Alyssa Sheinmel > Quotes

“You have to learn to love yourself before you can love someone else. Because it's only when we love ourselves that we feel worthy of someone else's love.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless

“Maybe the witch thought she was protecting Rapunzel, not punishing her. Maybe she thought that if Rapunzel was locked away, no one could ever hurt her. Maybe the witch kept Rapunzel because she loved her, because she was scared that if other people could get to Rapunzel, they would hurt her. And maybe Rapunzel didn't understand the witch; maybe she was angry at her - but maybe she loved her too.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, The Beautiful Between

“Oh my god. I can’t believe I slapped him.

And I can’t help thinking Wow, I did it with my left hand, Marnie would be so proud.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless

“Maybe I have to stop trying to be one thing or another. Maybe I need to accept the ways I contradict myself. Maybe that's what it is to be human.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, What Kind of Girl

“Part of us did die. Literally - that tissue on your face, the part they removed. It died. And you can't recover from any kind of death without mourning it.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless

“We can't keep the people we love alive by putting our own lives on hold. In fact, we can't put our lives on hold at all. Time marches on, even when we don't want it to.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, The Castle School

“But how could I have been a good best friend - or girlfriend, or daughter - when I was so busy balancing the different parts of myself that I never got to actually be myself?”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, What Kind of Girl

“Before that, I listened to music as loud as I could, like I thought I could drown the pain out.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless: an incredibly gripping YA story of identity, love, and redefining who you are for fans of Kathleen Glasgow

“Adam shakes his head. “The point isn’t to forget what happened to us.”

“I didn’t mean forget, like, I wouldn’t actually remember what had happened. I just don’t want to be constantly reminded of what I look like now.”

“Like Clyde said, eventually you have to accept it.”

I shake my head. “That’s not what Clyde said.”

“Yeah, but you know as well as I do that that’s what he was getting at.”

“Well, now you’ve deprived me of the chance to figure it out myself. I’m going to tell Clyde on you.”

“Tattletale,” Adam says, grinning. “Seriously, though, Maisie—acceptance is the key. Acceptance is everything.”

“Don’t use your motivational speech stuff on me.”

“How do you know I give motivational speeches?”

“I Googled you.”

“You Googled me?”

“Right after we met.” I don’t add that I haven’t looked up any other injuries since I Googled his.

“Guess I made quite an impression, huh?”...

“Nah,” I answer. “I was just impressed you found a way to parlay your injury into a lucrative career.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless

“But then there she is, on her own, chewing gum, pulling her hair back with one hand and getting her MetroCard out with the other. Girls can do so much at once.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, The Lucky Kind

“I never thought before how strange the notion of a transplant list is. The only list I've ever really given thought to were grocery lists and to-do lists, lists of homework assignments and list of clothes I wanted to buy before school started. I never thought there was such a thing as a list of names, people waiting for new faces. People waiting for someone else to die.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless

“Whoever she is, and however close we become, my history will never be all twisted up with hers”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless

“We were about a mile from school, on a path in the park, when Chirag reached down and took off his shoes, tossing them into the trees beside us.

“What are you doing?” I shouted in between breaths. Step, breath. Step, breath. He was a few yards ahead of me. I took advantage of his pause to pass him; I wasn’t about to let him beat me.

“There’s a tribe of Indians in Mexico who are the best runners in the world,” he shouted. “They run barefoot for miles and miles and never break a sweat.”

“You’re not that kind of Indian,” I shouted back, and Chirag laughed, his golden skin shimmering beneath his sweat.

“You should try it, too!”

“No way!” I replied without turning around to face him. “The ground is filthy. There could be glass or splinters or something.”

“Aw, come on, Maisie,” he cooed, coming up on my left side and getting a few steps ahead of me once more. “I dare you.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless

“Our convesation is awkward, as though our friendship is another skill that I remember but can't use anymore.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless

“The orderlies don’t understand that a pill can be more invasive than a shot. Taking the pill implies that it’s your choice. Willingness to swallow what they hand you suggests that you agree with them: there’s something wrong with you; you need to take your medicine.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, A Danger to Herself and Others

“Later, I'll think that there are so many versions of this question, versions that have been asked thousands of times by thousands of people thousands of different ways: Why didn't some girl scream even when there was a knife to her throat? Why didn't another girl bit and kick and scratch even when the man forcing himself on her was a foot taller and twice her weight? Some version of this question has been asked by judges and defense attorneys and journalists and random observers because they think they know something about survival; because they believe they know how they'd behave under cicumstances they've probably never experienced.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, What Kind of Girl

“class b tooecause”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless: an incredibly gripping YA story of identity, love, and redefining who you are for fans of Kathleen Glasgow

“And I know that I would never, not in a million years, be kissing her like this with my hands in those places, if she hadn't told me that I had moves, that I was smooth.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, The Lucky Kind

“Saying what if never helped anyone. You can't undo the bad things that have happened. Pain cannot be avoided, but it can be accepted.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, The Castle School

“It’s funny how dogs and cats know the inside of folks better than other folks do, isn’t it?”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless: an incredibly gripping YA story of identity, love, and redefining who you are for fans of Kathleen Glasgow

“You have it so together, like you’re my freakin’ spirit guide through this journey, or whatever it’s supposed to be.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless: an incredibly gripping YA story of identity, love, and redefining who you are for fans of Kathleen Glasgow

“It's 7:42 on a Tuesday when the phone rings. I only notice the time because I'm watching Wheel of Fortune, which is so boring that I think I might be better entertained if I turned off the TV and stared at the blank screen.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, The Lucky Kind

“She, just barely, smiles. I can see her teeth peeking out from under her plump upper lip. She looks so fresh that I think her mouth would taste like apples.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, The Lucky Kind

“I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, but the only hope I have of doing well on these tests is that somehow the knowledge on the page will seep into my body through osmosis, since I'm definitely not reading it.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, The Lucky Kind

“I also understand that who I am is fluid, ever-changing, impossible to pin down - no matter how much I'd like to make a list and stick to it. And who I am would be ever-changing even if I hadn't been out running that morning, even if that tree had never been struck by lightning, even if I'd never heard the words 'electrical fire' or 'face transplant'.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless

“Part of us did die. Literally-that tissue on your face, the part they removed. It dies. And you can't recover from any kind of death without mourning it.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless

“Even the dearest of relationships fall apart sometimes”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, The Castle School

“My mother wants me to be the kind of strong and special patient you read about in books, the kind who doesn't get cranky even when she can barely move half her body, has lost her face to an electrical fire, and is in quite a lot of pain. Instead I'm the kind of person who says, "I think I've earned the right to be a little rude.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, Faceless

“This—us—what we have—this is the lucky kind.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel, The Lucky Kind

“Taking the pill implies that it’s your choice. Willingness to swallow what they hand you suggests that you agree with them: there’s something wrong with you; you need to take your medicine.”
― Alyssa B. Sheinmel