Gayle Forman quotes

Sometimes you can only feel something by its absence. By the empty spaces it leaves behind.
-- Gayle Forman

#Space #Sometimes #Absence

There’s a difference between losing something you knew you had and losing something you discovered you had. One is a disappointment. The other feels like losing a piece of yourself.
-- Gayle Forman

#Disappointment #Differences #Pieces

Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.
-- Gayle Forman

#Life #Choices #Sometimes

Don't be scared...Women can handle the worst kind of pain. You'll find out one day.
-- Gayle Forman

#Pain #One Day #Scared

I'm so tired of missing things I don't have.
-- Gayle Forman

#Tired #Missing

I needed to hate someone and you’re the one I love the most, so it fell on you.
-- Gayle Forman

#Hate #Needed

And something tells me if it matters, maybe it shouldn't be easy.
-- Gayle Forman

#Matter #Easy

Forward momentum. That's my new motto. No regrets. And no going back.
-- Gayle Forman

#Regret #Momentum #Motto

I have a feeling that once you live through something like this, you become a little bit invincible.
-- Gayle Forman

#Feelings #Littles #Invincible

Sometimes the best way to find out what you’re supposed to do is by doing the thing you’re not supposed to do.
-- Gayle Forman

#Way #Sometimes

There are so many things that demand to be said. Where did you go? Do you ever think about me? You've ruined me. Are you okay? But of course, I can't say any of that.
-- Gayle Forman

#Relationship #Thinking #Demand

...being Lulu, it made me realize that all my life I've been living in a small, square room, with no windows and no doors. And I was fine. I was happy, even. I thought. Then someone came along and showed me there was a door in the room. One that I'd never even seen before. Then he opened it for me. Held my hand as I walked through it. And for one perfect day, I was on the other side. I was somewhere else. Someone else. And then he was gone, and I was thrown back into my little room. And now, no matter what I do, I can't seem to find that door.
-- Gayle Forman

#Squares #Doors #Hands

But still, I find the need to remind myself of the temporariness of a day, to reassure myself that I got through yesterday, I'll get through today.
-- Gayle Forman

#Yesterday #Needs #Today

I don't know who I am. Or maybe I do know who I am and I just don't want to be her anymore.
-- Gayle Forman

#Who I Am #Want

You were so busy trying to be my savior that you left me all alone.
-- Gayle Forman

#Trying #Busy #You Left Me

And that's just it, isn't it? That's how we manage to survive the loss. Because love, it never dies, it never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it.
-- Gayle Forman

#Loss #Long #Manage

Losing me will hurt; it will be the kind of pain that won't feel real at first, and when it does, it will take her breath away.
-- Gayle Forman

#Hurt #Pain #Real

Life is a big fat gigantic stinking mess, that's the beauty of it, too.
-- Gayle Forman

#Life Is #Bigs #Fats

The line between true self and feigned self is blurred on all sides. Which I think is a rather handy metaphor for falling in love.
-- Gayle Forman

#Falling In Love #Thinking #Self

In the lead-up to the launch of my new book I Was Here, I’ve seen a lot of discussion about depression and suicide and mental health and YA dealing with such intense matters. What I haven’t seen discussed is kittens.
-- Gayle Forman

#Suicide #Book #Matter

Life might take you down different roads. But each of you gets to decide which one to take.
-- Gayle Forman

#Different #Might

We kiss again. This next kiss is the kind that breaks open the sky. It steals my breath and gives it back. It shows me that every other kiss I've had in my life has been wrong.
-- Gayle Forman

#Kissing #Sky #Giving

You just work through it. You just hang in there.
-- Gayle Forman

#Hang In There

I'm not choosing, but I'm running out of fight.
-- Gayle Forman

#Running #Fighting

In the calculus of feelings, you never really know how one person's absence will affect you more than another's.
-- Gayle Forman

#Feelings #Absence #Calculus

Girlfriend is such a stupid word. I couldn't stand calling her that. So, we had to get married, so I could call her 'wife.
-- Gayle Forman

#Girlfriend #Stupid #Wife

Concert' doesn’t mean standing up like a target in front of thousands of strangers. It means coming together. It means harmony.
-- Gayle Forman

#Mean #Together #Target

But seventeen is an inconvenient time to fall in love.
-- Gayle Forman

#Falling In Love #Fall

It's quiet now. So quiet that can almost hear other people's dreams.
-- Gayle Forman

#Dream #People #Quiet

It's like the piano and the cello are being poured into my body, the same way the IV and blood transfusions are. And the memories of my life as it was, and the flashes of it as it might be, are coming so fast and furious. I feel like I can no longer keep up with them but they keep coming and everything is colliding, until I cannot take anymore. Until I cannot be like this a second longer.
-- Gayle Forman

#Memories #Blood #Piano

But what if Shakespeare― and Hamlet― were asking the wrong question? What if the real question is not whether to be, but how to be?
-- Gayle Forman

#Real #What If #Asking

I don't really care. I shouldn't have to care. I shouldn't have to work this hard. I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.
-- Gayle Forman

#Dying #Care #Realizing

Sleep would be so welcome. A warm blanket of black to erase everything else. Sleep without dreams. I've heard people talk about the sleep of the dead. Is that what death would feel like? The nicest, warmest, heaviest never-ending nap? If that's what it's like, I wouldn't mind. If that's what dying is like, I wouldn't mind that at all.
-- Gayle Forman

#Dream #Sleep #Naps

If you stay, I'll do whatever you want. I'll quit the band, go with you to New York. But if you need me to go away, I'll do that, too. I was talking to Liz and she said maybe coming back to your old life would be too painful, that maybe it'd be easier for you to erase us. And that would suck, but I'd do it. I can lose you like that if I don't lose you today. I'll let you go. If you stay.
-- Gayle Forman

#New York #Talking #Going Away

What would you do if you had to choose?
-- Gayle Forman

I'm not sure this is a world I belong in anymore. I'm not sure that I want to wake up.
-- Gayle Forman

#Love #Wake Up #World

But the you who you are tonight is the same you I was in love with yesterday, the same you I’ll be in love with tomorrow.
-- Gayle Forman

#Yesterday #Tonight #Tomorrow

When the sun shines, you let it shine on you
-- Gayle Forman

#Shining #Sun

I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.
-- Gayle Forman

#Lovely #Dying #Realizing

I`m surrounded by people and feel alone.
-- Gayle Forman

#People #Feels

Adam is crying and somewhere inside of me I am crying, too, because I'm feeling things at last. I'm feeling not just the physical pain, but all that I have lost, and it is profound and catastrophic and will leave a crater in me that nothing will ever fill.
-- Gayle Forman

#Pain #Loss #Profound

And if I'm not forgiven, then at least I'm understood.
-- Gayle Forman

#Forgiven #Understood

I recognized that the kiss was a door I had walked through.
-- Gayle Forman

#Kissing #Doors

And I kissed him back so hard, like I was trying to merge our bodies through our lips.
-- Gayle Forman

#Trying #Body #Lips

So, this is how it's become? This is how I've become? A walking contradiction? I'm surrounded by people and feel alone. I claim to crave a bit of normalcy but now that I have some, it's like I don't know what to do with it, I don't know how to be a normal person anymore.
-- Gayle Forman

#People #Normalcy #Contradiction

I can’t imagine what it would be like to have had her company in my head—the comfort that would’ve brought.
-- Gayle Forman

#Comfort #Would Be #Imagine

What's that sound I hear? It's just my lifetime It's whistling past my ear
-- Gayle Forman

#Past #Sound #Ears

You stood over me and you made a promise to me, as sacred as any vow. And I can understand why you're angry, but you can't blame me. You can't hate me for taking your word.
-- Gayle Forman

#Hate #Promise #Sacred

Then the musical instruments appeared. Dad’s snare drum from the house, Henry’s guitar from his car, Adam’s spare guitar from my room. Everyone was jamming together, singing songs: Dad’s songs, Adam’s songs, old Clash songs, old Wipers songs. Teddy was dancing around, the blond of his hair reflecting the golden flames. I remember watching it all and getting that tickling in my chest and thinking to myself: This is what happiness feels like.
-- Gayle Forman

#Song #Dad #Thinking

She left for Juilliard the day after Labor Day. I drove her to the airport. She kissed me good-bye. She told me that she loved me more than life itself. Then she stepped through security. She never came back.
-- Gayle Forman

#Airports #Bye #Labor Day

She said if she couldn't play, she had nothing left. What about me?
-- Gayle Forman

#Play #Said

Really? Was that how you quit me?
-- Gayle Forman

#Quitting

I want to make her cry and then lick up the tears.
-- Gayle Forman

#Tears #Want #Cry

It's okay if you want to go. Everyone wants you to stay. I want you to stay more than I've ever wanted anything in my life. But that's what I want and I could see why it might not be what you want. So I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. It's okay if you have to leave us. It's okay if you want to stop fighting.
-- Gayle Forman

#Fighting #Want #Might

Is that what death would feel like? The nicest, warmest, heaviest never-ending nap? If that’s what it’s like, I wouldn’t mind.
-- Gayle Forman

#Naps #Mind #Feels

..all I left with was the magnitude of my mistake, of my missing you. And I have to watch you from this distance, watch you achieve your dreams, live what seemed like this perfect life.
-- Gayle Forman

#Dream #Mistake #Distance

Sleep would be so welcome. A warm blanket of black to erase everything else. Sleep without dreams.
-- Gayle Forman

#Dream #Sleep #Black

These days, you’ve gotta milk a dollar out of every dime.
-- Gayle Forman

#Dollars #Dimes #Milk

Her eyes flutter up to meet mine. “Are you hungry?”she asks. Am I ever.
-- Gayle Forman

#Eye #Her Eyes #Hungry

Who says I breathe music? Who says I even breathe?
-- Gayle Forman

#Breathe

(P)eople’s good intentions can wind up putting us in boxes as confining as coffins.
-- Gayle Forman

#Wind #Coffins #Good Intentions

Even going to jail would be easy compared to losing you.
-- Gayle Forman

#Jail #Would Be #Losing

Love can make you immortal
-- Gayle Forman

#Immortal

You talked to me, but you didn’t. I could see you having these two-sided conversations. The things you wanted to say to me. And the words that actually came out.
-- Gayle Forman

#Two #Conversation #Wanted

Quitting’s not hard. Deciding to quit is hard. Once you make that mental leap, the rest is easy.” “Really? Was that how you quit me?
-- Gayle Forman

#Quitting #Easy #Leap

There’s a piece of lead where my heart should beat Doctor said too dangerous to take out You’d better just leave it be Body grew back around it, a miracle, praise be Now, if only I could get through airport security “bullet
-- Gayle Forman

#Heart #Airports #Doctors

If you can't trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child?
-- Gayle Forman

#Children #Choices #Trust Me

...and yes, it was a high school romance, but it was still the kind of romance where I thought we were trying to find a way to make it forever...
-- Gayle Forman

#School #Romance #Forever

But my hand has been clenched into a fist for three years now; it's frozen shut.
-- Gayle Forman

#Hands #Years #Three

I force my eyes upward and look at Mia for the first time. She's still beautiful. Not in an obvious Vanessa LeGrande or Bryn Shraeder kind of way. In a quiet way that's always been devastating to me. Her hair, long and dark, is down now, swimming damply against her bare shoulders, which are still milky white and covered with the constellation of freckles that I used to kiss. The scar on her left shoulder, the one that used to be an angry red weld is silvery pink now. Almost like the latest rage in tattoo accessories. Almost pretty.
-- Gayle Forman

#Tattoo #Beautiful #Eye

How is it possible that a boyfriend ceases to exist from one day to another?
-- Gayle Forman

#One Day

In Rome, I really wanted an Audrey Hepburn Roman Holiday experience, but the Trevi Fountain was crowded, there was a McDonald's at the base of the Spanish Steps, and the ruins smelled like cat pee because of all the strays. The same thing happened in Prague, where I'd been yearning for some of the bohemianism of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. But no, there were no fabulous artists, no guys who looked remotely like a young Daniel Day-Lewis. I saw this one mysterious-looking guy reading Sartre in a cafe, but then his cell phone rang and he started talking in aloud Texan twang.
-- Gayle Forman

#Reading #Holiday #Cat

But I also know that sometimes Adam needs to do things the dramatic way. He is fond of the Grand Gesture
-- Gayle Forman

#Needs #Gestures #Way

The clothes are packed off to Goodwill I said my good-byes up on the hill The house is empty, the furniture sold Soon your smell will decay to mold Don't know why I bother calling, ain't nobody answering Don't know why I bother singing, ain't nobody listening "Disconnect" Collateral Damage, Track 10
-- Gayle Forman

#Bye #Smell #Clothes

Then I smell the sweat on him, a clean musky scent that I'd bottle and wear as perfume if I could.
-- Gayle Forman

#Sweat #Smell #Bottles

We are like Humpty Dumpty and all these king's horses and all these king's men cannot put us back together again
-- Gayle Forman

#Horse #Kings #Men

It's a good thing Kerry's dead, because that funeral would've sent him over the edge," Henry said.
-- Gayle Forman

#Funeral #Good Things #Said

Please Mia," he implores. "Don't make me write a song.
-- Gayle Forman

#Song #Writing #Mia

Bribes are the glue that's kept teenagers and parents connected for generations
-- Gayle Forman

#Teenager #Parent #Glue

Sarcasm creates a chasm between yourself and others.
-- Gayle Forman

#Sarcasm #Chasms

I’ve been feeling something else. Like I’m about to be sucked into something powerful and painful.
-- Gayle Forman

#Powerful #Feelings #Painful

There were signs. Probably more of them than I ever caught, even after the fact. But I missed them all. Maybe because I wasn’t looking for them. I was too busy checking over my shoulder at the fire I’d just come through to pay much attention to the thousand-foot cliff looming in front of me.
-- Gayle Forman

#Fire #Feet #Attention

You meet people, you part ways, sometimes you cross paths again. Mostly, you don't.
-- Gayle Forman

#People #Way #Path

There are like twenty people in that waiting room right now. Some of them are related to you. Some of them are not. But we're all your family.' "She stops now. Leans over me so that the wisps of her hair tickle my face. She kisses me on the forehead. 'You still have a family,' she whispers.
-- Gayle Forman

#Kissing #Hair #People