Quotes from Life in Outer Space

“But why me?

Because, idiot, you... are funny and smart and you have a giant heart that you can't even pretend to hide. And you love your friends and your mum, and you held my hand and made me sing when I was so scared I thought I was going to die. I knew you understood, right from the beginning, this thing inside, the stuff in your head that you need to make real. You get that.... And you wear stupid Superman pyjamas without any irony, and your face lights up when you talk about the movies you love.... And... you protect my dwarf. You always have her back. And you have a dimple when you smile that's so cute I almost died the first time I saw it.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I said that I am in love with you. I've tried not to be, I really have, but it's just useless. I know you don't feel the same way about me, but I had to tell you because... well, you're all I think about. All the time. I miss you every second that you're not with me... and I know you won't want to be around me anymore, but, Camilla... you're one of the best friends I've ever had. You're smart and amazing and weird and probably the most beautiful person I've ever seen... and before I met you, all I wanted was just to fast-forward through everything. But, really, I think my life was just paused, or something. You... made me press play. You made everything move. And no matter where you go, or whatever you feel about me... I will love you forever for that.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“She doesn't follow me.

She doesn't call out my name and chase after me in the rain. It isn't even raining. The sky doesn't even have the decency to provide me with a good movie cliché.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“Mum looks like someone has told her that Santa will be shortly arriving with that guy from Pride and Prejudice in tow.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I think I would give up movies for this feeling.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“Sam - I liked you from the first moment I met you! I made you invite me to your house for a study group, even though - you know what - I'm pretty good at studying on my own! When I went away, you were the only person I wanted to talk to! You were the first person I needed to see when I got back! I sang in front of you, and I've never let anyone see that part of me before! You are the person... I feel like I've run halfway around the world to find! I thought that was pretty obvious! Apart from throwing myself naked at you while holding a giant sign that says, Samuel, I am completely in love with you too, I don't know what else to do!”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I'm thinking about the top five all-time greatest movie kisses. I can't believe I haven't made that list.
And I'm thinking about a screenplay I want to write. I have a hunch it'll be the first good movie I've ever written.
This one will be about a girl.
I don't know how I ever tried to write my story without her.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I think, because…well, I like the idea of coming up with a story that never existed before, but I don’t really want to be in charge. I don’t want to be famous. I guess I like the idea of sitting in the dark and knowing that I created the thing on screen, that it’s my story, but, like, no-one else has to know it was me. Does that make sense?”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I know I should be able to find a story in anything. Good screenwriters can pull interesting films out of the asinine and mundane. But everything I've read about writing always begins with ‘write what you know.’ What I know is: quiet streets, topiary, moronic high school arsehats, and homework. Has anyone ever made a movie about homework? Probably. I bet it was in French.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I guess some people enter your orbit and get stuck, and there's nothing either of you can do about it.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I realize that Camilla is out very own statistical anomaly, an outlier that no one seems to know where to place.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“And, anyway it's not always about fitting in."

"It's not?"

"Nope. Sometimes, it's about reading your environment real quick, and then finding the bits that fit you.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“My lungs feel like they're imploding. Every part of my body feels like it's trying to run, screaming, from every other part of my body.
And then, apparently, the warm-up is over.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“So. Are we concocting some elaborate scheme where we pretend to be twins to get your parents back together?”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“You're also going to be out of luck with weapons. And weapons are mandatory for zombie apocalypse survival.'
Camilla is silent for a moment. 'You couldn't just beat them to death with Tupperware? That stuff's tough.'
I grin. 'Maybe if it's filled with Adrian's grandma's cupcakes. I think those are a valuable addition to any arsenal.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“He looks me up and down blankly. 'So. No Speedos?'
'I left them in my other bag with my muscle shirts and tanning spray. You?”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“Every now and then, if I allow my mental focus to slip, I catch myself looking at her face and forgetting how to breathe. I guess these things take time to fade completely.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“No one calls me Sammy. My mother occasionally throws a “Samuel”, but I am, and have always been, just Sam. Sammy is a name for five-year-olds and game show hosts and Shinny Happy People.
I am, definitely, not a Sammy”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“No-one knows anything. Anyone who tells you they do... is full of bollocks.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“So the person you drag with you - she manages to fit in no matter where she goes?'
'Well - she didn't always. But she's levelled up a lot since she started out. She just upgrades her equipment and hopes that there aren't any evil guilds waiting to shoot her in the back. And anyway, it's not always about fiting in, Dex.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“But I've been kidding myself that this thing I feel for her is just a crush. No matter what I'd heard or read or seen in a movie - no one ever said it was supposed to suck so badly.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“Nah. You’d survive at least the first act of any movie. The pretty brunettes rarely get bumped off first.’
‘Aw. You think I’m purr-ty,’ she says in a singsong voice.
‘Well, you know, objectively …’ I clear my throat.
Camilla kicks some sand over my towel. ‘I shall take that as a compliment,’ she says, giggling.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

“I fall asleep with the sound of her voice echoing in my head, and a feeling in my chest like someone is scooping my heart out with a spoon.”
― Melissa Keil, quote from Life in Outer Space

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Popular quotes

“I live alone," he said simply. "I live in the open. I hear the waves at night and see the black patterns of the pine boughs against the sky. With sound and silence and color and solitude, of course I see visions. Anyone would."

"But you don't believe in them?" Doc asked hopefully.

"I don't find it a matter for belief or disbelief," the seer said. "You've seen the sun flatten and take strange shapes just before it sinks into the ocean. Do you have to tell yourself everytime that it's an illusion caused by atmospheric dust and light distorted by the sea, or do you simply enjoy the beauty of it? Don't you see visions?"

"No," said Doc.”
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― Pablo Neruda, quote from Residence on Earth

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― Lisa Ann Sandell, quote from A Map of the Known World

“Mi aspettavo che la solita ondata di ripugnanza per me stesso mi assalisse da un momento all'altro: tutta la mia libidine era spenta e non mi trastullavo mai con le puttane dopo averle usate... capitava di rado che volessi rivederle di nuovo. Ma questa era diversa. Per la prima volta in vita mia, provavo tenerezza per una donna, per questa ragazza, qualcosa che non avevo provato neppure con Effie. Soprattutto non con Effie. Qualcosa dentro di me voleva assaggiarla, conoscerla: come se l'atto in sé che avevamo compiuto non fosse stato nulla... niente era stato rivelato, niente si era guastato. Mi resi conto con improvvisa, esilarante chiarezza che questo era il Mistero.
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Le toccai il collo, il braccio, la curva tesa della coscia.
"Marta..."
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"Marta."
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“What have I done, Obie?"

Obie flung his hand in the air, the gesture encompassing all the rotten things that had occur under Archie's command, at Archie's direction. The ruined kids, the capsized hopes. Renault last fall and poor Tubs Casper and all the others including even the faculty. Like Brother Eugene.

"You know what you've done, Archie. I don't need to draw up a list-"

"You blame me for everything, right, Obie? You and Carter and all the others. Archie Costello, the bad guy. The villain. Archie, the bastard. Trinity would be such a beautiful place without Archie Costello. Right, Obie? But it's not me, Obie, it's not me...."

"Not you?" Obie cried, fury gathering in his throat, his chest, his guts. "What the hell do you mean, not you? This could have been a beautiful place to be, Archie. A beautiful time for all of us. Christ, who else, if not you?"

"Do you really want to know who?"

"Okay, who then?" Impatient with his crap, the old Archie crap.

"It's you, Obie. You and Carter and Bunting and Leon and everybody. But especially you, Obie. Nobody forced you to do anything, buddy. Nobody made you join the Vigils. Nobody twisted your arm to make you secretary of the Vigils. Nobody pain you to keep a notebook with all that crap about the students, all their weaknesses, soft points. The notebook made your job easier, didn't it, Obie? And what was your job? Finding the victims. You found them, Obie. You found Renault and Tubs Casper and Gendreau-the first one, remember, when we were sophomores?-how you loved it all, didn't you Obie?" Archie flicked a finger against the metal of the car, and the ping was like a verbal exclamation mark. "Know what, Obie? You could have said no anytime, anytime at all. But you didn't...." Archie's voice was filled with contempt, and he pronounced Obie's name as if it were something to be flushed down a toilet.

"Oh, I'm an easy scapegoat, Obie. For you and everybody else at Trinity. Always have been. But you had free choice, buddy. Just like Brother Andrew always says in Religion. Free choice, Obie, and you did the choosing....”
― Robert Cormier, quote from Beyond the Chocolate War

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