All These Things I've Done

...lies can sound awfully pretty when a girl is in love with the person telling them.

I did learn something about insanity while I was down there. People go crazy, not because they are crazy, but because it's the best available option at the time.

I let myself feel good and sorry for myself, but only for a second. Daddy always said that the most useless of all human emotions was self-pity.

Daddy always said you only explained things to the people that actually mattered.

Should have. Would have. Could have. Didn't.

Tragedy is when someone ends up dead. Everything else is just a bump in the road. For the record, that was something Daddy used to say.

Let's stay young forever. Young, stupid, and pretty. Sounds like a plan, don't you think?

Daddy always said the only thing worth begging for was your life, but maybe he was wrong. Maybe sometimes your love is a little bit worth begging for, too.

Eye contact made people think you were being truthful even if you weren't.

I shouldn't have done that," I said. That was when I kissed him again. May God forgive me for this and all these things I've done.

Life used to move much more quickly when I was a girl. We needed to abbreviate just to keep up.

Chocolate doesn't solve everything, Nana." "It solves a whole heck of a lot, though.

Maybe if I'd been braver in that moment, I would have cried.

My brain said no. But my heart!

Stop saying that! You sound absurd, and I don't even think you mean it. Besides, I'd never marry you," I told him. "I'm sixteen, and you're a slut, and you can't stop saying preposterous things!" "True," he admitted. He kissed me on the lips and then I closed the door.

Dance with me,' Win said. 'I know I'm probably making a fool of myself. You're probably thinking, how many times do I have to reject this guy? Can't he take a hint?' I shook my head. 'But somehow I don't even care. I see you in your red dress, standing by the punch table, and something in me wants to keep trying. I think, she is a person worth knowing.

I know you did, lass. You're the toughest girl I know." "'Lass'? Where did that come from?" "I don't know. I just felt the urge to call you that.

The theme of the dance was "Great Romances," or some such nonsense. There were projections of supposedly great couples from the past on the walls of the gym. Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Hermione and Ron, Bonnie and Clyde, etc.

It's sad when you think about it, but also kind of beautiful.

I told him I didn't want to have sex until I got married. Without missing a beat, he nodded and said, "So let's get married.

He told me that love was the only thing that really mattered in the world.

Daddy once said, "If you don't know what you believe, Annie, you'll be a lost soul.

It's a weakness to apologize before hearing what the other person's grievances are. You don't want to end up creating new grievances where there were none to begin with. Another Daddy-ism, if you hadn't already guessed.

I don't think I would have minded you being the keeper of my secrets.

Daddy always said that an option that you know to have a bad outcome is only a fool's option, i.e., not an option at all. And I liked to think that Daddy hadn't raised a fool.

It wasn't even 8:00 yet. Pretty early for such deep thoughts.

You can't avoid orphan stories, child. Every story is an orphan story. We are all orphaned sooner or later.

You can either be a bystander who lives his life in reaction to the decisions that others make, or you can be the leader who is making those decisions.

Daddy used to say that calling a person a romantic was just another way of saying he or she acted without regard for conseqences.