“Maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around it, let it slide like coins through you fingers. So much time you can waste it.
But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is, you never really know.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“So many things become beautiful when you really look.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“I guess that's what saying good-bye is always like--like jumping off an edge. The worst part is making the choice to do it. Once you're in the air, there's nothing you can do but let go.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“A good friend keeps your secrets for you. A best friend helps you keep your own secrets.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“It's funny, isn't it? When you are young you just want to be old, and then later you wish you could go back to being a kid.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“It amazes me how easy it is for things to change, how easy it is to start off down the same road you always take and wind up somewhere new. Just one false step, one pause, one detour, and you end up with new friends or a bad reputation or a boyfriend or a breakup. It's never occurred to me before; I've never been able to see it. And it makes me feel, weirdly, like maybe all of these different possibilities exist at the same time, like each moment we live has a thousand other moments layered underneath it that look different.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“Sometimes I'm afraid to go to sleep because of what I'm leaving behind.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“Here's another thing to remember: hope keeps you alive. Even when you're dead, it's the only thing that keeps you alive.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“Here's one of the things I learned that morning: if you cross a line and nothing happens, the line loses meaning. It's like that old riddle about a tree falling in a forest, and whether it makes a sound if there's no one around to hear it.
You keep drawing a line farther and farther away, crossing it every time. That's how people end up stepping off the edge of the earth. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to bust out of orbit, to spin out to a place where no one can touch you. To lose yourself--to get lost.
Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised. Maybe some of you already know.
To those people, I can only say: I'm sorry.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“I shiver, thinking how easy it is to be totally wrong about people-to see one tiny part of them and confuse it for the whole, to see the cause and think it's the effect or vice versa”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“The whole point of growing up is learning to stay on the laughing side.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“How is it possible, I think, to change so much and not be able to change anything at all?”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“The last laugh, the last cup of coffee, the last sunset, the last time you jump through a sprinkler, or eat an ice-cream cone, or stick your tongue out to catch a snowflake. You just don't know.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“I vowed after that day that I would be your hero too, no matter how long it took”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“I used to think that's what love was: knowing someone so well he was like a part of you.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“That's when I realized that certain moments go on forever. Even after they're over they still go on, even after you're dead and buried, those moments are lasting still, backward and forward, on into infinity. They are everything and everywhere all at once.
They are the meaning.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“This is what happens when you try to help people. You get screwed.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“It's not my fault I can't be like you, okay? I don't get up in the morning thinking the world is one big, shiny, happy place, okay? That's just not how I work. I don't think I can be fixed.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“And I guess that's when it starts to hit me: the whole point is, you do what you can.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“I've never really thought about it before, but it's a miracle how many kinds of light there are in the world, how many skies: the pale brightness of spring, when it feels like the hole world's blushing; the lush, bright boldness of a July noon; purple storm skies and a green queasiness just before lightning strikes and crazy multicolored sunsets that look like someone's acid trip.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“That's the way I feel, at least: like there's a real me and a reflection of me, and I have no way of telling which is which.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“That's the thing about best friends. That's what they do. They keep you from spinning off the edge.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“Popularity's a weird thing. You can't really define it, and it's not cool to talk about, but you know it when you see it. Like a lazy eye, or porn.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“i think of all the thousands of billions of steps and missteps and chances and coincidences that have brought me here. Brought you here, and it feels like the biggest miracle in the world.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“I'm not with Rob," I say quickly. "Not anymore."
"You're not?" He's staring at me so intensely I can see the stripes of gold alternating with the green in his eyes like spokes of a wheel.
I shake my head.
"That's a good thing." He's still staring at me like that, like he's the first and last person who will ever stare at me.
"Because..." His voice trails off, and his eyes travel slowly down to my lips, and there's so much heat roaring through
my body I swear I'm going to pass out.
"Because?" I prompt him, surprised I can still speak.
"Because I'm sorry, but I can't help it, and I really need to kiss you right now.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“Be honest: Are you surprised that I didn't realize sooner? Are you surprised that it took me so long to even /think/ the word -- death? Dying? Dead?
Do you think I was being stupid? Naive?
Try not to judge. Remember that we're the same, you and me.
I thought I would live forever too.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“So are you going to be my knight in shining armor or what?'
Kent does a little bow. 'You know I can't resist a damsel in distress.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“And a face above mine, white and beautiful, eyes as large as the moon. You saved me. A hand on my cheek, cool and dry. Why did you save me? Words welling up on a tide: No, the opposite. Eyes the colour of a dawn sky, a crown of blond hair, so bright and white and blinding I could swear it was a halo.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
“I want to help you,' I say to Juliet, though I know that I can't make her understand, not like this.
'Don't you get it?' She turns to me, and to my surprise I see she's crying. 'I can't be fixed, do you understand?'
I think of standing on the stairs with Kent and saying exactly the same thing. I think of his beautiful light green eyes, and the way he said, You don't need to be fixed and the warmth of his hands and the softness of his lips. I think of Juliet's mask and how maybe we all feel patched and stitched together and not quite right.
I am not afraid.
Dimly, I have the sense of roaring in my ears and voices so close and faces, white and frightened, emerging from the darkness, but I can't stop staring at Juliet as she's crying, still so beautiful.
'It's too late,' she says.
And I say, 'It's never too late.”
― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
Lauren Oliver
Born place: New York, New York
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“Logic cannot comprehend love; so much the worse for logic.”
― N.T. Wright, quote from Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
“Of course, he was absolutely correct, it was no concern of mine. So naturally I thought about it--excessively.”
― Deanna Raybourn, quote from Silent in the Grave
“It wasn't like Samantha, Leo thought, to meddle. Inside her booth, Madam Zarina offered advice and answers to troubled questions, but outside it Samantha minded her own business and scrupulously avoided the business of others. It had been a hard lesson learned, but she had learned it well. So what was she up to now?”
― Kay Hooper, quote from Hunting Fear
“Dans la chambre où, depuis un an, il dormait seul, cette présence le gênait. Mais elle le gênait aussi parce qu'elle lui imposait une sorte de fraternité qu'il refusait dans les circonstances présentes et qu'il connaissait bien : les hommes, qui partagent les mêmes chambres, soldats ou prisonniers, contractent un lien étrange comme si, leurs armures quittées avec les vêtements, ils se rejoignaient chaque soir, par-dessus leur différences, dans la vieille communauté du songe et de la fatigue. Mais Daru se secouait, il n'aimait pas ces bêtises, il fallait dormir.”
― Albert Camus, quote from Exile and the Kingdom
“But the next noise to echo through the hall was one I was pretty sure I recognized. It was the unmistakable sound of the shit hitting the fan.”
― Nicole Peeler, quote from Tempest Rising
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