Jay Asher Quotes

That's why you did it. You wanted your world to collapse around you. You wanted everything to get as dark as possible.

Okay, who out there wants to know my very first thought during my very first kiss? Here it is: Somebody's been eating chilidogs.
Nice one, Justin.

After all, how often do we get a second chance?

Josh turns to me. "I can't believe she's writing these things." "Not she," I say. "Me." "Why would anyone say this stuff about themselves on the Internet? It's crazy!" "Exactly," I say. "I'm going to be mentally ill in fifteen years, and that's why my husband doesn't want to be around me.

And in high school, people are always watching so there's always a reason to pose.

You can't rewrite the past

Betrayal. It's one of the worst feelings.

I swear, guys in groups are capable of the stupidest things."
"Like war," Kellan says, heaping napkins and ketchup packets onto her tray.
"And jumping off rooftops."
"And lighting their farts on fire," she says.

As the song goes, 'You are lost and gone forever, oh my darling, Valentine.'
[ ... ]
I'm listening to someone give up. Someone I knew. Someone I liked.
I'm listening. But still, I'm too late.

Things get better, or worse, depending on your point of view.

Because when you're posed, you know someone's watching. You put on your very best smile. You let your sweetest personality shine.

Trust me, not every girl would give up his sweatshirt just because a girl asks.

We both laugh. And it feels good. A release. Like laughing at a funeral. Maybe inappropriate, but definitely needed.

The road to publication is like a churro - long and bumpy, but sweet.

He told me to see poetry as a puzzle. It's up to the reader to decipher the code, or the words, based on everything they know about life and emotions

A rumor started a reputation that other people believed in and reacted to. And sometimes a rumor has a snowball effect. A rumor, is just the beginning.

Because it may seem like a small role now, but it matters. In the end, everything matters.

I was breaking. If only I'd talked to you sooner. We could have been … we could've … I don't know. But things had gone too far by then. My mind was set. Not on ending my life. Not yet. It was set on floating through school. On never being close to anyone. That was my plan. I'd graduate, then I'd leave.

But then, I went to a party. I went to a party to meet you.

Why did I do that? To make myself suffer? Because that's what I was doing – hating myself for waiting so long. Hating myself because it wasn't fair to you.

I could picture life - school and everything else - continuing on without me. But I could not picture my funeral. Not at all. Mostly because I couldn't imagine who would attend or what they would say.

When you try rescuing someone and discover they can't be reached, why would you ever throw that back in their face?

No!
I scream through the bars. Over the trees."No!"
Do not let her leave.
Do not let her leave that room!
He's not coming.

Here, Courtney, is your contribution to the anthology of my life.
Did you like that? The anthology of my life?
I just made it up.

Your heart is going to break in a few days, he says. It will. But I won't make it hurt more by taking away the next few days with him.

30 minutes is a long time to wait for a Valentine's date.

You have so little control over anything anymore. And at some point, the struggle becomes too much - too tiring - and you consider letting go.

Forget logic...Logic doesn't know what you want.

Could be my soul mate / two kindred spirits / Maybe we're not / I guess we'll never / know

Step-by-step. That's how we'll get through this. One foot in front of the other.

I didn't humiliate him by pointing it out because that's not how you treat friends. You don't judge them. You don't humiliate them. I bet he's been judging me all along.

Nothing. It's ridiculous," he says. "I don't belong on those tapes. Hannah just wanted an excuse to kill herself." I

Because no, I didn't push her away. I didn't add to her pain or do anything to
hurt her. Instead, I left her alone in that room. The only person who might've been able to reach out and save her from herself. To pull her back from wherever she was heading.
I did what she asked and I left. When I should have stayed.

In the end....everything matters.

Everything...affects everything

Right then, in that office, with the realization that no one knew the truth about my life, my thoughts about the world were shaken. Like

The name sounds almost too perfect. And as I said, you look perfect, too. The only thing left ... is to be perfect.

My breathing begins to slow. The tension in my muscles starts to relax.
Then, a click in the headphones. A slow breath of air.
I open my eyes to bright moonlight.
And Hannah, with warmth.
Thank you.

One little ripple started today could create a typhoon fifteen years from now.

She wants to believe my excuses so bad. Every time I lie, she wants to believe me so much.

You can't go back to how things were. How you thought they were. All you really have is ... now.

I wanted people to trust me, despite anything they'd heard. And more than that, I wanted them to know me. Not the stuff they thought they knew about me. No, the real me. I wanted them to get past the rumors. To see beyond the relationships I once had, or maybe still had but that they didn't agree with.

dont take me for granted again, your been watched - thirteen reasons why

At the time, I just thought it might be fun. At the time, I was stupid.

Olly-olly-oxen-free

Do you know love and hate share same nervous circuits in the brain? - Kellan

There are also the people too bizarre to ignore, like Kyle Simpson. Future male stripper.

Why does it say she has three hundred and twenty friends?" Josh asks. "Who has that many friends?

Did the poet use red to symbolize blood? Anger? Lust? Or is the wheelbarrow simply red because red sounded better than black?

As she does, she turns her hand over, lacing her fingers into mine. For as many nerve endings as I thought I had in my hand, I now realize there are a hundred times more.

Because you never wore makeup, Hannah. You didn't need it.

Everything about it was false. Right then, in that office, with the realization that no one knew the truth about my life, my thoughts about the world were shaken.

Page 148- But I did , Hannah. And I wanted to. I could have helped you. But when I tried, you pushed me away. I can almost hear Hannah's voice speaking my next thought for me. "Then why didn't you try harder?"
- I think this quote is so powerful. This entire book is based on the effort of trying for a loved one and I feel as if clay is feeling the entire impact of hannah's suicide. However, I feel like he's placing all the blame on himself rather than seeing that other people had faults in not trying hard enough for Hannah. I think that later on in the book this quote will be acted out in a sense that the mistake of him not trying hard enough for hannah will be acted on someone else.. maybe he'll try harder for someone else? Maybe Hannah made the tape, not to necessarily blame him for her suicide, but so in the future he will help someone rather than them killing themselves.

It seemed like you could know me. Like you could understand anything I told you. And the more we spoke, I knew why. The same things excited us. The same things concerned us.

And i walked for hours the mist growing thick and whole the thought of disappaering like that, so simply, made me so happy

Hey, it's Hannah. Hannah Baker.

It reminded me of innocence. And I wanted my first kiss to be just that. Innocent.

I hope you're ready, because I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why.

And then ... well ... certain thoughts begin creeping around. Will I ever get control of my life? Will I always be shoved back and pushed around by those I trust? Will my life ever go where I want it to?

People think what they want. That's what I've had to accept," he says. "I can fight it, but that's exhausting. I can feel hurt about it, but that's torture. Or I can decide it's their loss.

And then we turn 18 and even though we never had an original thought we have to make the most important decission of our lives.

(Page 118) I explored alleys and hidden roads I never knew existed. I discovered neighborhoods entirely new to me. And finally ... I discovered I was sick of this town and everything in it.
-I think this quote is interesting because hannah always speaks about how unhappy she was, how she disiked some people, etc. but it took her journeys through neighborhoods, walks through alleys and hidden routes in order for her to truly see that she hated this town. I wonder why it took her that long. I know a big factor that contributed and essentially led her to her suicide was because of the people at her school.. However, I thought she'd find comfort in the town itself because she grew up there and spoke fondly of it.. It's surprising to find out she was actually sick of the town.

This was not a spurr-of-the-moment decision. Do not take me for granted ... again.

That is all that happened. Why did you hear something else?

I left. When I should have stayed.

Sometimes, there's no one around to tell you to be quiet... to be very, very quiet. Sometimes you need to be quiet when you're all alone.

Imagine ten or tweleve orange chairs arrainged in a circle, with the happy woen from the flyer sitting at opposite ends. Only problem was, from day one, they weren't happy. Someone, whoever made that flyer, must have digitally turned their frowns upside down.
They wrote about death. About the evilness of men. About the destruction of-and I quote- "the greenish, bluish orb with wisps of white."
Seriously, that's how they descibed it. They went on to call Earth a knocked-up gaseous alien needing an abortion.

But they were wrong. There was a reason.

Those are some strong currents you're swimming against.

The signs were all there, all over, for anyone willing to notice.

But you can't get away from yourself. You can't decide not to see yourself anymore. You can't decide to turn off the noise in your head.

Hello, boys and girls. Hannah Baker here. Live and in stereo. No return engagements. No encore. And this time, absolutely no requests. I hope you're ready, because i'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to theses tapes, you're one of the reasons why.
Now, why would a dead girl lie?

I repeat his words in my head. What's going on? What's going on? Oh, well, since you asked, I got a bunch of tapes in the mail today from a girl who killed herself. Apparently, I had something to do with it. I'm not sure what that is, so I was wondering if I could borrow your Walkman to find out. 'Not much,' I say.

Unanswered? I would've answered any question, Hannah. But you never asked.

I pretended not to notice him. Not because I had anything against him, but because my heart and my trust were in the process of collapsing. And that collapse created a vacuum in my chest. Like every nerve in my body was withering in, pulling away from my fingers and toes. Pulling back and disappearing.

It's important to be aware of how we treat others. Even though someone appears to shrug off a sideways comment or to not be affected by a rumor, it's impossible to know everything else going on in that person's life, how we might be adding to his/her pain. People do have an impact on the lives of others; that's undeniable.

Josh will begin disappearing into a future where the only place he and I remain friends is on the Internet.

His door is closed behind me. It's staying closed. He's letting me go. I think I've made myself very clear, but no ones stepping forward to stop me. A lot of you cared, just not enough. And that ... that is what i needed to find out. And I did find out. And I'm sorry.

They were like two magnets who couldn't decide whether to attract or repel.

And like I said, I didn't know him very well, but my ears perked up whenever I heard his name. I guess I wanted to hear something - anything - juicy. Not because I wanted to spread gossip. I just couldn't believe someone could be that good.
If he was actually that good ... wonderful. Great! But it became a personal game of mine. How long could I go on hearing nothing but good things about Clay Jensen?
Normally, when a person has a stellar image, another person's waiting in the wings to tear them apart. They're waiting for that one fatal flaw to expose itself.
But not with Clay.

She's a Mercury, with the full hotness of the sun beating down on her. I'm a Pluto. Sure, my friend's appreciate me, but I'm barely holding on to the far reaches of the galaxy.

I've always loved brainstorming with other writers, and I consider having my work critiqued a part of that brainstorming.

I can love you and still let you go.

If I had a chance with him, I missed it. No, I didn't miss it. I threw it away.

Or deep down, maybe there was more. Maybe I wanted someone to figure out who wrote the note and secretly come to my rescue.
Maybe. I don't know. But I was careful never to give myself away.

Like driving along a bumpy road and losing control of the steering wheel, tossing you - just a tad - off the road. The wheels kick up some dirt, but you're able to pull it back. Yet no matter how hard you try to drive straight, something keeps jerking you to the side. You have so little control over anything anymore. And at some point, the struggle becomes too much - too tiring - and you consider letting go. Allowing tragedy ... or whatever ... to happen.

Maybe it's not as important to you as it was for me, but that's not for you to decide.

I simply wanted a kiss. I was a freshman girl who had never been kissed. Never. But I liked the boy, he liked me, and I was going to kiss him. That's the story, the whole story, right there.

If not for that party, I never would have met the real you. But for some reason, and I am extremely grateful, you gave me that chance. However brief it was, you gave me a chance. And I liked the Hannah I met that night. Maybe I could've even loved her. But

I decided to find out how people at school might react if one of the students never came back.

Do you remember the last thing you said to me? The last thing you did to me? And what was the last thing I said to you? Because trust me when I said it I knew it was the last thing I'd ever say.

Sometimes we have thoughts that even we don't understand. Thoughts that aren't even true - that aren't really how we feel - but they're running through our heads anyway because they're interesting to think about.

Did you know dimples are actually a deformity?" he continues. "It means he has a muscle in his face that grew too short. It's kind if gross if you think about it.

We didn't get that chance because I was afraid. Afraid I had no chance with you.

What the hell happened to Pluto?!

It's up to the reader to decipher the code, or the words, based on everything the know about life and emotions.

If you aren't happy maybe you don't know how to be happy. -- Thirteen Reasons Why

I waited a second. Should I?
No... but I will.

But whatever the reason, it felt surreal

I walked out of that office with my survey still in the box, unsure of what I was. An optimist? A pessimist? Neither. A fool. I

I can't. You can't rewrite the past.

Now, the truth is the one you won't forget.