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I think the most important thing is just to write. It sounds so simple, but sometimes it's not. You can get so distracted - -by having to work other jobs, or what other people have to say about your writing - -but the one thing that really matters is that you just keep going, especially when you're working on a novel. It's so easy to get discouraged and give up.
Sarah Dessen
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Why does she have wings?' So she can fly.
Sarah Dessen
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Not everything's perfect, especially in the beginning. And its all right to have a little bit of regret every once in a while. It's when you feel it all the time and can't do anything about it... that's when you get into trouble
Sarah Dessen
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Being brave and self-confident doesn't necessarily start inside...It starts with the rest of the world, and it leads back to you.
Sarah Dessen
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All those clean, fresh starts had made me forget what it was like, until now, to be messy and honest and out of control. To be real.
Sarah Dessen
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I was beginning to see, though, that the unknown wasn't always the greatest thing to fear. The people who know you best can be risker, because the words they say and things they think have the potential to be not only scary but true, as well.
Sarah Dessen
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And so really, you have given me no choice but to take you shopping by force.” She sighed, then reached up, dropping her sunglasses down from their perch on her head to cover her eyes. “Do you even realize how happy the average teenage girl would be in your shoes? I have a credit card. We’re at the mall. I want to buy you things. It’s like adolescent nirvana.” - Cora
Sarah Dessen
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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
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No, no, no to Tallyho.
Sarah Dessen
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Hollis " I said "you're messing with me right now aren't you You're in Paris or somewhere and just-" "What " he replied. "No This is the real deal. Here I'll prove it." There was a muffled noise followed by some static. Then I heard my mother recite at a distance in her most droll flat tone "Yes. It is true. Your brother is in love and in my kitchen.
Sarah Dessen
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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
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My books are so tame!
Sarah Dessen
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That was the hard thing about grief, and the grieving. They spoke another language, and the words we knew always fell short of what we wanted them to say.
Sarah Dessen
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I couldn't tell her. I couldn't tell anyone. As long as I didn't say it aloud, it wasn't real.
Sarah Dessen
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There was no short answer to this; like so much else, it was a long story. But what really makes any story real is knowing someone will hear it. And understand.
Sarah Dessen
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Hey, think fast!' I just looked at Fave as he chucked the basketball at me with possibly the worst overhand throw I'd ever seen. It landed to my far right, then bounced past me, banging against my dad's truck. 'Do you have a vision problem of something?' I asked him. 'Just keeping you on your toes,' he replied
Sarah Dessen
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She tried to be someone people liked. She tried to be someone people disliked. But all I became was someone who didn't succeed with anything I tried to be.
Sarah Dessen
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Because now, I didn't care what they thought. It wasn't new, this realization that I would never be like them. What was different now was that I was glad. Macy page 199
Sarah Dessen
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I was worn out, broken: He had taken almost everything. But he'd been all I'd had, all this time. And when the police led him away, I pulled out of the hands of all these loved one, sobbing, screaming, everything hurting, to try and make him stay.
Sarah Dessen
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What happened to goodbye?
Sarah Dessen
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The thing is I'm a great believer in the perfect moment. They don't come around that often.
Sarah Dessen
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"I don't know," I said. "What else did you do for your first eighteen years?" "Like I said," he said as I unlocked the car, "I'm not so sure that you should go by my example." "Why not?" "Because I have my regrets," he said. "Also, I'm a guy. And guys do different stuff." "Like ride bikes?" I said. "No," he replied. "Like have food fights. And break stuff. And set off firecrackers on people's front porches. And..." "Girls can't set off firecrackers on people's front porches?" "They can," he said... "But they're smart enough not to. That's the difference."
Sarah Dessen
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When someone starts to change, and it’s obvious, it's sort of natural to wonder why. Right?
Sarah Dessen
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And like my dad always said, the first step is always the hardest.
Sarah Dessen
