all of them boys, and some of whom I recognised. And then I noticed the title: 'Operation: Popping the Cherry'. I leaped to my feet and fired a glare at each of them in turn, trying not to shout. 'Are you shitting me? — Aurelia B. Rowl

I couldn't compete with Honesty,

With her dark blonde hair streaked with auburn,
With her captivating blue eyes,
With her legs that stretched into forever.
She had the brains,
The body,
The perfect resume for girlfriend.

And me?
I had the perfect resume for
Best friend.
All the boys said so. — Elana Johnson

Human experience is not nest and orderly, ready to be coded into predetermined categories. Real life is messy — Jennifer Gold

It's like I became so obsessed with doing things right, I forgot to enjoy them. — Jessica Brody

It's gonna take me a lot longer than a year without you to get over you. — Estelle Maskame

But there's nothing.
My life is one big meaningless cycle of nothingness. — Jessica Brody

True, but Little Sister is patient and she's always watching. — Jenn Cooksey

Character isn't something you talk about; it's something you show through your actions-through your every day habits. — Brian Joyce

I jolt up, a scream lodged in my throat. Drops of sweat roll down my forehead and my throat hurts as if I've been screaming for a long time. — Ashley Earley

I don't know what being in love with someone is supposed to feel like," Tyler admits with a breathy laugh, "but if being in love means thinking about someone every second of every day... If being in love means your entire mood shifts when they're around... If being in love means you'd do anything and everything for them," he murmurs, "then I am endlessly in love with you. — Estelle Maskame

His hands still on his shoulders.

"Hi," he says. "Sorry."

"For what?"

"For the fact that you are such a big flirt."

He laughs. "You're the one in my lap. I was just sitting here minding my own business."

"Just the plane, then?"

"Of course."

I try to stand up, but he pulls me back down again.

"Man, the plane is really bumpy today," he says. — Kasie West

In his arms, I slowly unfolded like a love note read in secret. — Jill S. Alexander

You're not going to disappear," I said. "I won't let you".
"Even if this is all there is? Going to school and working at my uncle's restaurant and fighting with Mari? Why would anyone want to remember this?"
"I want to remember you. Just like this."
She rolled onto her back, hands covering her face, and I pulled them away.
"People like you don't disappear," I said.
"Then where do they go?"
"Everywhere. — Laekan Zea Kemp

The house was the color of baby vomit. — Pixie Lynn Whitfield

Normally I didn't attend my father's funerals unless I was scheduled to sing, but it wasn't every day Dad buried a rock star. — Linda Budzinski

What do I look like? A blonde rolodex for boys who've lost an archery match with cupid? — Jenn Cooksey

Shadows ran all around her and someone was talking to her but it was all just white noise. Goodbye solo she would never perform. Goodbye perfect night that never got the chance to end in Garrett's arms. Garrett, oh god. Goodbye love of her life, she had loved him and with the thought of never seeing him again her body gave up a single tear. It escaped her eye and coursed through the blood and dirt on her cheek making a single clean streak as the blackness took over. — Renee Jean

The truth is, we are never just one thing. We all have many titles and many labels, but far too often, we get trapped inside a single definition. The Teacher's Pet, the Rule Follower, the Cheerleader, the Athlete, the Princess, the Basket Case, the Criminal... the Rock Star's Girlfriend. Whether we wrote that definition or it was given to us, it somehow becomes our only identity. We get so lost in it that we forget about all the other pieces that make up who we are. — Jessica Brody

You know-portraits are odd things." "How do you figure?" I asked. "Well at the time, that portrait told the whole story. It told the truth. We were a family-a happy family. Now that same portrait just looks like a lie. — Brian Joyce

Lucy: I don't feel like talking about college. It increases my stress level.
James: And increased stress levels lead to hair loss.
Lucy: My head-hair volume is fine.
James: You say that like I should be concerned about leg-hair volume. — Kristen Tracy

Dream-start with dream. Start tonight-become who you want-dream big!" He became animated at this point, "No money needed for dreams. Dreams are free. — Brian Joyce

The price of coming from a small town is that everyone knows your story. Your book has been read, shelved, dusted, and re-read by everybody. — Brian Joyce

That girl is just plain crazy," Chey said as she looped her arm through Arkadia's. 'I swear when they were handing out social skills she was still in the line for shoes. — Dzintra Sullivan

He wanted to break up with me in the cafeteria? Fat chance. I leaned toward him and touched his arm in a girlfriend sort of way. "If you planned to stage a public breakup with me, you can forget it."
Amusement showed in his hazel eyes. "Think you can stop me? — Chris Cannon

I thought three minutes and twelve seconds would undo me.
Now I'm trapped.

I cannot survive in this elevator.
Not with him,
Not for much longer
Another second. — Elana Johnson

In times such as these, life often begs us to seek answers when in reality there are only questions available. — Brian Joyce

It doesn't matter if it's the real world or fictional," I insisted. "Crushes are the best part of liking someone, and they are completely safe. You get all the benefits of fantasising about someone, but none of the he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not drama. It's all the good parts with none of the parts that make you lie awake at night all angsty. — Liz Czukas

You've got nothing to be worried about," he whispers slowly, his breath hot against my cheek, "because, baby, I'm all yours. — Estelle Maskame

I don't think I've ever referred to any girl I dated as my girlfriend. I think that would freak me out. Even the girl that I dated for two years in college I don't think I ever referred to her as my girlfriend."
"How would you introduce her?" I asked.
"I'm just going to say her name," he said. — Daniel Amory

Dear Diary:
I have a confession to make: I've become a total idiot over French pastries.
They're my new favorite food.
My new-found edible souvenir.
My new favorite sin.
Dunkin Donuts is so yesterday. — Kimberley Montpetit

I guess it was only fitting that to them PUNK was a four letter word. However, to people like Dylan and I-punk was our hearts-our souls. We grew up with a lot of uncertainties. To be a teenager isn't always pretty, and our music reflected that. — Brian Joyce

You know there is a thin line between love and hate. Maybe you loved me and didn't realise — Kirsty Moseley

I find it rather depressing that the people you love most in this world can also be the same exact people you hate with fervor. But it can happen, trust me.
It was the f***ing story of my life. — Christina Channelle

She was crazy, and she was unpredictable, but she was also generous and open-hearted and like no friend I'd ever had before. — Sara Barnard

Starting from this day, I will create a chance of happiness that doesn't depend on perfect conditions. My options may not be infinite, but my possibilities are endless." -Bliss Aston — Umi Allison

It didn't help that I was never allowed to study anything remotely contemporary until the last year of university: there was never any sense of that leading to this. If anything, my education gave me the opposite impression, of an end to cultural history round about the time that Forster wrote A Passage to India. The quickest way to kill all love for the classics, I can see now, is to tell young people that nothing else maters, because then all they can do is look at them in a museum of literature, through glass cases. Don't touch! And don't think for a moment that they want to live in the same world as you! And so a lot of adult life
if your hunger and curiosity haven't been squelched by your education
is learning to join up the dots that you didn't even know were there. — Nick Hornby

Look, girls know when they're cute," he said. "You don't have to tell them. All they need to do is look in the mirror. I have one friend out in New York, an attorney. She moved out there after the school year to take the bar. She doesn't have a job. I was like, 'How are you going to get a job there in this market?' And she's like, 'I'll wink and I'll smile.' She's a pretty girl. Whether that works despite her poor grades is yet to be seen. — Daniel Amory

It's funny how one life-changing event could make you forget what happiness felt like. — Christie Cote

He speaks in that strange sports talk, telling me about the start of the new season and asks if I follow baseball.
No. I really don't.
He assures me if I stay in town long enough I will become a baseball fan. It's a requirement of living in St. Louis. Everyone is a Cardinal's fan.
"Loyal," he tells me. St. Louis is a loyal town. — Gwenn Wright

Popularity is like a girl in class that you can't ignore. She give you eyes when no one looks then turns to her friends and laughs some more. — Brian Joyce

Society gets by from the help of its citizens. — Brian Joyce

She looks so broken, I don't want to hurt her more. — Dannielle Wicks

Trace was just one of those guys who caught your attention no matter if you had a ring on your finger. He would be hot 'til the day he died. Seriously. — Chelsea Lynn Charters The Gossip Web

Clearly a woman of good taste, she was reading a historical romance. I loved historical romances. And contemporary romances. And paranormal romances. And young adult romances. Pretty much anything in front of the word romance would do it for me. — Darynda Jones

It's just ... how do I put this? Maybe it's just hard for me to imagine turning down something that's so much harder for someone like me to find. — Liz Czukas

You can be Han Solo," he said, kissing her throat. "And I'll be Boba Fett. I'll cross the sky for you. — Rainbow Rowell

I think it's time you got a summer love of your own until lover boy sees he need to ditch Gina. — Dana Burkey

I need you. Right now. Let me love you right here, please. — Abbi Glines

I should walk away. That would be the right thing to do. It would be the smart thing. But I can't, because I'm Taylor Caldwell, the girl who cuts. — S. Elle Cameron

Blaire, even if all we do is kiss or just lay there and talk, I'm okay with that. I just wanted you up here. Close to me. — Abbi Glines

There's a word for an author who doesn't give up ... published. — J.A. Konrath

Sometimes books feel like the only thing that keep her sane. Actually, she knows that they're the only reason she's still even vaguely okay right now. That's what she clings to: reading great books and seeing great films and, for as long as she's immersed in them, being able to forget, if only for a short time, about the reality of her life. — Steph Bowe

He knows I've seen something in him. Something I recognize, only because it exists in me too. — Siobhan Davis

I love you," he said.
She looked up at him, her eyes shiny and black, then looked away. "I know," she said.
He pulled one of his arms out from under her and traced her outline against the couch. He could spend all day like this, running his hand down her ribs, into her waist, out to her hips and back again ... If he had all day, he would. If she weren't made of so many other miracles.
"You know?" he repeated. She smiled, so he kissed her. "You're not the Han Solo in this relationship, you know."
"I'm totally the Han Solo," she whispered. It was good to hear her. It was good to remember it was Eleanor under all this new flesh.
"Well, I'm not the Princess Leia," he said.
"Don't get so hung up on gender roles," Eleanor said. — Rainbow Rowell

I'm so tired of crying.
I'm so tired of losing.
I'm just so tired. — Jessica Brody

I need you because I'm in love with you, Eden, and I have no idea how I'll ever get over you. — Estelle Maskame

Please. Forgive me. One more chance, Blaire. I want this. I want you. — Abbi Glines

Our evening-long tango of stares had my head spinning. — Jennifer Comeaux

That night, he laid in his bed thinking about all the possibilities. They came like waves in his mind. At first they came slow, then gradually built up speed, cresting into full on dreams, until finally, they broke onto the shore with all of their reality. First dreams, then nightmares. — Brian Joyce

You're too young to be so old. — Leslea Tash

What were we, but kids with apartments and jobs anyway? — Brian Joyce

Words, to me, are the same as an instrument is to a musician. I never know where this typewriter is going to take me until I begin. I never know what I'm feeling until I read over what I have written. — Tessa Emily Hall

His smile is beautiful. It's the kind of smile that can take away all nervousness and tension in a room, no matter how big. I have no choice but to smile back. — S. Elle Cameron

Because even if we were struggling, we had goals. It didn't matter that we weren't there yet. What mattered is that we both experienced setbacks, and full-blown failures, but we got up, brushed ourselves off, and kept going-and were making the best of it. — Jamie McGuire

Eventually, that feeling fades, but there is always the memory of those days. When you're young, everything is butterflies. What I mean is - it's all new. I guess he was telling you to still believe, to hold on to your butterflies. — Brian Joyce

I'd skipped the crush kiddie pool and jumped right into the deep, shark-infested ocean of emotions. And, if you'll forgive the dramatic metaphor, I was a lousy swimmer. — Kody Keplinger

Perhaps our suffering is part of our humanity. — Christina L. Barr

Don't think or judge,' I said. 'Just listen. — Sarah Dessen