Paper Towns
Quotes from the Book
Some people have lives; some people have music.
Maybe there's something you're afraid to say, or someone you're afraid to love, or somewhere you're afraid to go. It's gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt because it matters.
I am constantly torn between killing myself and killing everyone around me.
You like someone who can't like you back because unrequited love can be survived in a way that once-requited love cannot.
When things break, it's not the actual breaking that prevents them from getting back together again. It's because a little piece gets lost - the two remaining ends couldn't fit together even if they wanted to. The whole shape has changed.
NO. No no no. I don't want to screw you. I just love you. When did who you want to screw become the whole game? Since when is the person you want to screw the only person you get to love? It's so stupid, Tiny! I mean, Jesus, who even gives a fuck about sex?! People act like it's the most important thing humans do, but come on. How can our sentient fucking lives revolve around something slugs can do. I mean, who you want to screw and whether you screw them? Those are important questions, I guess. But they're not that important. You know what's important? Who would you die for? Who do you wake up at five forty-five in the morning for even though you don't even know why he needs you? Whose drunken nose would you pick?!
i do not say 'good-bye.' i believe that's one of the bullshittiest words ever invented. it's not like you're given the choice to say 'bad-bye' or 'awful-bye' or 'couldn't-care-less-about-you-bye.' every time you leave, it's supposed to be a good one. well, i don't believe in that. i believe against that.
Caring doesn't sometimes lead to misery. It always does.
That's what the voices in your head are for, to get you through the silent parts.
I feel like my life is so scattered right now. Like it's all the small pieces of paper and someone's turned on the fan. But, talking to you makes me feel like the fan's been turned off for a little bit. Like things could actually make sense. You completely unscatter me, and I appreciate that so much.
i have a friend request from some stranger on facebook and i delete it without looking at the profile because that doesn't seem natural. 'cause friendship should not be as easy as that. it's like people believe all you need to do is like the same bands in order to be soulmates. or books. omg... U like the outsiders 2... it's like we're the same person! no we're not. it's like we have the same english teacher. there's a difference.
this is why we call people exes, I guess - because the paths that cross in the middle end up separating at the end. it's too easy to see an X as a cross-out. it's not, because there's no way to cross out something like that. the X is a diagram of two paths.
maybe tonight you're scared of falling, and maybe there's somebody here or somewhere else you're thinking about, worrying over, fretting over, trying to figure out if you want to fall, or how and when you're gonna land, and i gotta tell you, friends, to stop thinking about the landing, because it's all about falling.
It's hard to believe in coincidence, but it's even harder to believe in anything else.
i will admit there's a certain degree of giving a fuck that goes into not giving a fuck. by saying you don't care if the world falls apart, in some small way you're saying you want it to stay together, on your terms.
when things break, it's not the actual breaking that prevents them from getting back together again. it's because a little piece gets lost -- the two remaining ends couldn't fit together even if they wanted to. the whole shape has changed.
Being in a relationship, that's something you choose. Being friends, that's just something you are. [But] I do pick you. We've been friends too long to pick, but if we could pick, I'd pick you.
I'm so proud of you that it makes me proud of me. I hope you know that.
i think the idea of a 'mental health day' is something completely invented by people who have no clue what it's like to have bad mental health. the idea that your mind can be aired out in twenty-four hours is kind of like saying heart disease can be cured if you eat the right breakfast cereal. mental health days only exist for people who have the luxury of saying 'i don't want to deal with things today' and then can take the whole day off, while the rest of us are stuck fighting the fights we always fight, with no one really caring one way or another, unless we choose to bring a gun to school or ruin the morning announcements with a suicide.
Nothing's wrong. Everything's right. Things couldn't be righter. Things could be less tired. They could be less busy. They could be less caffeinated. But they couldn't be righter.
I close my eyes. And i scream. If my whole world is crashing down around me, then I am going to make the sound of the crashing. I want to scream until all my bones break.
Anything that happens all at once is just as likely to unhappen all at once, you know?
I've never known before what it feels like to want someone - not to want to hook up with them or whatever, but to want them, to want them. And now I do. So maybe I do believe in epiphanies.
Dear Jane, Just so you know: e. e. cummings cheated on both of his wives. With prostitutes. Yours, Will Grayson
All sorts of yayness floods my brain. Love is such a drug.
I don't want to fall. All I want to do is stand on solid ground.
need is never a good basis for any relationship. it has to be much more than that.
I do not say goodbye. I believe that's one of the bullshitiest words ever invented. It's not like you're given the choice to say bad-bye, or awful-bye, or couldn't-care-less-about-you-bye. Everytime you leave, it's supposed to be a good one.
I have spent my life falling. Not the kind that Tiny's talking about. He's talking about love. I'm talking about life. In my kind of falling, there's no landing. There's only hitting the ground. Hard. Dead, or wanting to be dead. So the whole time you're falling, it's the worst feeling in the world. Because you feel you have no control over it. Because you know how it ends.
i feel like my life is so scattered right now. like it’s all these small pieces of paper and someone’s turned on the fan. but talking to you makes me feel like the fan’s been turned off for a little bit. like things could actually make sense. you completely unscatter me, and i appreciate that so much.
Did you know?
- The book was co-written by John Green and David Levithan, each authoring the chapters for one of the two Will Graysons.
- David Levithan's Will Grayson chapters are written entirely in lowercase.
- It was the first LGBT-themed young adult novel to appear on The New York Times children's bestseller list.
- The two Will Graysons live in the neighboring Chicago suburbs of Evanston and Naperville.
- The flamboyant character Tiny Cooper stages an autobiographical high-school musical that ties the two narratives together.
About John Green
More by John Green
All books by John Green →About the book
"Will Grayson, Will Grayson" is a young adult novel written jointly by John Green and David Levithan, published in 2010. It follows two Chicago-area teenagers who happen to share the same name. One Will Grayson, from Evanston, tries to move through life unnoticed, a difficult task given that his best friend is the exuberant, openly gay football player and musical-theater impresario Tiny Cooper. The other Will Grayson, from Naperville, is gay and struggling with depression, and is pursuing what he believes is an online relationship. One cold night the two strangers unexpectedly cross paths in Chicago, and their lives begin to overlap and reshape one another.
The novel is told in alternating chapters, with Green writing the Evanston Will Grayson and Levithan writing the Naperville Will Grayson, the latter's sections rendered entirely in lowercase. Its central concerns are friendship, identity, first love, and self-acceptance, with the larger-than-life Tiny Cooper and his autobiographical high-school musical serving as a connecting thread between the two narratives. The book balances humor with a candid look at adolescent depression and the difficulty of being honest about who you are.
"Will Grayson, Will Grayson" was notable as the first LGBT-themed young adult novel to debut on The New York Times children's bestseller list, where it remained for three weeks. Pairing two of the most prominent voices in contemporary YA fiction, it helped broaden mainstream visibility for queer teenage protagonists and remains among the better-known collaborations in the genre.
Key characters
- Will Grayson (Evanston)A boy who tries to live unnoticed; best friend of Tiny Cooper
- Will Grayson (Naperville)A gay teen struggling with depression, pursuing an online relationship
- Tiny CooperFlamboyant, openly gay football player who stages an autobiographical musical
- Jane TurnerEvanston Will Grayson's love interest and member of the Gay-Straight Alliance
- MauraGoth girl who poses online as "Isaac" to deceive the Naperville Will Grayson
Book details
- First published
- 2010
- Length
- 310 pages
- Reading time
- 2 hours
- Author
- John Green
- Genre
- Fiction
- Goodreads rating
- 3.69 (415k ratings) →
- First line
- “When I was little, my dad used to tell me, "Will, you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose."”
Keep reading
The Edge of Never
Stay
Holding Up the Universe
Unteachable
When It Happens
Another Day
Saving June
Every Day
Charmed Thirds
Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List
Tell Me Three Things
Second Helpings
Everyone You Hate is Going to Die: And Other Comforting Thoughts on Family, Friends, Sex, Love, and More Things That Ruin Your Life
Awaken
Opposite of Always
Norwegian Wood
Sad Girls
Invisibility
Sing You Home
Mosquitoland
This Time It's Real
How To Talk To A Widower
Goodbye Days
An Abundance of Katherines
Non Friction
You Know Me Well
Thirteen Reasons Why
Love from A to Z
All Broke Down
Gray
Broken
Slammed
Without Merit
The Unwritten Rule
Something Borrowed
Everything Leads to You
To All the Boys I've Loved Before
Finding It
Turtles All the Way Down
Meant to Be
Where I End and You Begin
Someday
Something Like Fate
Numbers
This Is Where the World Ends
Elsewhere
The Sun Is Also a Star
Attachments
How to Kill a Rock Star
Before I Fall
Tilt
This Lullaby
Funny Story
High Fidelity
The Unbound
How to Build a House
The Return
Broken Harbor
Looking for Alibrandi

