Courtney Cole > Quotes

“What was it about relationships that made you feel so vulnerable? Oh, right. A relationship. In any relationship, you put yourself out there. You exposed all of your sensitive nerve endings and your heart and you just had to hope that you trusted the right person.”
― Courtney Cole, Every Last Kiss

“I can’t let you break my heart. I don’t have much of it left.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“I roll my eyes. 'Are you trying to find some sort of reason that I've become such an asshole? The reason is... I'm an asshole. There are some things in life that can't be explained. Period. Assholes are assholes. Rainbows are pretty. Kittens are cute. Chic flicks are sad. It's the way of things, no explanations.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“She’s like a breath of fresh air.
I may be the Big Bad Wolf, but even wolves need to breathe.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“Love never fails, Mila. That's what your parents believed. And because of you, it's what I believe now, too. You stuck by me and loved me when I didn't deserve it. All I want is a chance to prove that I can be worthy of it. Your parents were sort of fucked up in their own way, like me, and they never got the help that they needed. But I will. I promise. I will put the work in. I will learn how to cope with painful things and I will never leave you again. Just tell me that you'll stay with me.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“She walked in beauty, She sleeps in peace.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“Sometimes, at the least opportune times, the past is an insomniac, alive and well.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“I’m doing all I can to stay afloat in a sea of insanity, but I’m drowning more and more each day.”
― Courtney Cole, Nocte

“I squint my eyes and glare at him.
“I don’t have a crush on Quinn anymore.”
He raises a golden eyebrow.
“No?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“Why is that?”
I stare at him long and hard, trying to decide what to say. Should I be downright, painfully honest? I’ve always found that the best way to be, so I nod.
“Two words.”
He waits.
“Dante. Giliberti.”
I hear him suck in his breath and I smile. Sometimes, honesty is refreshing and so very worth it.
“Me?” He sounds so surprised, as though he doesn’t know that he is practically a living breathing Adonis. I nod.
“You.”
He studies me again and I fight the need to fidget as I wait for his reaction.
After a minute of nerve-wracking silence, he finally answers.
“So, will you keep the bracelet?”
I nod.
“Can I kiss you again?”
I nod.
So he does.”
― Courtney Cole, Dante's Girl

“You’ve seen me at my worst. Maybe you should see me at my best.”
My words hang between us, heavy and charged, and I don’t know what the fuck I am doing.
“When are you at your best?” she asks hesitantly. And I can see from the determined look on her face that she is trying hard not to feel intimidated. I’m impressed. She’s like a kitten standing up to a lion.
“In bed.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“I'll give you a reason," I tell her, my voice raw. "I promise. If you give me the chance, I will give you a reason to be with me.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“I love you. I love how you are so sweet and innocent and kind to people, but you are such a vixen in the sack. I love how you look at me. I love your smile. I love everything about you.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“Love never fails.
But then again, sometimes love has to put boxing gloves on and be tough in order to survive. Sometimes, you have to do the harder thing—the thing where you let someone grow on their own.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“Things are the way they are, but everything has a reason. Kittens are cute because they're tiny fur-balls with smushed faces. Rainbows are pretty because they have every color in the world in them and they're made from refracted light. Chick flicks are sad because chicks sometimes just need a good cry. And assholes are always assholes for a reason.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“Time, it seemed, was not our enemy after all. It was just air and space and hours. Anything worth having was able to withstand it.”
― Courtney Cole, Every Last Kiss

“Serva me, servabo te. Save me and I will save you.”
― Courtney Cole, Nocte

“The good news is that fear is a choice. You can stand in front of it, punch it in the face and get on with life. - Gabe”
― Courtney Cole, If You Leave

“Life is full of kinks. And the great thing about kinks? They eventually work themselves out.”
― Courtney Cole, Dante's Girl

“Courage is not being fearless - it is created by overcoming your fears.”
― Courtney Cole, Fated

“It was never an option. Love never fails, Mila. And I'll never fail you again. That's a promise.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“Words can harm people every bit as much as a weapon.”
― Courtney Cole, Nocte

“I would plunge to the bottom of the ocean for you.  I’d comb it for shells and make you a necklace and then hang myself with it.  Because if you aren’t here, I don’t want to be either.”
― Courtney Cole, Nocte

“Insomniacs know that there is something about the night. A darkness, an energy, a mystery that shrouds things. It hides things at the same time as it illuminates them. It is this thing that allows us to examine our thoughts in a way that we can't during the day. It is this thing that brings truth and clarity.”
― Courtney Cole, Nocte

“Please," I tell her. "Please forgive me. I'm so sorry that I hurt you. I'm so sorry that I've been an asshole and that I shut you out. I didn't know how to handle things without being self-destructive. Self-destruction is all I've ever known. Deep down, it's what I felt like I deserved.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“Mila, I've said this before, but you are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. You are beautiful inside and out. I don't deserve to have met you. I don't deserve you in any way. But there's nothing I want more than to be with you. to wake up beside you for the rest of my life. I am so grateful that you stuck by me for as long as you did. And all I want to know now is what I can do to make you stick with me again? You name it and i'll do it. Anything.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“Life is just a mixture of good and bad, of varying shades of grays and whites and blacks.”
― Courtney Cole, If You Stay

“I love you.
How much?
More than the ocean is large.
More than a shark loves human limbs.
More than Gavin loves his reflection.
More than baseball players love steroids.
More than chocolate, more than wine and way, way more than anchovies.
More than yesterday, but less than tomorrow.
....
How much? I type.
This much. It's his voice.”
― Courtney Cole, Dante's Girl

“After a thousand years pass, it builds its own funeral pyre, lining it with cinnamon, myrrh and cassia. Climbing to a rest on the very top, it examines the world all throughout the night with the ability to see true good and evil. When the sun rises the next morning, with great sorrow for all that it sees, it sings a haunting song. As it sings, the heat of the sun ignites the expensive spices and the Phoenix dies in the flames.

But the Phoenix is not remarkable for its feathers or flames. It is most revered for its ability to climb from its own funeral pyre, from the very ashes of its old charred body, as a brand new life ready to live again once more. Life after life, it goes through this cycle. It absorbs human sorrow, only to rise from death to do it all again. It never wearies, it never tires. It never questions its fate. Some say that the Phoenix is real, that it exists somewhere out there in the mountains of Arabia, elusive and mysterious. Others say that the Phoenix is only a wish made by desperate humans to believe in the continuance of life.
But I know a secret.
We are the Phoenix.”
― Courtney Cole, Every Last Kiss

“I wrote this story the way it needed to be written.  I couldn’t sugarcoat it.  I couldn’t water it down.  It is this way because the story demands it.    I’m not sorry.”
― Courtney Cole, Nocte

“because sometimes that’s how life is.  A puzzle made up of a million pieces, and when one piece doesn’t exactly fit, it throws the rest of them off.”
― Courtney Cole, Nocte