Rocky Callen > Quotes

“We are birds with paper wings. Just because the wings were tattered, doesn't mean they could never fly. It doesn't mean their little fragile lives were worth nothing.”
― Rocky Callen, A Breath Too Late

“Hope can't be a hollow wish or dream. It needs to be filled, levied, brimming over with intention and action and belief and reaching, reaching, reaching , stretching until your muscles ache because you want it that damn much, and you won't stop reaching until you hold it.
Until it is yours.
I let go too soon.”
― Rocky Callen, A Breath Too Late

“We were constellations of misery pressed into a dark and desolate canvas. I had forgotten that the stars were still beautiful. I had forgotten that so were we.”
― Rocky Callen, A Breath Too Late

“Life,

You were broken, often ugly, and always too much, but you also hid promises in pockets , tucked hope under matresses, and crammed a thousand perfect moments between the shards of sharp and treacherous ones.
I am sorry I had forgotten them.
I am sorry I didn't even see.
And a breath too late, I realized...
I loved you.”
― Rocky Callen, A Breath Too Late

“The girl I love.
The girl who left.
The girl we will remember.
She once told me that you have freckles just like her....
I hope the world gets to see them.”
― Rocky Callen, A Breath Too Late

“We were locked in a box for so long, I didn't want to bury you in one.”
― Rocky Callen, A Breath Too Late

“Girls like me shouldn't have big dreams. They stay in their houses of secrets and die there.”
― Rocky Callen, A Breath Too Late

“You aren’t beautiful, free, or romantic like in all of the novels I have read. You are a girl who had no hope left, who realized, too late, she wanted to live. I thought you would save me, Death.”
― Rocky Callen, A Breath Too Late

“You are too quiet. The kind of quiet that isn’t quiet at all. It is the smothering silence that bleeds into everything; the kind of absence that mocks, prods, and stares you down until you are withered to your bones.”
― Rocky Callen, A Breath Too Late

“And then I told our story. Without our names. Without this town. I told a story of swords and sorrow and secrets. I told of a shadow who learned to breathe and a boy who learned to paint the world bright and new.

The only three words I didn't say were "I love you." But every word had those three crammed between them. "I love you" was swinging from every syllable and hanging off every letter. I love you was whispered in every single line.”
― Rocky Callen, A Breath Too Late

“I love you, Elie, you whispered. "I love you and not like a best friend loves their best friend, but... more. more than that." You took a deep breath in, knowing you couldn't turn back even if you were afraid of my response and so you charged forward, seemingly emboldened by my silence. " I love the way you raise your hand in class even when you aren't quite sure of the answer, I love the excitement in your voice when you talk about Colombia, I love the world you built for us when we were kids, I love the way you look at me. I love the way you say my name as if you could fit all the good things of summer into it. I love who you are- inside and outside. I love you, Ellie Walker.”
― Rocky Callen