Ann Liang Quotes

“I want you to hold me like a grudge, keep me like a promise, haunt me like a ghost.”
― Ann Liang, I Hope This Doesn't Find You

“I guess my point is that I do believe in love. Really. I'm just not convinced that kind of love could ever happen to me.”
― Ann Liang, This Time It's Real

“I really can't stand it when people are angry at me. Like, I know it might be simple for others, but I can't focus on anything else. I can't just forget about it and go on with my own life. It's like there's something hard wedged inside my own chest. I'll always feel guilty. I'll always want to make amends.”
― Ann Liang, I Hope This Doesn't Find You

“And I don't know how to make people stay; I never have.”
― Ann Liang, This Time It's Real

“Sometimes I'm convinced I'll spend the rest of my life this way. Alone. Sometimes I think loneliness is my default setting.
- Eliza Lin”
― Ann Liang, This Time It's Real

“What I'm realizing is that if you're quiet about the things that hurt you, people are only going to mistake your tolerance for permission.”
― Ann Liang, I Hope This Doesn't Find You

“Most sincere things feel at least a little embarrassing. It's part of our defense mechanisms. Our heart's way of protecting us from potential hurt.
- Zoe”
― Ann Liang, This Time It's Real

“I am not Jessica Chen. And maybe Jessica Chen herself isn't either. Maybe nobody is. The very idea of her is a construct, a myth, a distraction, the dream we're forever reaching toward but can never equite grasp.”
― Ann Liang, I Am Not Jessica Chen

“This is the closest I have ever gotten to voicing the truth: that I'm afraid. That for a long time now, between maybe the third and fourth move, the fourth or fifth friend I lost along the way, I've suspected that there's something fundamentally unlovable about me. Something that makes it easy for people to forget me the second I leave, to drift out of touch no matter how hard I try to keep them in my life.

I've said before that my default setting is loneliness, but maybe I was wrong.

Maybe it's really fear.”
― Ann Liang, This Time It's Real

“You hold everything in here, Ai-Ai," she says sternly, pointing to her own heart. "For better or worse. But not everyone is going to guess at what you're thinking like I do. No one is going to know how you feel if you don't tell them. And until you do-- you can never really know what's going to happen.”
― Ann Liang, This Time It's Real

“Because to me, wanting has always been indistinguishable from pain.”
― Ann Liang, I Am Not Jessica Chen

“look what’s being done to us—to our self-esteem, to our pride, to our bodies. We’re all exhausted and on the verge of breaking down at any second and somehow . . . somehow we’re expected to just keep going.”
― Ann Liang, I Am Not Jessica Chen

“You know, I used to have this theory that if I wanted something badly enough, the universe would make sure to keep it just out of my reach. Like a cruel joke, or a trick. But . . . maybe the cruelest trick the universe can play on us is to give us exactly what we wish for.”
― Ann Liang, I Am Not Jessica Chen

“The night air wraps around me when I step outside.

It's warmer than it's been for months, and I can find the early hints of spring in our backyard. The budding roses, the sweet scent of fresh green grass, the birds rustling in the trees. A breeze snakes through my hair, ruffles my skirt. The sky is a deep, starless black, but the fairy lights twinkle over the back porch, glowing pink and blue and yellow, as if the stars have fallen down to earth instead.”
― Ann Liang, I Hope This Doesn't Find You

“To them, violence doesn't look like blood and broken bones. Violence looks like the disruption of power.”
― Ann Liang, I Am Not Jessica Chen

“Make a wish, Jessica would always tell me, and I always did.
But right now, there’s nothing else I’d wish for except this.”
― Ann Liang, I Am Not Jessica Chen

“Fine." He drags his chair forward until he's right next to me, his shoulder almost pressed to mine, the heat of his skin seeping through my shirt. Until I'm aware of nothing but him, his nearness, his physical presence. And suddenly I find myself regretting my own request. It's hard to think straight like this. I can't even move without brushing against him.”
― Ann Liang, I Hope This Doesn't Find You