“You think fairy tales are only for girls? Here's a hint - ask yourself who wrote them. I assure you, it wasn't just the women. It's the great male fantasy - all it takes is one dance to know that she's the one. All it takes is the sound of her song from the tower, or a look at her sleeping face. And right away you know - this is the girl in your head, sleeping or dancing or singing in front of you. Yes, girls want their princes, but boys want their princesses just as much. And they don't want a very long courtships. They want to know immediately.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“The important people in our lives leave imprints. They may stay or go in the physical realm, but they are always there in your heart, because they helped form your heart. There's no getting over that.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I want to believe there is a somebody out there for me. I want to believe that I exist to be there for that somebody.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“Luckily, I always travel with a book, just in case I have to wait on line for Santa, or some such inconvenience.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I was horribly bookish, to the point of coming right out and saying it, which I knew was not socially acceptable. I particularly loved the adjective bookish, which I found other people used about as often as ramrod or chum or teetotaler.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I was attempting to write the story of my life. It wasn't so much about plot. It was much more about character.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I wanted to talk to someone. But who? It’s moments like this, when you need someone the most, that your world seems smallest.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“You want meaning? Well, the meanings are out there. We're just so damn good at reading them wrong.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I've always resented Hermione, because I wanted to be her so badly and she never seemed to appreciate as much as I thought she should that she got be her. She got to live at Hogwarts and be friends with Harry and kiss Ron, which was supposed to happen to me.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I mean, what if love isn't a yes-or-no question? It's not either you're in love or you're not. I mean, aren't there different levels? And maybe these things, like words and expectations and whatever, don't go on top of the love. Maybe it's like a map, and they all have their own place, and then when you see it from the sky - whoa.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I mean, like most guys, you carry around this girl in your head, who is exactly who you want her to be. The person you think you will love the most. And every girl you are with gets measured against this girl in your head.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“Well sure, who doesn't need a boyfriend? but realistically, those exotic creatures are hard to come by. At least a quality one.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“There are just lots of possibilities in the world...I need to keep my mind open for what could happen and not decide that the world is hopeless if what I want to happen doesn't happen. Because something else great might happen in between.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“It's hard to answer a question you haven't been asked. It's hard to show you tried unless you end up succeeding.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I want to believe there is a somebody out there just for me. I want to believe that I exist to be there for that somebody.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“But isn't this a dance? Isn't all of this a dance? Isn't that what we do with words? Isn't that what we do when we talk, when we spar, when we make plans or leave it to chance? Some of it's choreographed. Some of the steps have been done for ages. And the rest -- the rest is spontaneous. The rest has to be decided on the floor, in the moment, before the music ends.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“We believe in the wrong things, that's what frustrates me the most. Not the lack of belief, but the belief in the wrong things. You want meaning? Well, the meanings are out there. We're just so damn good at reading them wrong.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“Be careful what you're doing, because no one is ever who you want them to be.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I find I very rarely live up to my words. And since you know me primarily through my words, there are oh so many ways I can disappoint.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I love snow for the same reason I love Christmas: It brings people together while time stands still. Cozy couples lazily meandered the streets and children trudged sleds and chased snowballs. No one seemed to be in a rush to experience anything other than the glory of the day, with each other, whenever and however it happened.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I showed him the Post-it. “You see They’re from Lily.”
“Who’s Lily?”
“Some girl.”
“Ooh... a girl!”
“Boomer, we’re not in third grade anymore. You don’t say, ‘Ooh... a girl!’”
“What? You fucking her?”
“Okay, Boomer, you’re right. I liked ‘Ooh... a girl!’ much more than that.
Let’s stick with ‘Ooh... a girl!”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“The important people in our lives leave imprints. They may stay or go in the physical realm, but they are always there in your heart, because they helped form your heart. There's not getting over that.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“I'm told there's no going back. So I'm choosing forward.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“So what else can I tell you?" I asked. "I mean, to get you to reveal Lily to me."
She triangled her fingers under her chin. "Let's see. Are you a bed wetter?"
"Am I a...?"
"Bed wetter. I am asking if you are a bed wetter."
I knew she was trying to get me to blink. But I wouldn't.
"No, ma'am. I leave my beds dry."
"Not even a little drip every now and then?"
"I'm trying hard to see how this is germane."
"I'm gauging your honesty. What is the last periodical you read methodically?"
"Vogue. Although, in the interest of full disclosure, that's mostly because I was in my mother's bathroom, enduring a rather long bowel movement. You know, the kind that requires Lamaze."
"What adjective do you feel the most longing for?"
That was easy. "I will admit I have a soft spot for fanciful."
"Let's say I have a hundred million dollars and offer it to you. The only condition is that if you take it, a man in China will fall off his bicycle and die. What do you do?"
"I don't understand why it matters whether he's in China or not. And of course I wouldn't take the money."
The old woman nodded.
"Do you think Abraham Lincoln was a homosexual?"
"All I can say for sure is that he never made a pass at me."
"Are you a museumgoer?"
"Is the pope a churchgoer?"
"When you see a flower painted by Georgia O'Keefe, what comes to mind?"
"That's just a transparent ploy to get me to say the word vagina, isn't it? There. I said it. Vagina.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“Prayer or not, I want to believe that, despite all evidence to the contrary, it is possible for anyone to find that one special person. That person to spend Christmas with or grow old with or just to take a nice silly walk in Central Park with. Somebody who wouldn't judge another for the prepositions they dangle, or their run-on sentences, and who in turn wouldn't be judged for the snobbery of their language etymology inclinations.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“The universe doesn't decide what's right or not right. You do.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“Cinderella was such a dork. She left behind her glass slipper at the ball and then went right back to her step-monster's house. It seems to me she should have worn the glass slipper always, to make herself easier to find. I always hoped that after the prince found Cinderella and they rode away in their magnificent carriage, after a few miles she turned to him and said, "Could you drop me off down the road please? Now that I've finally escaped my life of horrific abuse, I'd like to see something of the world, you know?... I'll catch back up with you later, Prince, once I've found my own way.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“Somewhere between a friend and acquaintance—a frequaintance, as it were.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“But whether or not you are here, you are here—because these words are for you, and they wouldn't exist if you weren't here in some way.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
“You have to trust the words. They do not create anything more than themselves.”
― Rachel Cohn, quote from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
Rachel Cohn
Born place: in Silver Spring, MD, The United States
Born date December 14, 1968
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“If this is the last piece of heaven I get before I'm dragged down to hell, then I'll gladly take it.”
― Mia Sheridan, quote from Becoming Calder
“I kissed her, because 1) when you’re a demigod going into battle, every kiss might be your last, and 2) I like kissing her.”
― Rick Riordan, quote from The Crown of Ptolemy
“Un buen investigador olvida todas las ocasiones en las que le ha fallado la intuición, no recuerda las pistas en las que había confiado antes de darse cuenta de que lo habían desviado del objetivo. Y el que, con espíritu ingenuo y olvidadizo, volvía a empezar de cero con renovado entusiasmo.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from Frelseren
“It reminded me of how I’d felt applying to college. Night after night, I sat with my father in his study while he read aloud from Baron’s. He’d read the name of the college, the number of men and the number of women, and a description in guidebook prose; then he’d say, ‘How does that sound?’ and I’d think, Sounds just like the last one.
It took me a few nights to realize that my father was reading only the colleges that I had some chance of getting into – not Brown but Bowling Green; not Wesleyan but Ohio Wesleyan; not Williams or Smith, but William Smith. Until that moment, it hadn’t occurred to me that my grades and test scores over the years were anything more than individual humiliations; I hadn’t realized that one day all of them would add up and count against me.”
― Melissa Bank, quote from The Wonder Spot
“When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.
To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God's grace means. As Thomas Merton put it, "A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God."
The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelists, charismatic superstars, and local church heroes. It obliterates the two-class citizenship theory operative in many American churches. For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours not by right but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there is much we may have earned--our degree and our salary, our home and garden, a Miller Lite and a good night's sleep--all this is possible only because we have been given so much: life itself, eyes to see and hands to touch, a mind to shape ideas, and a heart to beat with love. We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt. This and so much more is sheer gift; it is not reward for our faithfulness, our generous disposition, or our heroic life of prayer. Even our fidelity is a gift, "If we but turn to God," said St. Augustine, "that itself is a gift of God."
My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.”
― Brennan Manning, quote from The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out
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