Quotes from Tell Me Three Things

Julie Buxbaum ·  328 pages

Rating: (25.5K votes)


“Just because you're strong doesn't mean you shouldn't ask for help sometimes. Remember that.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“Perfect days are for people with small, realizable dreams. Or maybe for all of us, they just happen in retrospect; they're only now perfect because they contain something irrevocably and irretrievably lost.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“Other people can't make you feel stupid. Only you can.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“But sometimes a kiss is not a kiss is not a kiss. Sometimes it’s a poetry.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“He's more like me, I think: burdened with the realization that what goes on his mind is somehow different from what goes on everyone else's. Even those close to us. And how you can't think about that for too long, because that thought- the truth of your own isolation- is too much to bear.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things



“One of the worst parts about someone dying is thinking back to all those times you didn’t ask the right questions, all those times you stupidly assumed you’d have all the time in the world. And this too: how all that time feels like not much time at all.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“Not feeling like I belong anywhere has made me crave constant motion; standing still feels risky, like asking to be a target.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“His two front teeth are slightly crooked, veer just a tiny bit to the right, as if they've decided perfection is overrated. His smile is like unlocking a riddle. How does an imperfection make him seem more perfect?”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“SN: you know what I think about sometimes?

Me: What?

SN: you know that piece of hair that always falls into your eyes—the not-quite-a-bang piece? I want to be able to tuck it behind your ear. I want to be able to do that. I want to meet you when I feel comfortable enough with you to do that.

Me: You are so weird.

SN: you are not the first person to say that.

Me: Am I the first to say that I really like that about you?”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“Not knowing the right thing to do is not an excuse for not doing anything.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things



“You know how it is. Mean girls get mean in seventh grade and they stay that way until your ten-year reunion, when they want to be best friends again.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“There’s nothing lonelier than a hand on glass. Maybe because it’s so rarely reciprocated.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“Last night, we IM'd so late, I fell asleep with my computer on my lap and woke to his words dinging on my screen. Three things, he said: (1) good morning, (2) I have keybord marks on my face. slept on the "sdfg." (3) you leave in 24 hours, and I'm going to miss you.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“I think of his hands fixing me a plate, almost touching my banged-up face, and all I can think about is how much I want to kiss them: his eyes, his hands too.
All of him.
His damaged parts.
All of him.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“My mom once told me that the world is divided into two kinds of people: the ones who love their high school years and the ones who spend the next decade recovering from them. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, she said.
But something did kill her, and I’m not stronger. So go figure; maybe there’s a third kind of person: the ones who never recover from high school at all.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things



“He's more like me, I think: burdened with the realization that what goes on in his mind is somehow different from what goes on in everyone else's. Even those closest to us.
And how you can't think about that for too long, because that thought - the truth of our isolation - is too much to bear.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“But sometimes a kiss is not a kiss is not a kiss. Sometimes it's poetry.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“Come to think of it, I don't want to be my friend either.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“I hate the word “bitch.” I do. Using the B-word makes me feel like a bad feminist, but sometimes there is no other word.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“Time does not heal all wounds, no matter how many drugstore sympathy cards hastily scrawled by distant relatives promise this to be true.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things



“All the tattoos I would get if I were the sort of person who had the nerve to get tattoos, which I am decidedly not. Instead, I'm the kind of person who has spent hours debating said theoretical tattoos, despite my crippling fears of both needles and long-term commitment.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“SN: I'm a righty in all the things. ALL THE THINGS.

Me: Was that an attempt at innuendo?

SN: your use of the word "attempt" suggests that I failed.

Me: #innuendofailure

SN: I just said the word "innuendo" a bunch of times in my head and now its lost all meaning. innuendo. innuendo. innuendo. innuendo.

Me: Word ruined for me forever.

SN: ruinuendo.

Me: You are a dork.

SN: yes, yes I am. Good that you find this out now.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“In the Venn diagram of my life, my imagined personality and my real personality have never converged. Over email and text, though, I am given those few additional beats I need to be the better, edited version of myself. To”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“you make me want to know what goes on in that head of yours. I'll be honest: I'm not usually interested in the contents of others people's heads. My own is work enough.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“Perfect days are for people with small, realizable dreams. Or maybe for all of us, they just happen in retrospect; they’re only now perfect because they contain something irrevocably and irretrievably lost.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things



“Tears are kind of like urine. There is only so long you can hold them in.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“Liam's hands are curled into fists, as if he is ready to throw punches right in the middle of IHOP, which is of course a dumb place to fight. There are children here, and polyester booths, and smiley-face pancakes. Multiple kinds of syrup. Some of the drinks even come with maraschino cherries.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“I mean , I never even had to really come out to my parents. They always knew, and it was always okay. Or not even okay, better than that. Not something that had to be evaluated at all. It just was. Like having brown hair.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“I'm from Chicago. I think can handle the Valley.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things


“Just so you know, I realize that what happened is not in any way okay, but I think we're going to have to pretend like it is.

Because it wasn't okay and never will be. We will power through it; I will continue to power through it-all the stagnant, soul-crushing grief-but it will never be okay that my mom is not here.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things



About the author

Julie Buxbaum
Born place: New York, New York, The United States
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