“I have to ask. Why do you like me?”
He shifted away from me then, his brows pulled together making him look even cuter, if that was possible. “I don’t understand the question.” His hands were squeezing mine tightly as he looked down at them. “You’re my Lilly. You’ve always been my Lilly.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“I dream of you. And I don’t like it when I can’t talk to you or see you or touch you.” His eyes found mine again. “That’s love.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“This emptiness inside of me here,” he placed my hand on his chest, “means I love you. When you’re not here, I can’t focus. It’s too loud . . . But my heartbeat does this when you’re close.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“Maybe if we stopped trying to achieve movie standards of greatness, we'd be happy with what we have.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“I think sometimes we’re presented with the truth but we don’t want to believe it. We see things the way we want to see them. Sometimes, we choose to live in denial.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“FRIENDSHIP: A true friend is one soul in two bodies – Aristotle.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“With a small sigh he squeezed my hand tighter. “I wish you were like me.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“No,” he whispered. “You’re my beautiful Lilly. The one who makes everything right in my world.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“Talking with you would be much more enjoyable than talking with Talia, Lilly.” His eyes scanned the floor by my feet. “She’s paint by number; you’re a watercolor.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“I don’t believe there’s such a thing as conventional love. Love is bending. Love is breaking. Love is constantly learning about the other person until you go crazy because it will never be perfect, but there’s no fault in trying. I’ve loved a boy who was extraordinary beyond words, in my eyes.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“I do . . . love you. If you needed me to say it before you should have told me so. I know what it means.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“Life is meant to be lived, and if you're offered the chance to experience things with an extraordinary person, then there isn't one reason in the world to say no.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“Yeah.” He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” And then he looked at me and the corner of his mouth pulled up into a sly smile. “They taught us that tonight to help us blend in with our peers.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“I’m sorry. Was that gross?” I asked, wanting to melt into the floor and just die. He shook his head slowly and then looked at me for a second. “I’d like to try this after you’ve brushed your teeth.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“She’s paint by number; you’re a watercolor.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“You’re my beautiful Lilly. The one who makes everything right in my world.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“It was those words that made me fall in love with him. Right there in that spot. Because he wanted me to be like him. That was his normalcy.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“I used to think there were two kinds of Crayola artists: Ones who color inside the lines and ones who don’t stay within the rigid boundaries set by thick black perimeters that make up a cuddly koala. But it seems that inside and outside the lines is just the main basis for comparison. You also have those who color lightly inside and fill each space according to the chosen and appropriate shade. Then you have those who scribble and slap any color anywhere. And sometimes these people have purple turkeys and shit that drives me absofreakinglutely crazy because, seriously”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“You were upset. I hurt you. Something must have happened to make you stay away from me. Is that right?” His nose was pressed under my ear and I fought back another round of tears because he just didn’t fully grasp it. He could have been repeating Sheila’s words for all I knew.
“You’re leaving.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“Am I your girlfriend?” “Of course.” Like it was the most obvious thing in the world.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“You’d like to think it’s a choice to love him, but it’s not, Lilly. You’ve already decided. I can see it on your face.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“Lilly. Sometimes I don’t think I have the capacity to be what you need in a significant other.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“Sometimes change makes you sit up and pay attention, opening your eyes to so many new things, it’s as if you’d been asleep for”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“I promise that love isn't easy for anyone. Anywhere.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“want to ask you a question.” He nodded. “Take me to the dance next weekend.” He tilted his head to the side and frowned. “Lilly, that was not in the form of a question. A question is a request that ends with a question mark. What you just said was a statement.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“Society has pretty much taught us that it's inside the lines, or outside. But there's so much more in between.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“But life isn't really about just geting by. Right when you've lulled yourself into a false sense of security, it likes to throw in a plot twist. Keep you on your toes.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“Nothing works,” he started, his hands kneading my sides as he tried again. “I try. And try. But nothing works. I can’t focus. I can’t . . . I can’t.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“I have to ask. Why do you like me?” He shifted away from me then, his brows pulled together making him look even cuter, if that was possible. “I don’t understand the question.” His hands were squeezing mine tightly as he looked down at them. “You’re my Lilly. You’ve always been my Lilly.”
― Amber L. Johnson, quote from Puddle Jumping
“Muffled footsteps sounded in the distance. Goldie heard a shout, and the heavy clank of punishment chains. The footsteps came closer. A boy began to sing in a hoarse, adolescent voice. "Awa-a-a-y, across the ocean-a-an, awa-a-a-y, across the sea-a-a-a-."
There was a slap, and a yell. The singing stopped, but only for a moment. When it started up again, there were a dozen or more voices, all caterwauling at the top of their lungs. "-I'll go-o-o-o where my heart takes me, where my-y-y-y love waits for me-e-e-e-e."
A pause. A furious adult's voice said, "It's not your love that's waiting for you, you little villains, it's the House of Repentance! Deliberate destruction of property, putting the lives of others at risk, oh you're in for it, you are!"
Clank clank clank, went the punishment chains. "I’ve be-e-e-e-en away so long, dear, I've tra-a-a-aveled far and wi-i-i-i-i-ide-" sang the voices.
Goldie edged along the wall and eased the door open. There was a bustle and a shoving and a clanking, and suddenly the corridor in front of her was full of boys, milling backward and forward, rattling their chains and singing loudly. They were all older than Goldie, but they wore the same gray threadbare smock and leggings. Somewhere in the middle of them were two Blessed Guardians. The smell of burning hung over them all.
There was no time to think. Goldie couldn't see Toadspit, but she was sure he must be there somewhere. She whispered a quick "thank you" to Bald Thoke, then she stepped out into the corridor and tucked herself between two of the boys.
For a heart-stopping moment the song faltered. The boys on either side of Goldie shot incredulous glances at her-
Then they closed smoothly around her and began to sing louder than ever, their voices bouncing off the high ceilings. "Three yea-a-a-a-ars I rowed the galley-y-y-ys, three year-a-a-a-ars I was a sla-a-a-a-ave-."
They spilled out into the foyer, a laughing, shouting, singing rabble. The Guardians who led them were shouting too. Only Goldie was silent. She crouched between the tall, raucous boys, her smock blending with theirs, her pulse thundering in her ears.
"What's this?" shouted the toad-like Guardian. "Where are you taking them at this time of night?"
"Set fire to their beds?" shouted one of the other Guardians. "Don't know what's got into them! Marching them off to Repentance!"
"I'll need their names!"
"If I-I-I-I-I could turn back time, dea-a-a-a-ar, if I-I-I-I-I-I could start aga-a-a-a-a-in-"
"For Great Wooden's sake, we'll give them to you when we come back. I can't bear this appalling racket a moment longer!"
And with that, the boys, Goldie and the two Guardians spilled out the front door of Care, across the yard and through the gate.”
― Lian Tanner, quote from Museum of Thieves
“Careful lads," said the beetle at the front. "She's dangerous all right. Look at that changeable expression."
"I'm not dangerous," I told them.
"Dangerous. Not dangerous. Same thing," said the beetle.
"And what I say," said the next beetle along, "is, it's the dangerous ones you have to watch out for.”
― Neil Gaiman, quote from MirrorMask
“I am in love with you, Magdalene. What I feel for you is timeless. And when I die, when this body releases me, I will find you and I will be your eternal protector.”
― Laury Falter, quote from Reckoning
“[...] when you look at the world, you put on the goggles of custom, habit and tribal wisdom lest the truth make you insane [...] you see the world reflected in your own image; you see yourself reflected to the image of the world [...]”
― David Zindell, quote from The Broken God
“Milwaukee, Rebecca. Order and sobriety and a devotion to cleanliness that scours out the soul. Decent people doing their best to live decent lives, three's nothing really to hate them for, they do their jobs and maintain their property and love their children (most of the time); they take family vacations and visit relatives and decorate their houses for the holidays, collect some things and save up for other things; they're good people (most of them, most of the time), but if you were me, if you were young Pete Harris, you felt the modesty of it eroding you, depopulating you, all those little satisfactions and no big, dangerous ones; no heroism, no genius, no terrible yearning for anything you can't at least in theory actually have. If you were young lank-haired, pustule-plagued Pete Harris you felt like you were always about to expire from the safety of your life, its obdurate sensibleness, that Protestant love of the unexceptional; the eternal certainty of the faithful that flamboyance and the macabre are not just threatening but - worse - uninteresting.”
― Michael Cunningham, quote from By Nightfall
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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