“Life is long. Just because you don't get your chance right when you want or expect it doesn't mean it won't come. Fate doesn't punch a time clock or consult a schedule.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“The truth was, there was no way everything could be the Best. Sometimes, when it came to events and people, it had to be okay to just be.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“The thing is, you can’t always have the best of everything. Because for a life to be real, you need it all: good and bad, beach and concrete, the familiar and the unknown, big talkers and small towns.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“It takes so little to change everything. If you really thought about it, it would scare you to death.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“We were willing to do so much for the people we loved, even if it meant hurting ourselves. Maybe that, in the end, was what love- all kinds- was really about.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“There's a difference between the words father and dad. And it's more than three words.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“When you've never gotten love from someone, you don't know what it might look like if it ever does appear. You look for it in everything: any bright light overhead could be a star.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“The mistakes you make now count. Not for everything, and not forever. But they do matter, and they shape you.If you take nothing else from what I've been through, at least remember this: make your choices well. Because you'll always be accountable for them. That's what being an adult is all about.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“But the bottom line is that, as humans, we are by nature selfish creatures. The only way we care about anything, really, is by making it about us.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“It's always very pure, that last moment before an ugly, unsettling truth hits someone. The most stark of before-and-afters.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“It was such a weird thing how a breakup stretched much wider than you expected. You didn't just lose a person, but their entire world as well.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“How weird that must be, to stay the same as everyone else changes.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“It's funny how two people can grow up in the same town, go to the same school, have the same friends, and end up so totally different. Family, or lack of it, counts for more than you'd think.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“You can never be sure of anyone until you're close enough to see them clearly.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“I would miss Colby, but it wasn't going anywhere. All the more reason why I should.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“Maybe it was just part of growing up with someone. Once you have a rhythm and stay with it long enough, it's not hard to find again.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“Change is inevitable, though," he replied. "As is disappointment. Best to get used to it now.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“Again, it occurred to me how weird it was to be permanent in a place that to everyone else was only temporary. Like I could never be sure if they were the ones who weren't real, or if I was.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“When you have a kid, you sign on for the whole package: good, bad, everything in between. you can't just dip in and out, picking and choosing the parts you want and quitting when it's not perfect.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“I'm sorry," I heard him say again. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a sudden blur of movement as he slid out of his seat, left some bills for the breakfast he wouldn't eat, and walked away. And as he did, I thought again of those mornings in the hallway at school, way back in ninth grade. Everything had started in such sharp detail, each aspect pronounced and clear. Obviously, endings were different. Harder to see, full of shapes that could be one thing or another, with all the things that you were once so sure of suddenly not familiar, if they were even recognizable at all.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“And trying to break it down this way, to minor and major offenses, maybes and what-ifs, was like arguing over the origin of cracks in a broken egg. It was done. How it happened didn't matter anymore.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“Morris was not the type to offer a hug or even hold your hand. But there was something in his quiet indignation at the universe then--and Luke, now--that was just the kind of comfort I needed.
"I'm such a mess," I said. "We're almost off the island and I didn't even ask you where you were going."
He shrugged. "No place. Wherever you are.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“Everything had started in such sharp detail, each aspect pronounced and clear. Obviously, endings were different. Harder to see, full of shapes that could be one thing or another, with all the things that you were once so sure of suddenly not familiar, if they were even recognizable at all.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“You need demarcation."
"Demarcation?" I asked.
"It means a clear separation between two things," he told me. "A solid end before a clean beginning. No murky borders. Clarity.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“From what I could see, the hardwood was just fine. Then again, I'd just see a windmill and an open sky, too, never feeling the need to conquer either. You think it's all obvious and straightforward, this world. But really, it's all in who is doing the looking.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“Finally he asks, "What if that's not enough? What if I need something else?"
And she replies, "Whatever you need, I will find a way to get it to you. I will give you the moon, and more.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“It [I'm leaving] wasn't really necessary to say, especially if you were already walking away. Almost redundant. And yet, there was a comfort in being no question, no room for doubt.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“Being a star requires risk-taking shoes.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“I'm starting to think, though, that some things never get that. The replay, and all. So at some point you have to make peace with it as it is, not keep waiting for a chance to change it”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
“Meanwhile, Morris settled into his seat with his signature slouch, neither knowing nor caring where I was taking him. Like destinations, in general, were vastly overrated. And maybe they were. As long as you were moving, you were always going somewhere.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from The Moon and More
Sarah Dessen
Born place: in Illinois, The United States
See more on GoodReads
“Before the Law stands a doorkeeper on guard. To this doorkeeper there comes a man from the country who begs for admittance to the Law. But the doorkeeper says that he cannot admit the man at the moment. The man, on reflection, asks if he will be allowed, then, to enter later. 'It is possible,' answers the doorkeeper, 'but not at this moment.' Since the door leading into the Law stands open as usual and the doorkeeper steps to one side, the man bends down to peer through the entrance. When the doorkeeper sees that, he laughs and says: 'If you are so strongly tempted, try to get in without my permission. But note that I am powerful. And I am only the lowest doorkeeper. From hall to hall keepers stand at every door, one more powerful than the other. Even the third of these has an aspect that even I cannot bear to look at.' These are difficulties which the man from the country has not expected to meet, the Law, he thinks, should be accessible to every man and at all times, but when he looks more closely at the doorkeeper in his furred robe, with his huge pointed nose and long, thin, Tartar beard, he decides that he had better wait until he gets permission to enter. The doorkeeper gives him a stool and lets him sit down at the side of the door. There he sits waiting for days and years. He makes many attempts to be allowed in and wearies the doorkeeper with his importunity. The doorkeeper often engages him in brief conversation, asking him about his home and about other matters, but the questions are put quite impersonally, as great men put questions, and always conclude with the statement that the man cannot be allowed to enter yet. The man, who has equipped himself with many things for his journey, parts with all he has, however valuable, in the hope of bribing the doorkeeper. The doorkeeper accepts it all, saying, however, as he takes each gift: 'I take this only to keep you from feeling that you have left something undone.' During all these long years the man watches the doorkeeper almost incessantly. He forgets about the other doorkeepers, and this one seems to him the only barrier between himself and the Law. In the first years he curses his evil fate aloud; later, as he grows old, he only mutters to himself. He grows childish, and since in his prolonged watch he has learned to know even the fleas in the doorkeeper's fur collar, he begs the very fleas to help him and to persuade the doorkeeper to change his mind. Finally his eyes grow dim and he does not know whether the world is really darkening around him or whether his eyes are only deceiving him. But in the darkness he can now perceive a radiance that streams immortally from the door of the Law. Now his life is drawing to a close. Before he dies, all that he has experienced during the whole time of his sojourn condenses in his mind into one question, which he has never yet put to the doorkeeper. He beckons the doorkeeper, since he can no longer raise his stiffening body. The doorkeeper has to bend far down to hear him, for the difference in size between them has increased very much to the man's disadvantage. 'What do you want to know now?' asks the doorkeeper, 'you are insatiable.' 'Everyone strives to attain the Law,' answers the man, 'how does it come about, then, that in all these years no one has come seeking admittance but me?' The doorkeeper perceives that the man is at the end of his strength and that his hearing is failing, so he bellows in his ear: 'No one but you could gain admittance through this door, since this door was intended only for you. I am now going to shut it.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Proces
“You see, I have been content with the darkness. But then you came, with your fire. And you reminded me about the stars, shining in the dark, never wavering.”
― Sarah Diemer, quote from The Dark Wife
“I would run to rejoin the children. Especially when it was time for the kite-flying contests- where the boys would skilfully try to cut down their competitors' kite strings. It plunges. It was beautiful, and also a bit melancholy for me to see the pretty kites sputter to the ground.
Maybe it was because I could see a future that would be cut down just like those kites- simply because I was a girl.”
― Malala Yousafzai, quote from I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Readers Edition)
“Whoa, this isn’t the Training Center, you know,” I tell him. “There’s a certain level of clothing etiquette in this house, and you’re currently violating it.”
He reaches for his jacket. “I believe you’re the one who tore my clothes off in the first place, and now you’re complaining?”
“Trust me, there was no tearing involved. You’ll have to get that fantasy fulfilled somewhere else.”
― Rachel Morgan, quote from The Faerie Guardian
“After eyeing her for a moment or two, he said: ‘If you let this chance of achieving a respectable alliance slip, you are a bigger fool than I take you for, Hester!’ Her eyes came round to his face, a smile quivered for an instant on her lips. ‘No, how could that be, Papa?”
― Georgette Heyer, quote from Sprig Muslin
Artemisia
Undead and Unappreci...
Coming Home
The Fourth Hand
Tunnel in the Sky
The White RoadBookQuoters 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.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
