Malissa > Malissa's Quotes

“And I’m going to—I’m going to want to see you every day. I’m going to learn more dishes and pack your lunch and write cute little notes on it. I’m going to ask you if you want to sleep at your place or mine and always assume that we’re spending the night together. I’m going to think about you all the damn time. I’m going to assume I’m watering your plants when you’re out of town. I’m going to hold your hand in public. I’m going to kiss you in public. I’m going to organize surprise parties for you with your friend. I’m going to send a hundred texts per day with stupid online shit I think you should see. Clingy as fuck, Rue. Can you do it? Can you live with me as your boyfriend?”
― Ali Hazelwood, Not in Love

“What I am is an adult woman with agency and the tools to make choices. Feel free to, you know, treat me accordingly.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Bride

“Of all the good things I’ve felt in my fucking life, you are the best.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Bride

“Above all, I won’t take her freedom. Not when so many others have already done so.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Bride

“They will not use my tears for their entertainment.”
― Suzanne Collins, Sunrise on the Reaping

“Grief is a relationship...It's the way we figure out how to keep loving them even though they're gone. And in order to do that we have to keep on going. And going and going.' His hold is tighter and tighter and mine is tighter and tighter and I've slid off the desk and into his lap. 'You are not betraying her by healing,' he whispers directly into my ear. 'You are honoring her. You are learning to love her exactly as she is. As someone who isn't here anymore...That's who she is now. And this journey through grief...It's what we do for the great loves of our lives.”
― Cara Bastone, Promise Me Sunshine

“This is what I want,” Delilah said. “My whole life, this is what I’ve wanted. A best friend. Someone who gets me, who accepts me. Someone who fights like hell to get me to see that they love me. Someone who lets me love them back. Someone who’s so goddamn beautiful, she makes my toes curl. Someone who calls me on my bullshit. Someone who makes me laugh. Someone who makes me look at her like this and looks at me the same way. Someone who . . . who’s my home.”
― Ashley Herring Blake, Delilah Green Doesn't Care

“But what do you do when trauma distorts love into something cloying and fraught? Unresolved ghosts just grow stronger across generations, destroying children with the very things their parents swore to save them from.”
― Tessa Hulls, Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir

“No. I’m saying if I’d had one day—only one—it would’ve been worth it. To be with Josh, loving him like I’d always wanted, a single day would have been a gift. And I got a year.” She smiles wide, her eyes full of tears that slowly overflow and spill down her cheeks. “Yeah, I wish I’d had a lifetime. And yeah, it hurts more than I can describe. Two years, six months, three days, and I still miss him every day. But it would’ve been worse if I’d never had him at all.” One day.”
― Lauren Connolly, PS: I Hate You

“I can’t promise not to die, Maddie. But I can swear that while I’m living, I will always be loving you.”
― Lauren Connolly, PS: I Hate You

“I’m not afraid of the days with you in them,” I whisper. “I’m afraid of the ones I might have without you.”
― Lauren Connolly, PS: I Hate You

“Calling is for emergencies and extroverts. I consider this a form of harassment.”
― Lauren Connolly, PS: I Hate You

“Have you considered that maybe you’re already the way I want you to be? That maybe there are no signals because nothing needs to be changed”
― Ali Hazelwood, Love, Theoretically

“I want you, Elsie. All the time. I think of you. All. The. Fucking. Time. I’m distracted. I’m shit at work. And my first instinct, the very first time I saw you, was to run away. Because I knew that if we’d start doing this, we would never stop. And that’s exactly how it is. There is no universe in which I’m going to let you go. I want to be with you, on you, every second of every day. I think – I dream of crazy things. I want you to marry me tomorrow so you can go on my health insurance. I want to lock you in my room for a couple of weeks. I want to buy groceries based on what you like. I want to play it cool, like I’m attracted to you and not obsessed out of my mind, but that’s not where I’m at. Not at all. And I need you to keep us in check. I need you to pace us, because wherever it is that we’re going… I’m here. I’m already right here.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Love, Theoretically

“I don’t want to be work. I don’t want you to feel that I’m work.”
“Somewhere along the way your wires got crossed. Your brain decided that you’re not worth people’s time and effort, and that if you ask for anything, they won’t just say no, they’ll also leave you. That’s not how love works, Elsie.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Love, Theoretically

“Knowing that the universe can be made sense of.”
“Made of patterns. Rules that can be learned, discovered, predicted.”
“Find them out, and you’ll know how to make the world into what you
want,” he says.
“Find them out, and you’ll know how to make yourself into what the
world wants,” I say in return.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Love, Theoretically

“Do you want to have kids?” I ask. “Sometimes,” he says. “When I’m feeling optimistic.” I bump sideways into him, the skin of our arms sticking slightly from the heat. “Does that happen often?” He looks down his shoulder at me with a slight smirk. “Not often, no.” “So the rest of the time,” I say, “when you’re not feeling optimistic, what do you think?” “The rest of the time …” Another long exhale, his eyes straight ahead as we go back to ambling down the block. “The rest of the time, I think, what if the polar ice caps keep melting? What if medical care keeps getting more expensive, and social security runs out, and housing prices keep rising while minimum wage doesn’t, and what if they resent me for bringing them into all of this? “What if they just hate me? Not because of the state of the world, but just because they hate me. Or what if they’re sick? What if they join a cult, and I can’t convince them to come home? What if they start a cult? What if they get into some heinous shit, and I can’t love them anymore—or worse, I keep loving them even though I can’t change anything? “What if there’s another world war? Or what if … what if everything else goes right, but at the end of my life, they’re sitting in hospice with me …” His voice thickens uncharacteristically, wavering just the slightest bit. “And there are things they wish they could say to me, or hear from me, but I don’t remember who I am, let alone who they are. What if they have to care for me, for years, after I’ve stopped calling them by their nicknames or telling them I love them?”
― Emily Henry, Great Big Beautiful Life

“Once upon a time I thought a relationship meant having shackles on my wrists, binding me to the needs of another person. I thought I’d have to sacrifice the things I’ve wanted most to be half of a whole. But now I know it just means I’ve got a safety net. Someone to lift me up and hold me steady. Someone to nag me about the spare key under my potted plant and someone to cut my grapes into tiny hearts. A partner. A friend.”
― B.K. Borison, Business Casual

“I’ve never been anyone’s favorite,” he whispers. “Well,” I say, feeling defensive. “You’re mine.”
― B.K. Borison, Business Casual

“You okay?” I ask, cautious. “Yeah.” A deep inhale. “Yeah. I just wanted to listen to you exist.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Problematic Summer Romance

“Because if we ever end up in an accident, I'd rather die than survive you.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Problematic Summer Romance

“Grace costs you nothing”
― Abby Jimenez, Part of Your World

“Love follows you. It goes where you go. It doesn’t know about social divides or distance or common sense, it doesn’t even stop when the person you love does. It does what it wants. Even if what you want is to not be in love.”
― Abby Jimenez, Part of Your World

“Love follows you. It goes where you go. It doesn’t know about social divides or distance or common sense. It doesn’t even stop when the person you love dies. It does what it wants.”
― Abby Jimenez, Part of Your World

“My whole life I’d always felt a little fractured and scattered. Probably because it was always someone else trying to decide what I needed to be. I was a mosaic of someone else’s design where none of the fragments were put in the right place. And now I had finally put myself together and I recognized myself for the very first time.”
― Abby Jimenez, Part of Your World

“Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures.”
― Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

“Secrets are everywhere. Some humans are crammed full of them. How do they not explode? It seems to be a hallmark of the human species: abysmal communication skills.”
― Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

“You can't fix someone who is determined to stay broken.”
― Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

“Sometimes the people you loved left you halfway through a story. Sometimes they left you without a goodbye. And, sometimes, they stayed around in little ways. In the memory of a musical. In the smell of their perfume. In the sound of the rain, and the itch for adventure, and the yearning for that liminal space between one airport terminal and the next. I hated her for leaving, and I loved her for staying as long as she could. And I would never wish this pain on anyone.”
― Ashley Poston, The Seven Year Slip

“Sometimes a woman is just worn out and needs a break, you know?” The lines on her forehead deepen. “That doesn’t prove that you’re weak or neglectful, it proves to all the women standing by and watching you pave the road to success that it’s okay to say no. It’s okay to shut your door every now and then and put up a sign that says Busy taking care of me today. Piss off.”
― Sarah Adams, When in Rome