“I hated the term "heartbroken." It was such an understatement. "Broken" typically implied you were talking about something you could put back together. Or replace. My heart didn't feel like it was broken. It felt like it had been tossed into the blender and liquidized at 180 MPH.”
― Rachel K. Burke, quote from Sound Bites
“Love is a funny thing. It's as if you spend your whole life waiting for it, and then, when it finally happens, everything just sort of falls into place. You don't have to question it or second guess it. It just feels... right.”
― Rachel K. Burke, quote from Sound Bites
“You love him, don't you?"
"That's an impossible question to answer."
"No it isn't," she argued. "It's a simple yes or no. You either love someone or you don't."
"I don't know. Maybe."
"Renee, maybe is not an acceptable answer. That's like saying you're a little bit pregnant and or caught a touch of breast cancer. Deep down, you know whether or not you love someone.”
― Rachel K. Burke, quote from Sound Bites
“I was the only creature with a vagina who would duck if someone ever tried to hand me a baby. I was too selfish to be responsible for someone else's life.”
― Rachel K. Burke, quote from Sound Bites
“I want to be with someone who understand me, who at least cares enough about me to try to understand.”
― Rachel K. Burke, quote from Sound Bites
“So, Buckley, huh?" he asked, pulling away from me. "You think he deserves that much credit?"
"Well, he did bring us together and all," I said.
"Oh, is that what brought us together?" His brown crinkled together. "I thought it was that ten minutes of unprotected passion in a cheap Manhattan hotel room."
"I'd give it six at most.”
― Rachel K. Burke, quote from Sound Bites
“Excuse me," he greeted, smiling. "I'm sorry to bother you, but do either of you know how to get to the Nokia Theater?"
"Absolutely," Dylan chimed in. "That street right there is forty-second." He pointed to the right of where we were sitting. "You want to follow that for another four blocks and then turn right when you see Yangsoon's Kitchen. Then you want to go up another two blocks and bang a left at Starbucks. You'll see the theater up on your right after the big McDonald's sigh. You can't miss it."
The man put the newspaper he was holding under his arm and extended his hand out to shake Dylan's. "Thank you sir. I really appreciate it. "He turned and scrambled off at lighting speed.
I peered at Dylan suspiciously. "You don't really know how to get to the theater, do you?"
His face remained blank as he shook his head.
"Not a clue.”
― Rachel K. Burke, quote from Sound Bites
“Do you really like Quincy or are you just saying that?" I asked.
Dylan held up his index finger and finished swallowing his toast. He looked alarmed by my question. "Quincy is fine. Why would I mind Quincy?"
"I don't know. I mean, don't you have a preference as to where we live?"
Dylan shook his head. "Not really. As long as I'm living with you, I could care less. I'd live in a closet with you for Christ's sake.”
― Rachel K. Burke, quote from Sound Bites
“I think trust is an important part of any relationship. but I also think it's something that can be rebuilt if you're willing to work at it.”
― Rachel K. Burke, quote from Sound Bites
“Along with the punctuality gene, the liar gene had skipped out on me as well. I was officially the world's worst liar. I could've won and award for it. Whenever I tried to mimic a serious expression, I ended up looking like I was half-retarded”
― Rachel K. Burke, quote from Sound Bites
“So, you really think…” Dylan’s voice trailed off as soon as he saw me. His eyes moved up and down my entire body, staring at me like I was a meal. “Wow. You look… great.”
― Rachel K. Burke, quote from Sound Bites
“A person could stop a specific thing, but they couldn’t stop change in general. Rivers can’t run backward. Yet, he felt there must be an alternative, neither willfulness nor resignation. He couldn’t put words to it. All he knew was, neither of them had changed their minds and neither of them could find anything more to say.”
― David Wroblewski, quote from The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
“When I heard about the ease with which the Four had been removed, I felt a wave of sadness. How could such a small group of second-rate tyrants ravage 900 million people for so long? But my main feeling was joy. The last tyrants of the Cultural Revolution were finally gone. My rapture was widely shared. Like many of my countrymen, I went out to buy the best liquors for a celebration with my family and friends, only to find the shops out of stock there was so much spontaneous rejoicing.
There were official celebrations as well exactly the same kinds of rallies as during the Cultural Revolution, which infuriated me. I was particularly angered by the fact that in my department, the political supervisors and the student officials were now arranging the whole show, with unperturbed self-righteousness.
The new leadership was headed by Mao's chosen successor, Hua Guofeng, whose only qualification, I believed, was his mediocrity. One of his first acts was to announce the construction of a huge mausoleum for Mao on Tiananmen Square. I was outraged: hundreds of thousands of people were still homeless after the earthquake in Tangshan, living in temporary shacks on the pavements.
With her experience, my mother had immediately seen that a new era was beginning. On the day after Mao's death she had reported for work at her depas'uuent. She had been at home for five years, and now she wanted to put her energy to use again. She was given a job as the number seven deputy director in her department, of which she had been the director before the Cultural Revolution. But she did not mind.
To me in my impatient mood, things seemed to go on as before. In January 1977, my university course came to an end. We were given neither examinations nor degrees.
Although Mao and the Gang of Four were gone, Mao's rule that we had to return to where we had come from still applied. For me, this meant the machinery factory. The idea that a university education should make a difference to one's job had been condemned by Mao as 'training spiritual aristocrats.”
― Jung Chang, quote from Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
“Winter is coming, Elena," he said, and his voice was clear and chilling even over the howling of the wind, "An unforgiving season. Before it comes, you'll have learned what I can and can't do. Before winter is here, you'll have joined me. You'll be mine.”
― L.J. Smith, quote from The Awakening / The Struggle
“Between pants, I continued spewing how much I hated him. Around my lips, he kept telling me I didn't.”
― S.C. Stephens, quote from Thoughtless
“I've never had a boy in here," Martin said in a serious voice. "I've never touched another man, as a matter of fact. . . .except for my father. That was my duty.”
― Stieg Larsson, quote from The Millennium Trilogy
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