Casper > Casper's Quotes

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”
― Marilyn Monroe

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
― Dr. Seuss

“Colpo di fulmine. The thunderbolt, as Italians call it. When love strikes someone like lightning, so powerful and intense it can’t be denied. It’s beautiful and messy,
cracking a chest open and spilling their soul out for the world to see. It turns a person inside out, and there’s no going back from it. Once the thunderbolt hits, your life is
irrevocably changed.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“How about we just be Haven and Carmine?” she suggested. “We don’t know the ending, but we can always hope for the best.”
“I like that,” he said. “Besides, there’s a reason we don’t know how the story ends.”
“Why?”
“Because it doesn’t.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“Nella vita: chi non risica, non rosica," he said finally, his voice quiet. "In life: nothing ventured, nothing gained. My mom used to tell us that. It's been a long time, but I can still hear her saying it.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“Tell me, Mr. DeMarco. What’s love to you?”
[…]
He glared at his teacher. “I think it’s ridiculous you’re even trying to define it like it’s something material you can just go find if you want it. People use the word too loosely as it is. They say they love this and they love that, when they don’t. They just like the shi— uh, stuff. Love is something that changes you, and if you really loved all the crap you say you love, you’d never know who you were because you’d constantly be changing. Once you love, you love forever. You can’t help it.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“You’re too good for me.”
He laughed. “Are we talking about the same person? The selfish fucker who curses and yells, blows up cars and beats up people, because he has a temper he can’t control? You know, the one who drinks like a fish and fries his brain with drugs? That person is too good for you?”
She shook her head. “I’m talking about the boy who shared his chocolate bar with me when he probably never shared anything before, who gave me his mama’s favourite book, because he thought I deserved to read. The one who seems to be constantly fixing me up when I get hurt. I’m talking about the boy who treats me like I’m a regular girl, the one who desperately needs his bedroom cleaned and laundry washed but chooses to live in a mess and wear dirty clothes, because he’s too polite to ask the girl he kisses for help.”
“Wow,” Carmine said. “I’d like to meet that motherfucker.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“You can play it safe, and I wouldn't blame you for it. You can continue as you've been doing, and you'll survive, but is that what you want? Is that enough?”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“Can I keep you? he whispered, laughing and pulling away from her as soon as the words came out. "Whats wrong with me? I'm quoting Casper.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“some things in life only happen once, the memories of them lasting forever. they're moments that alter you, turning you into a person you never thought you'd become, but someone you were always destined to be.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“He ran the back of his fingers along her flushed cheek. His touch was soft, and she leaned her head in his direction. “My beautiful girl,” he said.
She took in his expression. “You think I’m beautiful?”
“I don’t think you’re beautiful, Haven,” he said. “I know you are.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“But then she happened. The girl who had never been able to call her life her own taught a boy who had the world at his fingertips exactly what it meant to live. He wasn’t alone anymore.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“Sogni dóro, mia bella ragazza,” he mumbled, closing his eyes. "Sweet dreams my beautiful girl.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“Grabbing her hand, he pressed it gently to his chest. His skin was warm to the touch, and she could slightly feel his pulse pounding against her palm.
“Do you feel that? I’m not going anywhere, Haven. This is yours.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre

“You’re not asking me to choose you. There’s no choice about it. It’s always been you. Your father once told me that we always have a choice, but I think he was wrong. I think sometimes things choose us. It’s like with breathing. It’s natural. It’s a part of us. It just happens. We can hold our breath and try not to breathe anymore, and it’ll work for a few minutes, but we’ll eventually pass out and nature takes over. We can’t just not breathe, just like I can’t just not love you.”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“The first time you asked me to marry you was three years ago. You told me it didn’t have to be that day, or the next day, or even that year. You just wanted me to swear I would when I was ready. I said yes, of course, and I meant it with everything in me. We were young and maybe we were naïve, thinking we had it all figured out, but one thing I never doubted was that we were meant to be. “

Haven paused to wipe her cheeks as more tears spilled from her eyes. “When I first met you I wasn’t sure what to think. You were nothing like anyone I’d ever met before. The things you made me feel were scary, and I wanted nothing more than to stay away from you, but I couldn’t. I was drawn to you. You gave me hope. You believed in me and helped me, and most of all, you loved me. Me. Out of all he people in the world, you picked me. I was used to being overlooked, used to being invisible, but you saw me. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without you. I love you, Carmine Marcello DeMarco, and I want you to know I’m ready now. I’m ready to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“Sempre,” he whispered, choking on the word.

“Sempre.” Haven meant it with every fiber of her being. He was hers forever.”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“This boy--this stubborn, selfless, stupid boy--had given himself to the Mafia. He had handed control of his future over to the men they hated most in exchange for her life. For her safety. And he had done it so easily, so quickly, like he didn’t have to think about it at all…like sacrificing for her came just as naturally as breathing.”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“We die the day we lose the will to go on. We die the day we stop caring about life.”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“He was Carmine Marcello DeMarco…and even broken, he was beautiful.”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“Time heals all wounds. Il tempo guarisce tutti i mali. It’s been said time and time again, but what they don’t talk about are the jagged scars left behind. What they don’t tell you is that sometimes, when ignored, the wounds fester”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“….I thought we’d be okay apart, but I was sorely mistaken. I don’t need much, Haven, but I do need you.”

“I need you, too, you know,” she said. “You make me feel safe.”
Despite everything, she trusted him. She believed in him. She loved him.

And he loved her . . . more than anything in the world. She had given herself to him again, every barrier between them broken down. All of those unanswered questions, all of the worry, every single bit of it had been resolved the moment they came back together.

“Haven,” he said. “If I could have anything, I know what I’d ask for now.”

She pulled back from their hug to look at him with genuine curiosity. “What?”

Carmine took a step back, reaching around his neck to pull off the gold chain. He unfastened it, removing the small ring, and eyed it in his palm momentarily before dropping to his knee.

“If I could have anything in the world, it would be for you to marry me.”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“Everyone falls sometimes, son, even me, but the trick is to get right back up. They’ll always target the ones who appear vulnerable, so you need to be strong. Fake it until you make it.”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“I’m sure you remember our first encounter, the morning in the kitchen in North Carolina, and what a disaster it turned out to be,” Carmine said.

“What you don’t know, though, is that as we sat like idiots in that puddle of juice, all I could think about was how beautiful you were. How beautiful you are. You were scared and confused, and I know I wasn’t helping that, but underneath it all you were just beautiful, Haven. You had me the very first time I laid eyes on you. I remember thinking later that morning you were going to complicate my life.” He paused as he laughed to himself. “And complicate it you did. Everything I knew, everything I believed . . . all of it went out the window. You turned me upside down and made me feel again. You saved my life, even though I didn’t realize it needed to be saved. I thought I was fine, that I didn’t need anyone else, but I was wrong, because I do. I need you. Christ, I—”

He grasped her chin gently and leaned forward, her eyes drifting closed as their lips came together. His kiss was sweet but there was passion behind it . . . passion she looked forward to feeling for the rest of her life.”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“Fake it until you make it.”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“Bellissima, I'd stop time for you. I'd give you the moon and the stars; I'd learn to defy gravity. There's nothing I wouldn't do, nobody I wouldn't kill, if you asked me to. If you needed me to”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“He was her home. He always had been.”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“Your heart," she whispered. "It's racing."

"You feel it?" he asked. "You hear it?"

"Yes."

"What's it saying?"

She smiled, her eyes fluttering closed. "It's saying you love me."

"I do," he said. "No matter what. Sempre”
― J.M. Darhower, Redemption

“You can always fall, Savannah, because I will be the one catching you.”
― J.L. Drake, Broken

“There wasn't a moment when I was gone that I didn't think of you, Savannah. You're like a goddamn drug that's making me weak at the knees. It's taking every ounce of my self control not to kiss you right now".
"I wouldn't stop you".”
― J.L. Drake, Broken

“My heart is incredibly invested in this man, tangled in a web of love that almost makes it difficult to breathe.”
― J.L. Drake, Broken