Renee Carlino > Quotes

“You have to teach your heart and mind how to sing together... then you'll hear the sound of your soul”
― Renee Carlino, Sweet Thing

“The present is our own. The right-this-second, the here-and-now, this moment before the next, is ours for the taking. It’s the only free gift the universe has to offer. The past doesn’t belong to us anymore, and the future is just a fantasy, never guaranteed. But the present is ours to own. The only way we can realize that fantasy is if we embrace the now.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“You can’t re-create the first time you promise to love someone or the first time you feel loved by another. You cannot relive the sensation of fear, admiration, self-­consciousness, passion, and desire all mixed into one because it never happens twice. You chase it like the first high for the rest of your life. It doesn’t mean you can’t love another or move on; it just means that the one spontaneous moment, the split second that you took the leap, when your heart was racing and your mind was muddled with What ifs?—that moment—will never happen the same way again. It will never feel as intense as the first time. At least, that’s the way I remember it. That’s why my mother always said we memorialize our past. Everything seems better in a memory.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“It's a fool who thinks love will set him free. Love equals a morbid and relentless fear of losing the other person”
― Renee Carlino, Sweet Thing

“Poetry is just evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Everything seems better in a memory.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Tears had poured from her eyes without any change in her facial expression. It’s pure pain and pure surrender when your soul cries without any fight from your body and that’s how I knew she was deeply affected.”
― Renee Carlino, Sweet Thing

“And in that moment, you realize how little control you have over your own destiny. From the time you're born, you have no control; you can't choose your parents, and, unless you're suicidal, you can't choose your death. The only thing you can do is choose the person you love, be kind to others, and make your brutally short stint on earth as pleasant as possible.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“The pain of losing someone is always worse when you know you could have prevented it.”
― Renee Carlino, Sweet Thing

“Once there was you and me
We were lovers
We were friends
Before life changed
Before we were strangers
Do you still think of me?”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“It was like the universe was teasing us; we saw each other just a second too late.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Wisdom is not the same as information; it's something entirely different. It's often mistaken for good advice, but wisdom cannot be imparted to someone. Wisdom can only be earned.”
― Renee Carlino, Sweet Thing

“We were victims of bad timing. But here we are again.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“We can’t always control our circumstances, who our parents are, where we live, or how much money we make, but in those rare moments when we can shape our fate, when we do have the power to make our own happiness, we can’t be too scared to do it.”
― Renee Carlino, Swear on This Life

“Maybe that’s what growing up was really all about. Adults always say how complicated life gets as we age, but really, I think we just look for bigger challenges to overcome. Our biggest fears stretch from sleeping without our beloved teddy bear to finding out that we have no purpose in life. Did time, maturity, and overcoming obstacles offer the kind of contentment so evident in Orvin? Or did we just simply give up and surrender to the life we were already living?”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“It’s the only way to know you’re really in love, when you ask the question would it be harder to watch him die, or to know he’ll watch me die? Is there more mercy in being the one who does the watching or in being the one who does the dying? It’s when you realize what mercy-killing actually means, it’s when you actually care to the point of tormenting worry. It’s not roses and white horses, it’s fucking brutal and it can send a person running for the hills. To love is brave.”
― Renee Carlino, Sweet Thing

“It’s impossible to really hate someone if you don’t love them at least a little.”
― Renee Carlino, Swear on This Life

“It’s like reading a good book. The kind where you don’t want to skip pages to see what happens at the end. Each moment is a story in itself.”
― Renee Carlino, Swear on This Life

“Isn’t it weird that we had nothing at the time … but somehow it felt like we had everything.”
― Renee Carlino, Swear on This Life

“I loved you before you existed, and I’ll love you after I’m gone.”
― Renée Carlino, Nowhere but Here

“Weren’t we though? Timeless? Nothing could change what we’d had all those years before, even if the idea of what might’ve been lingered between us.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“Sometimes it takes the love of others to show us who we really are.”
― Renee Carlino, Sweet Thing

“Yes, committing yourself to someone requires a leap of faith—that’s why it’s so hard for some.”
― Renee Carlino, Sweet Thing

“You are your experiences and your fears and the love you let yourself feel. You are your degree and your talent and your passion. You are your pain, your joy, and your fantasies.”
― Renee Carlino, Sweet Thing

“You have to learn to fly before you can soar.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“To exist in each other’s souls so strongly that you are bound without a physical tie is the greatest mark of love…”
― Renée Carlino, Nowhere but Here

“I believe his exact words were cosmic, soul-shattering, air in your lungs kind of love.”
― Renee Carlino, Sweet Thing

“I felt it for Grace before I even had a name for it. I might have said the word a million times, but it sounded different now that I meant it. When I thought about what we had, it didn’t matter that it was just friendship. I loved her.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers

“In real life we have a hard time recognizing serendipitous moments because we’re not making the story up as we go along. It’s not a lie—it’s really happening to us, and we have no idea how it will end. Some of us will look back on our lives and recall events that were a bit too perfect, but until you know the whole story, it’s impossible to see the universe at work, or even admit that there is something bigger than us, making sure everything that should happen does happen. If you can surrender to the idea that there might be a plan, instead of reducing every magical moment to a coincidence, then love will find you.”
― Renee Carlino, Swear on This Life

“You were always with me, Grace. I never found a way to let you go.”
― Renee Carlino, Before We Were Strangers