23 Sarah Dessen Quotes That Got Us Through Our Teen Years

“One summer and one boy, and suddenly...things weren’t the same.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“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, amazon.com

“And the bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike. As long as it's one more, you're all good.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“It's you I've thought of when I'm at my weakest, and you who have pulled me through.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“I just think that some things are meant to be broken. Imperfect. Chaotic. It's the universe's way of providing contrast, you know? There have to be a few holes in the road. It's how life is.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“But if something was really important, fate made sure it somehow came back to you and gave you another chance... Events conspired to bring you back to where you'd been. It was what you did then that made all the difference: it was all about potential.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“But you only get so many do-overs in this life, so many chances to, if not change your past, alter your future.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“There comes a time in every life when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you'd better learn to know the sound of it. Otherwise you'll never understand what it's saying.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in you or the world, that one song stays the same, just like that moment. Which is pretty amazing, when you actually think about it.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“This moment was real too, even if you couldn't tell at first glance. It was fake on the outside, but so true within. You only had to look, really look, to tell.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“What had he said to me that first day? Something about natural chemistry. He claimed he’d noticed it right from the start, and maybe it was an explanation, of sorts, of why we kept coming together, again and again.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“And love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“The chances we take, knowing no better, to fall or to stand back and hold ourselves in, protecting our hearts with the tightest of grips...”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“And no relationship is perfect, ever. There are always some ways you have to bend, to compromise, to give something up in order to gain something greater. But, the love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And thats the key. It's like a big pie chart, and the love in a rela…”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“If what you're asking is how I debated whether or not to love her the answer is I didn't. Not at all. It just happened. I didn't ever question it; by the time I realized what was happening, it was already done.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“Whenever you made a choice, especially one you'd been resisting, it always affected everything else, some in big way, like a tremor beneath your feet, others in so tiny a shift you hardly noticed a change at all. But it was happening.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“He was not my boyfriend. On the other hand, he wasn't just a friend either. Instead, our relationship was elastic, stretching between those two extremes depending on who else was around, how much either of us had to drink, and other varying factors. This was exactly what I wanted, as commitments had…”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“Needing was so easy: it came naturally, like breathing. Being needed by someone else, though, that was the hard part.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“But sometimes, we just have to be happy with what people can offer us. Even if it's not what we want, at least it's something. You know?”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“It takes so little not only to change something, but to make you forget the way it once was, as well.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com

“I thought again how you could never really know what you were seeing with just a glance, in motion, passing by. Good or bad, right or wrong. There was always so much more.”

— Sarah Dessen, amazon.com