Coming Of Age Quotes

Mending a broken heart isn't easy. It's messy and complicated, but when it's finished, it's stronger than ever. ~ Megan Duke

It's funny, the roles we play, the way we have to give up the old ones before we have room for the new ones. The first-first love stuff never goes away in here" she said, pointing to her head. "It makes you who you are. But in here," putting her hand on her chest, "time lets that grow and change. You'll see ~ Kristen-Paige Madonia

Wherever Cool is, anyway, I missed it, and now I'm stuck observing these machinations or sex and status and dancing and parties and people sucking at each other under the bleacher seating like some kind of freak, when I'm not the freak; Rich is the freak. Clearly. When I grow up, that had better be understood and I had better be compensated, or I'm going to shoot myself in the head. ~ Ned Vizzini

Sitting in the wicker rocking chair with her interrupted work in her lap, Amaranta watched Aureliano José, his chin covered with foam, stropping his razor to give himself his first shave. His blackheads bled and he cut his upper lip as he tried to shape a mustache of blond fuzz, and when it was all over he looked the same as before, but the laborious process gave Amaranta the feeling that she had begun to grow old at that moment. ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer. ~ Joss Whedon

Hip-hop, this thing we love that loves us back, is our lingua franca. ~ Raquel Cepeda

Any young man coming of age has a lot to go through. Peter Parker certainly has a lot of responsibility, and without doubt, so does Pippin - his role, his life, and how he is going to perform it. It's all about choices and how we make them. ~ Matthew James Thomas

She had a new secret, the strenght of the moon, looking at her ~ Susan Engberg

No tie is as strong as family, making it the hardest one to break. ~ David Crow

I was born in Darien, Connecticut, but in 1959, when I was four, my parents moved to the suburbs of Toronto. Then, in the late 1960s, they bought a cottage in a resort/trailer park in the Kawarthas region of Ontario, and we moved up there. I wrote a book about it in 2000 called 'Last Resort: Coming of Age in Cottage Country.' ~ Linwood Barclay

Before, the woods had always done so much for me. Once I could actually go out into the woods and communicate with God, or Nature or something. Now that something didn't come through. It was just not there anymore. More than ever I began to wonder whether God actually existed. Maybe God changed as the individual changed, or perhaps grew as one grew. ~ Anne Moody

Why couldn't she have given him a sultry laugh as she'd seen women do in movies instead of giggling like some enchanted, mindless school girl? ~ Dawn M. Turner

I knew just being a girl in the world handicapped your ability to believe yourself. Feelings seemed completely unreliable, like faulty gibberish scraped from a Ouija board. ~ Emma Cline

I love coming of age stories that have struggle. ~ Aaron Paul

Is the ash in trees, babies, flowers, and visions of God
better than the visions themselves? Then you think,
none of this is tangible or concrete. So you have another cigarette
and think about the (not one) but many ghosts you keep tucked away,
under sheets, under beds, in notes, within other ghosts. ~ Derek Keck

It's good to stay motivated, but if you're putting so much pressure on yourself that you're making yourself unhappy, that's not good. Try not to be so hard on yourself, okay? Set a pace you're comfortable with. Enjoy the journey. ~ Akemi Dawn Bowman

Happiness comes in many forms. Whether through a passion for something or someone, it makes no difference. The results are the same: you live. ~ Megan Duke

We make people into Gods, desperate that they never leave us and hopeful that someday, if we ever deserve it, maybe they'll love us back even half way. ~ Jennifer Elisabeth

When the masses are against you, when fear is on every side, and when it seems like you are standing alone, that is when you should stand the tallest. That is when you plant yourself like a mountain, and you do what your heart knows is right. Even if death will be your only reward. ~ Ammar Habib

Bittersweet: it's what life tastes like. And if you can handle the bitter, the sweet will come later. ~ Klyde, in Piranhas Like S'mores. ~ J.Z. Bingham

And then I know I'm being a man, not just some kid who's upset and wants it his way. ~ Angela Johnson

He had not been sleeping well over Christmas. Actually, he hadn't been doing anything well over Christmas – eating, sleeping, exercising, talking, looking after himself, laughing, crying… No, he hadn't really been crying despite all the pain he felt. It was just tearing him up inside, quietly. It was like his insides were being ripped up by an angered tiger. ~ Pamela Harju

To all the boys, for when you become men: you'll leave women all throughout your life because they're holding you back, and even after she's gone she'll still weigh you down. To all the women: stay away from us men. We don't know anything about you, despite what we try to convince you of. ~ Dave Matthes

Quick, somebody call the caretaker!' Gemma's stage voice rang out loud and clear. 'There's some trash here that needs to be taken out.' She earned a chorus of laughs as she walked towards us, then came to a standstill right beside me. 'Christ, it reeks, too,' she said, pinching her nose. 'What did you do, Malice? Douse yourself in the whole bottle? Oh, never mind. I don't expect you to have heard of the adage "less is more". ~ Aurelia B. Rowl

...to be an American adult has always been to be a symbolic figure in someone else's coming-of-age story. And that's no way to live. It is a kind of moral death in a culture that claims youthful self-invention as the greatest value. We can now avoid this fate. The elevation of every individual's inarguable likes and dislikes over formal critical discourse, the unassailable ascendancy of the fan, has made children of us all. We have our favorite toys, books, movies, video games, songs, and we are as apt to turn to them for comfort as for challenge or enlightenment. ~ A.O. Scott

wasn't no bit of me willing to ride shotgun to my own funeral. ~ J.D. Jordan

I was physically attacked by a woman who didn't even know me. Yes, my boyfriend was her former husband, but she tried to ruin me. ~ Brenda Perlin

I imagined the lies the valedictorian was telling them right now. About the exciting future that lies ahead. I wish she'd tell them the truth: Half of you have gone as far in life as you're ever going to. Look around. It's all downhill from here. The rest of us will go a bit further, a steady job, a trip to Hawaii, or a move to Phoenix, Arizona, but out of fifteen hundred how many will do anything truly worthwhile, write a play, paint a painting that will hang in a gallery, find a cure for herpes? Two of us, maybe three? And how many will find true love? About the same. And enlightenment? Maybe one. The rest of us will make compromises, find excuses, someone or something to blame, and hold that over our hearts like a pendant on a chain. ~ Janet Fitch

Zachary smiles, and I wonder if he's felling different. Because standing out here waist deep in Gossimer Lake, next to my best friend, I'm feeling different-light and good and maybe even holy. ~ Kimberly Willis Holt

The more I learn about life and people, the more I realise that everyone has a story and everyone's story is the biggest in their own mind." - Laylla Jonson ~ L.B. Malpass

He lies there listening to it, absorbing this sense of his own quiet drone transmuted into something of certain substance, something large, magnificent and grand - no longer him, no, but something bursting from him, leaving his split carcass behind as a monument to its source, its host, its feeding ground. ~ Patrick Bryant

So the first step out of childhood is made all at once, without looking before or behind, without caution, and nothing held in reserve. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

Almost everyone first realized they were becoming a grown woman when some dude did something nasty to them ... It was mostly men yelling shit from cars. Are they a patrol sent out to let girls know they've crossed into puberty? If so, it's working. ~ Tina Fey

I'm working hard to have a good life.
You don't need fancy things to feel good.
You can hug a puppy.
You can buy a can of paint and surround yourself with color.
You can plant a flower and watch it grow.
You can decide to trust people, the right people.
You can decide to start over and let other people start over, too. ~ Joan Bauer

My fish dream is a sex dream. ~ Joseph Heller

We think and believe that we are exceptional. We have created so many stories around how exceptional humans are. We were created by the hands of the divine, and the universe is our gift. We believe that it was all created to serve us, but the reality of the matter is, we are not exceptional except for our ability to kill beauty and destroy. We are not as fast as the gazelle or a cheetah; we can't fly like birds; we don't have fur to protect us in the cold; we don't have natural strength to lift heavy objects like a gorilla or an elephant. We created fables to explain our presence, even scientific ones that we can't prove. It is all unproven theories, on all sides. We are not exceptional; we are only exceptional when we work together and in sync with nature like every other creature. ~ Hani Selim

But when she looked at Prue tonight, she saw this was not now quite true of her. She was just beginning, just moving, just descending. ~ Virginia Woolf

Soon, he would become an adult. And when he did, there would be not going back because adulthood was akin to what his father had once said about being a war hero: one you became one, you died one. ~ Khaled Hosseini

In the Empire, the Scholars are not allowed to read and, like so many bullies and power-seekers who hide behind ideologies to justify the terrible things they do, their oppressors wear masks. 'An Ember in the Ashes' suggests that such masks (literal or figurative) don't work. Not forever, anyway. Masks only cover faces. It's actions that show who we are. ~ Chelsey Philpot

My experience showed me an ugly side of our human nature. That if we are told it's alright to step on someone, we will do so, in joy that we are not the one being stepped on. If we are told we can treat someone as lesser, we will do it, since it means we are more than they are." -Norrie, Seeing Through Sampson's Eyes ~ Pamela Schloesser Canepa

She had wanted to behave like a fully grown woman and it had not come off. ~ Cesare Pavese

I am careful with the arguas (tomato caterpillars). Be careful with your mothers' hearts too, por favor.
THE PINATA-MAKER'S DAUGHTER ~ Eileen Granfors

It was cold out here in this world beyond childhood. ~ Leslie Garland

I don't want us to be ashamed anymore (we all were crying by this point) of being pregnant or gay or poor or having a crackhead dad! I want us to be fucking proud of ourselves. (...) So we have to be proud and always remember who we are and when we make it to college, who we were. ~ Isabel Quintero

I rather miss my wild girl; but if I get a strong, helpful, tender-hearted woman in her place, I shall feel quite satisfied. ~ Louisa May Alcott

Coming-of-age tales and villain origins have a lot in common. Teens are fighting for their independence and against familial pressures. Villains are frequently fighting against societal and moral expectations in their origins. ~ Samantha Lane

I was an American girl; I possessed what our culture valued most-independance and blind courage. ~ Hilary Thayer Hamann

Answer me one thing," she says in a rigidly controlled voice. "Do you love Logan?"
Perhaps I should lie, but in that moment, after what I've just witnessed, I'm incapable of expressing anything but the truth of what's in my heart. "With all my heart," I sob. ~ Siobhan Davis

Secrets are only secrets to those who can't see. There are many people who got 20-20 vision and can't see a secret right in front of them. ~ Linda Armstrong

Turns out, most girls would rather put on lip gloss than play with sand toads. ~ Jenny Lundquist

Yet I had become very attached to George Roc. I liked him, not for the joy of playing with him, not for some talent that made him stand out from the rest, not even for his kindness: above all, I liked him because he was always sad and because the things he told me caused me a degree of pain.....George Roc was the first being that I'd met who saw and felt himself unhappy. ~ Joseph Zobel

The true ugliness of the closet is its subtlety. It eats away at your soul bit by bit and you don't even realize it. If you never deal with it or comes to terms with it, then ultimately the closet will destroy you. ~ Gar McVey-Russell

Director Park always talked to me about her in a very innocent way, that the story was of her coming of age and her sexual awakening and her going from girl to woman and that she had the same desires and hopes as other young people in terms of being very infatuated, which comes in the form of her uncle, which is very unconventional. ~ Mia Wasikowska

Millennials: We lost the genetic lottery. We graduated high school into terrorist attacks and wars. We graduated college into a recession and mounds of debt. We will never acquire the financial cushion, employment stability, and material possessions of our parents. We are often more educated, experienced, informed, and digitally fluent than prior generations, yet are constantly haunted by the trauma of coming of age during the detonation of the societal structure we were born into. But perhaps we are overlooking the silver lining. We will have less money to buy the material possessions that entrap us. We will have more compassion and empathy because our struggles have taught us that even the most privileged can fall from grace. We will have the courage to pursue our dreams because we have absolutely nothing to lose. We will experience the world through backpacking, couch surfing, and carrying on interesting conversations with adventurers in hostels because our bank accounts can't supply the Americanized resorts. Our hardships will obligate us to develop spiritual and intellectual substance. Maybe having roommates and buying our clothes at thrift stores isn't so horrible as long as we are making a point to pursue genuine happiness. ~ Maggie Georgiana Young

I've played a lot of younger, more coming-of-age roles as well as roles that aren't such an imposing physical presence. ~ Josh Keaton

I believe our entire nation is in the midst of a collective coming-of-age crisis without parallel in our history. We are living in an America of perpetual adolescence. Our kids simply don't know what an adult is anymore - or how to become one. Many don't even see a reason to try. Perhaps more problematic, the older generations have forgotten that we need to plan to teach them. It's our fault more than it is theirs. ~ Ben Sasse

I don't know why I didn't have this sixth sense or whatever it is all along, but part of me thinks maybe it means I'm growing up, evolving into a real superhero. Like maybe the world knew I couldn't handle it before, but now, now I'm finally becoming me an the world know sit -- or maybe I'm just learning to listen to myself. ~ Kelly Thompson

It'd be impossible to capture the feel of 'All Quiet on the Western Front' in a novel starring Mace Windu; 'All Quiet' is a tragic coming-of-age story. ~ Matthew Stover

In no mood for one of her silly games, I snatched it off her and scanned the page. It turned out to be a list of names, all of them boys, and some of whom I recognised. And then I noticed the title: 'Operation: Popping the Cherry'. I leaped to my feet and fired a glare at each of them in turn, trying not to shout. 'Are you shitting me? ~ Aurelia B. Rowl

For the first time I realized adults could back themselves into corners so remote that love, or its memory, could no longer reach them. ~ Kirby Wright

The God of Imagination lived in fairytales. And the best fairytales made you fall in love. It was while flicking through "Sleeping Beauty" that I met my first love, Ivar. He was a six-year-old bello ragazzo with blond hair and eyebrows. He had bomb-blue eyes and his two front teeth were missing.
The road to Happily Ever After, however, was paved with political barbed wire. Three things stood in my way.
1. The object of my affection didn't know he was the object of my affection.
2. The object of my affection preferred Action Man to Princess Aurora.
3. The object of my affection was a boy and I wasn't allowed to love a boy. ~ Diriye Osman

Like the rest of the city, LAX is coming of age. ~ Dana Goodyear

When I was coming of age, I remembered reading and studying the initial ideas within the feminist movement. There was this idea with my parents' generation that in order to find equality, a woman would need to behave like a man. ~ Bryce Dallas Howard

This is the end of an epic tale, the story of my coming of age, which, like in the novels of the same description, went from wonder to ambition, from ambition to disillusion, and from disillusion to cynicism. ~ Muriel Barbery

I'm just open to doing all different kinds of movies. I have a movie called Scout coming out and it's a coming of age story. [] I have a very small role in it, but it was really fun to make and really light, but I do want darker roles. ~ Shelley Hennig

Or maybe they weren't changing. Maybe they were just now becoming what they had always wanted to be. ~ Eilis O'Neal

It is hard to know how to save the world if one has never lived in it. ~ Alex Flinn

How stupid that all I have to do
is grow two squishy lumps and suddenly
I'm man's best friend ~ Christine Heppermann

I was surfing the Internet for a different sort of education. I surfed for photos of circus freaks and synonyms for the word intercourse and for answers to why staring at the stars in the evening tore my heart with longing. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

Being a child sucked. Being a teenager was worse. And being an adult seemed so far away that I had a better chance at swimming the length of the ocean than growing up. ~ Shannon A. Thompson

We're about to hit that age when we'll be too exhausted to maintain friendships, and the days of hanging out will be long behind us. ~ Gume Laurel III

Growing up, I never felt deprived. I was always happy. It seems only lately I've started seeing everything I didn't have. ~ Kasie West

If I were a vampire, I'd want to bite someone. I'd be thirsty for blood," I said in a last ditch attempt to interject reason into a discussion that had devolved into the absurd.
"You will come into your true nature," Lucius promised. "You are coming of age right now. And when I bite you for the first time, then you will be a vampire. I've brought you a book - a guide, so to speak - which will explain everything - "
I stood up so fast my chair tipped over, smashing to the floor. "He is not going to bite me," I interrupted, pointing a shaky finger at Lucius. "And I'm not going to Romania and marrying him! I don't care what kind of 'betrothal ceremony' they had!"
"You will all honor the pact," Lucius growled. It wasn't a suggestion. ~ Beth Fantaskey

Fuck Kerouac; he would write his own story. ~ Linda Collison

I journeyed alone for almost ten years before I found home. Adoptions are like very delicate gardening with transplants and grafts. Mine took hold, rooted, and bloomed, even though there were inevitable adjustments to the new soil and climate. Yet I have not forgotten where my roots started. ~ Ashley Rhodes-Courter

I once made a solemn vow that I could not keep... I am from this world. Even with all its failures and suffering it is still worthy of my best efforts... and wishing it was otherwise does not make it so." Eiij'lam told the king. ~ K. Farrell St. Germain

I have always been drawn to coming-of-age stories and books and movies featuring compelling young characters. ~ Emily Giffin

These children will not be coming of age, this or any other summer. This August will not ask them to find hidden reserves of strength and courage as they confront the complexity of the adult world and come away sadder and wiser and bonded for life. This summer has other requirement for them. ~ Tana French

The kinds of jobs a fifteen-and-a-half-year-old can get are not worth doing. They pay shit and suck. ~ A.D. Aliwat

It really is the best feeling in the world when everything that used to make you dizzy with desire becomes so wedged in your life that it changes from something you craved to something you belong in ~ Alexis Bass

His hands were magnets - shifting polarities - drawn and repelled to the unknown parts of another man's body. ~ Cory Ingram

Most of the girls I've met since moving here have failed to ignite any modicum of enduring interest. Of course, I've dated; I'm seventeen years old and as horny as the next guy. ~ Siobhan Davis

Marilynn ... passed out black cases to everyone. I opened mine to find an iPad inside. Several candidates whistled. Despite my agitated state, it impressed me too. Maybe wizard school wasn't going to be as lame as I had thought.
"All of your schedules and assignments will be done on these," Marilynn explained. "The whole school is on these. We've had them for awhile now. ~ Priya Ardis

It felt like we were claiming the world for ourselves and our lives as our own. ~ Ransom Riggs

But what if Oscar - "
"Breathes fire and threatens to cook you over a grill?"
"I was thinking what if he gets mad, but I think your way works as well."
"Then you shall make for a tasty meal. ~ Erica Sehyun Song

These are the pieces of my youth,
the small secrets and the not-so-great expectations
that defined my coming of age. ~ Tablo

I knew there was a point in my life where I couldn't go to Baba for much; I had to hide a lot from him, and it wasn't because he wouldn't have listened. He lost my trust somewhere along the line because I didn't think he would be able to handle my life, because it was so different from his own. I want you to know both the good and bad; I want you to see me as your fellow human, and not a God. I want you to see me as your friend one day and to not fear approaching me. ~ Hani Selim

Sometimes milestones are not measured by the accomplishments of society, but by those of integrity. ~ Tamara Rose Blodgett

But wasn't time for what was. Was time to settle up the future. ~ J.D. Jordan

I had just been promoted to the first rugby team. It was a perfect, wonderful coming of age. My brother was already in the team, and my father had come to watch us. We went home, and my father died in front of me. Horribly, in about half an hour. He had a heart attack. ~ Anthony Browne

All the carriages filed out in single file but in a fashion that seemed to mean that they were competing against each other. The only sound that could be heard for a while was the pounding of the horses' hooves and the squeal and groan of the wheels against the road. Their hooves kicked up dirt, creating a storm of dust.
Once the miniature storm and the sound of galloping horses subsided, I could only see one last person. He glared up at me and mouthed, "Next time." Christopher dug his boots into Dawn's muscled flank. She reared up and broke into a gallop through the sparse forest, heading for escape. The last trace of them was the particles of floating dust, bright like floating fire. ~ Erica Sehyun Song

Karma's not a bitch. She's a whore, acting like I've stolen her pimp. ~ G.M.T. Schuilling

I did a film when I was about 30; it's a coming of age story called 'Gas Food Lodging,' and I'm so proud of that little independent film. I play this young English geologist, and he's such a simple, loving kind of guy. Doesn't talk too much. He's just a quiet guy, and he gets the girl. ~ Robert Knepper

One of the most popular genital surgeries is labia minora reduction. When a similar procedure is performed on healthy girls in some African countries as a coming-of-age rite to control their sexuality, Westerners denounce it as genital mutilation; in the U.S. of A., it's called cosmetic enhancement. But both procedures are based on misogynist notions of female genitalia as ugly, dirty, and shameful. And though American procedures are generally performed under vastly better conditions (with the benefit of, say, anesthesia and antibiotics), the postsurgical results can be similarly horrific, involving loss of sensation, chronic pain, and infection. ~ Julia Scheeres

In my coming-of-age time, there was no internet, no social networking, nothing. It was just show after show, hoping one day somebody would notice you. ~ Madonna Ciccone

Woman must come of age by herself. This is the essence of "coming of age" -to learn how to stand alone. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

A magical blending of mystery, romance, and deep and dangerous secrets. Kelly Parra's Invisible Touch is an action-packed coming-of-age novel, sure to keep readers turning pages and begging for a sequel. ~ Laurie Faria Stolarz

As I watch Nicholas make his way back to his truck, I know one thing: this boy is going to make my life very interesting. I feel as if a fragment of the old me broke away tonight and disappeared, and I'm finally, truly beginning my new life. ~ Marie Landry

These Aussie girls are free to set their own courses in the world, to meander and experiment. Their travels are not bumps along the road - they are life itself. See the world and then come home and decide who you want to be in it, not the other way around, as seems the general trajectory in the U.S. ~ Rachel Friedman

There have always been and always will be people who want to help. They just don't know how. ~ Linda Armstrong