"She thought of ... the way he never made made her feel crazy, even when she was acting crazy, and never made her feel like a failure, even when she was failing."

"My girlfriend is sad and quiet and keeps me up all night worrying about her."

"Emergency dance party--go away."

"I'm fine," [her dad] said gently. "Back on the horse, Cath.''What's the horse?' she sighed, watching him pull on a South High hoodie. 'Jogging? Working too much?''Living,' he said, a little too loud. 'Life's the horse."

"You look like you. Only with the volume turned up."

"I didn't know someone could love me like this," she said. "Could love me and love me and love me without...needing space."Lincoln wasn't asleep. He rolled on top of her."There's no air in space," he said."

"Comedy writers don't join fraternities.''Don't pigeon hole me, Georgie, I'm infinite."

"Because being assaulted with maxi pads is a great way to win friends and influence people."

"I glance over at him, he still looks like something I want to eat."

"She started dialing his cell, then hung up and tried the landline -- maybe Margaret was a better bet to pick up; their parents' generation still felt morally obligated to answer phones."

"How could it be possible that there were that many nerve endings all in one place?"

"I don't trust anybody. Not anybody. And the more that I care about someone, the more sure I am they're going to get tired of me and take off."

"You couldn't not notice the bruise on the side of her face. Or the hickey under her chin."

"I like your glasses, he said. "I like your Simon Snow T-shirts. I like that you don't smile at everyone, because then, when you smile at me... Cather."

"She wrapped her fingers around his and touched his palm with her thumb. Her fingers were trembling.Park shifted in his seat and turned his back to the aisle."Okay?" she whispered.He nodded, taking a deep breath. They both stared down at their hands.Jesus."

"I don't know, he said. "I just feel like I have to do something."Do what?"I don't know. That's what's wrong. Or part of what's wrong. I feel like I'm sleepwalking."

"Things didn't go bad between Georgie and Neal. Things were always bad -- and always good. Their marriage was like a set of scales constantly balancing itself. And then, at some point, when neither of them was paying attention, they'd tipped so far over into bad, they'd settled there. Now only an enormous amount of good would shift them back. An impossible amount of good."

"He sat up. He smiled. Something heavy and winged took off from his chest.Eleanor hadn't written him a letter, it was a postcard.Just three words long."

"I had this whole plan when I graduated high school: I was going to go to college, date a few guys, and then meet THE guy at the end of my freshman year, maybe at the beginning of my sophomore year. We'd be engaged by graduation and married the next year. And then, after some traveling, we'd start our family. Four kids, three years apart. I wanted to be done by the time I was 35."

"He took the necklace out of the box and carefully fastened it around her neck. Just like he'd imagined himself doing when he bought it. That might even be why he bought it - so he'd have this moment, under her hair. He ran his fingertips along the chain and settled the pendant on her throat."

"This is new to us, you know? Your mother's sorry. She's sorry that she hurt your feelings, and she wants you to invite your girlfriend over for dinner.""So that she can make her feel bad and weird?""Well she is kind of weird, isn't she?"Park didn't have the energy to be angry. He sighed and let his head fall back on the chair. His dad kept talking. "Isn't that why you like her?"

"He didn't laugh when he thought something was funny--he laughed when he was happy."

"Because I'm the kind of girl who fantasizes about being trapped in a library overnight."

"Smiling is confusing, she thought. This is why I don't do it."

"To have and hold. Not forever, maybe-not forever, for sure-and not figuratively. But literally. And now. Now, he was hers."

"Even if you break with me and crush my heart, I'm never getting back together with Dawn. I know that the world isn't flat now, I'm not going back."

"Seriously, why aren't you on drugs?" Cath walked past her out of the room."Are you a licensed psychiatrist? Or do you just play one on TV?""I'm on drugs," Reagan said. "They're a beautiful thing."

"I always get lost in the library,' he said, 'no matter how many times I go. In fact, I think I get lost there more, the more that I go. Like it's getting to know me and revealing new passages."

"What are the chances you'd ever meet someone like that? he wondered. Someone you could love forever, someone who would forever love you back? And what did you do when that person was born half a world away? The math seemed impossible."

"A little manic was okay. A little manic paid the bills and got him up in the morning, made him magic when he needed it most."

"So, what if, instead of thinking about solving you whole life, you just think about adding additional good things. One at a time. Just let your pile of good things grow."

"I want to be near the ocean, Lincoln, the ocean! I want to feel the tides. And i want mountains, too, at least one mountain. Is that too much to ask? And trees. Not a whole forest, necessarily. I'd settle for a thicket. Scenery. I want scenery!"

"If Levi were a dog, he'd be a golden retriever. If he were a game, he'd be a Ping-Pong, incessant and bouncing and light."

"They were almost never alone, and now that they almost-practically were, he felt kind of frantic for her attention."

"It was the nicest thing she could imagine. It made her want to have his babies and give him both of her kidneys."

"I can't help but think,' Park would say during taekwando. 'I can't turn off my brain."

"That's different," Levi smiled at her warmly. "Ypu don't rock that Little Red Riding Hood vibe. You're scary." Reagan grinned like the Big Bad Wolf."

"Cath liked Levi. A lot. She liked looking at him. She liked listening to him -- though sometimes she hated listening to him talk to other people. She hated the way he passed out smiles to everyone he met like it didn't cost him anything, like he'd never run out. He made everything look so easy."

"I can't believe there's a part of you that grows when you need it. You're like a mutant.""I'm a vampire," Baz says, "and can you hear yourself?"

"She wanted to lose herself in him. To tie his arms around her like a tourniquet.If she showed him how much she needed him, he'd run away."

"If he were to look up at her now, he'd know exactly how stupid she was. She couldfeel her face go soft and gummy. If Park were to look up at her now, he'd know everything."

"Months are different in college, especially freshman year. Too much happens. Every freshman month equals six regular months-they're like dog months."

"If this was just a dream she wished she could have it every night. Neal not quite whispering sweet somethings into her ear."

"The problem with playing hide-and-seek with your sister is that sometimes she gets bored and stops looking for you.And there you are - under the couch, in the closet, wedged behind the lilac tree - and you don't want to give up, because maybe she's just biding her time. But maybe she's wandered off..."

"Just because it had happened before didn't mean it wasn't serious. It didn't mean he didn't need them."

"His eyes missed her as much as the rest of him."

"There was something about the music on that tape. It felt different. Like, it set her lungs and her stomach on edge. There was something exciting about it, and something nervous. It made Eleanor feel like everything, like the world, wasn't what she'd thought it was. And that was a good thing. That was the greatest thing."

"Sometimes she wondered if the shape of his eyes affected how he saw things. That was probably the most racist question of all time."

"I want someone whose heart is big enough to hold me."

"Magic fucking phone."