E Lockhart Quotes

Don't take no for an answer. ~ E. Lockhart

Cady, I'm serious. We should NOT always do what we're afraid to do,' says Mirren heatedly. 'We never should.'

'Why not?'

'You could die. You could get hurt. If you are terrified, there's probably a good reason. You should trust your impulses.'

'So what's your philosophy, then?' Johnny asks her. 'Be a giant chickenhead?'

'Yes,' says Mirren. 'That and the kindness thing I said before. ~ E. Lockhart

Every curve of his face was familiar, and also, I had never seen him before. ~ E. Lockhart

The movies make the brooding guy the hero – the guy with problems the guy who carries a gun, the gun with unresolved anger, the guy with a chip on his shoulder, the guy who's a vampire – and they tell you that you can have the mythical happy ending with that same brooding guy.
But in reality, the brooding guy is cranky. He doesn't reply to emails. He doesn't call. He's only half there when you're talking to him, and he doesn't chase you when you run. You feel insecure all the time. You get needy and sad and you hate yourself got being needy.

If you don't know why he's brooding, you're shut out.

And if you do know why he's brooding, you're still shut out. (Because he's busy brooding.) ~ E. Lockhart

So she did not replay, but played the strategist. She retained more power by withholding an answer. ~ E. Lockhart

You have some balls.
Frankie hated that expression, ever since Zada had pointed out to her that it equates courage with the male equipment ... ~ E. Lockhart

The Sinclairs are athletic, tall, and handsome. We are old-money Democrats. Our smiles are wide, our chins square, and our tennis serves aggressive. ~ E. Lockhart

She might, in fact, go crazy, as has happened to a lot of people who break rules. Not the people who play at rebellion but really only solidify their already dominant positions in society ... but those who take some larger action that disrupts the social order. Who try to push through the doors that are usually closed to them. They do sometimes go crazy, these people, because the world is telling them not to want the things they want. It can seem saner to give up
but then one goes insane from giving up. ~ E. Lockhart

Does she stay because she loves him as meat loves salt? Or does she stay because he has now promised her the kingdom? It is hard for her to tell the difference. ~ E. Lockhart

Now at the breakfast table, watching him eat my toast, "Don't take no for an answer" seemed like the attitude of a privileged guy who didn't care who got hurt, so long as his wife had the cute statues she wanted to display in her summer house. ~ E. Lockhart

When you hate someone you used to love, and you think he's done something awful - he probably has. ~ E. Lockhart

Be sad, be sorry-but don't shoulder it. ~ E. Lockhart

What fun we had, how beautiful we were. ~ E. Lockhart

A part of me died," he says. "And it was the best part. ~ E. Lockhart

Singin' in the Rain was most excellent if you like movies where people burst into song and tap-dance. Which I do, though not as much as I like movies where people don't. ~ E. Lockhart

Antiques and Oriental rugs tell people that my mother may be a dog breeder who dropped out of Bryn Mawr, but she's got power - because she's got money. ~ E. Lockhart

She will not be simple and sweet.
She will not be what people tell her she should be. ~ E. Lockhart

Noel shook his head. "You think better of this scene than I do, Ruby. Don't you see how fake those girls are? Let it go. Have a laugh about it when you're older. Forget that junk."

I wanted to believe him, to skip off to some punk-rock hangout and develop ironic distance and start over in a universe where it didn't matter what any of these people thought about me. But I couldn't.

I just loved them. ~ E. Lockhart

So just be normal," he says, "at least for today. Let's pretend I'm not a mess, let's pretend you're not angry. Let's act like we're friends and forget what happened." I don't want to pretend. I don't want to be friends. I don't want to forget. I am trying to remember. ~ E. Lockhart

He wasn't much of a dancer, but he knew it, and the faces he pulled when he danced gave him a perpetually startled look-as if he were, at regular intervals, surprised to find himself dancing. ~ E. Lockhart

And then he's grabbing my hand, and pulling me into a storage room they use for art supplies. And he puts his finger to his lips, and the walls are filled with pads of paper and boxes of colored pencils and jars of paint,
and I'm laughing
and he shuts the door behind us
and leans up against it to stop anyone coming in
and like he's trying to get up his nerve now that he's started something,
before we've ever gone to the dumplings and the movies -
he leans in and kisses me.
His lips are cold. The kiss is soft. He has gum in his mouth, and he stops, and giggles nervously, and takes it out and throws it in the trash can,
and looks like he feels embarrassed to have kissed me with the gum,
but I don't care,
and so now I kiss him,
and he's tall enough that he has to bend down to get to me,
and I put my hand on his neck, which is smooth and warm,
and we kiss for a minute in the storage room,and I want to run my hands up his shirt suddenly -
but I don't.
He pulls away for a second and touches my cheek.
"I thought you'd never ask," he whispers.
"I thought I never would either," I say, "but I did."
"Good job," he says, and kisses me again. ~ E. Lockhart

I don't want to forget I'm trying to remember. ~ E. Lockhart

Roo: What's your definition of popularity?

Hutch: I used to think people were popular because they were good-looking, or nice, or funny, or good at sports.

Roo: Aren't they?

Hutch: I'd think, if I could just be those things, I'd – you know – have more friends than I do. But in seventh grade, when Jackson and those guys stopped hanging out with me, I tried as hard as I could to get them to like me again. But then . . . (shaking his head as if to clear it) I don't really wanna talk about it.

Roo: What happened?

Hutch: They just did some ugly stuff to me is all. And really, it was for the best.

Roo: Why?

Hutch: Because I was cured. I realized the popular people weren't nice or funny or great-looking. They just had power, and they actually got the power by teasing people or humiliating them – so people bonded to them out of fear.

Roo: Oh.

Hutch: I didn't want to be a person who could act like that. I didn't want to ever speak to any person who could act like that.

Roo: Oh

Hutch: So then I wasn't trying to be popular anymore.

Roo: Weren't you lonely?

Hutch: I didn't say it was fun. (He bites his thumbnail, bonsai dirt and all.) I said it was for the best. ~ E. Lockhart

We are liars. We are beautiful and privileged. We are cracked and broken. ~ E. Lockhart

Taft gets hold of the wet baguette and hits Will with it. ~ E. Lockhart

Why is it a good idea for you and not a good idea for me? ~ E. Lockhart

I say, thirteen is too many dogs for good mental health. Five is pretty much the limit. More than five dogs and you forfeit your right to call yourself entirely sane.
Even if the dogs are small. ~ E. Lockhart

Okay, so I'm completely undignified. As soon as school got out, I ran up to Kim, Nora and Cricket on the quad and told them the news. They were completely surprised and excited: Cricket was even jumping up an down. "Shiv! Ag!" she yelled.
"He's fine," said Nora, giggling.
"Have you seen him in his rugby uniform? He has some serious legs," said Kim.
"How did it happen?" Cricket wanted to know.
I told all.
They wanted to know more.
"What did it feel like?"
Electricity. ~ E. Lockhart

Being and Nothingness by Sartre. ~ E. Lockhart

You think Tide is better, or All?'
'Which has a prettier box?' I ask.
'I don't want a pretty box. I want a dude box.'
Uh-huh,' I deadpan. 'You want a dude box of laundry detergent.'
'Yes, I do.'
'Good luck with that. ~ E. Lockhart

I just-I don't want to get involved with you Jackson," I said, the words tumbling out. "You're a nice guy, but then, when it comes down to it-you're not, really. ~ E. Lockhart

Sometimes people are mean because they feel insecure about themselves. ~ E. Lockhart

It's good to be loved, even thought it will not last ~ E. Lockhart

Do you still miss Gran?" I ask him as we head toward New Clairmont. "Because I miss her. We never talk about her." "A part of me died," he says. "And it was the best part." "You think so?" I ask. "That is all there is to say about it," says Granddad. ~ E. Lockhart

I love the idea of the big life - the life that matters, the life that makes a difference. The life where stuff happens, where people take action. The opposite of the life where the girl can't even speak to the boy she likes; the opposite of the life where the friends aren't even good friends, and lots of days are wasted away feeling bored and kind of okay, like nothing matters much. ~ E. Lockhart

He kisses me back. His fingers twine in mine and I'm dizzy and he's holding me up and everything is clear and everything is grand, again. Our kiss turns the world to dust. There is only us and nothing else matters ~ E. Lockhart

Kim called me a slut under her breath in H&P, and Mr. Wallace heard her and gave a lecture on the negative effects of labels, and how words like that serve to limit women's sexual expression, and how there's a whole history of words that basically mean slut8 and yet there are no equivalent epithets for men whatsoever, and didn't that say something about how women are viewed in our culture? He said a more accurate term could be: "a girl who's using sexuality in an attempt to gain approval from the opposite sex ... ." Or, if you look at it a different way, "a liberated, open girl who likes boys and feels comfortable expressing affection, but is misunderstood." Blah blah blah.
I'm sure he meant well, but I wanted to call Kim a megaslut right back and not think about it anymore ~ E. Lockhart

Never take a seat in the back of the room. Winners sit up front. ~ E. Lockhart

Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you. ~ E. Lockhart

Still, she has an aura of mystery that stops her from being teased or singled out for typical high school unpleasantness. Her mother is a Sinclair. ~ E. Lockhart

Just think before you complain about stuff other people would love to have. ~ E. Lockhart

Some boyfriends?"
"Three boyfriends."
"Three boyfriends is a lot."
Jule shrugged. "I couldn't decide. ~ E. Lockhart

I seem to remember there was some hocus-pocus with that one."
"You mean hanky-panky!" shouted Ruth. "There was hanky panky. ~ E. Lockhart

He didn't shut up when people wanted him to, he made them listen - and then he listened in return. He refused to take things lightly, though he was always quick to laugh. ~ E. Lockhart

It is true I suffer migraines since my accident. It is true I do not suffer fools. ~ E. Lockhart

Here is something I love about Gat: he is so enthusiastic, so relentlessly interested in the world, that he has trouble imagining the possibility that other people will be bored by what he's saying. Even when they tell him outright. But also, he doesn't like to let us off easy. He wants to make us think - even when we don't feel like thinking. ~ E. Lockhart

And now he was mine and I said we should not let our love be threatened.
We should not let the family fall apart.
We should not accept an evil we can change.
We would stand up against it, would we not?
Yes. We should.
We would be heroes, even. ~ E. Lockhart

Do not think about guys who have broken your heart six ways. It is mentally deranged to chase after heartbreak. ~ E. Lockhart

But the thing that makes me really messed up is the contradiction: when I'm not hating myself, I feel righteous and victmized. Like the world is so unfair. ~ E. Lockhart

Jule watched a shit-ton of movies. She knew that women were rarely the centers of such stories. Instead, they were eye candy, arm candy, victims, or love interests. Mostly, they existed to help the great white hetero hero on his fucking epic journey. ~ E. Lockhart

We burned not a home, but a symbol.
We burned a symbol to the ground. ~ E. Lockhart

People think of hearts when they think of love, but a heart is a bloody organ in the body. It doesn't have any emotions. It's like a metaphor for love that has nothing to do with what love actually is. ~ E. Lockhart

Get over it, Roo. If you have friends who actually like you, you're popular enough. ~ E. Lockhart

It's not objective. It's subjective." Katya hooks her bra behind her back. "It's just what you think, not the truth. ~ E. Lockhart

It is true I do not suffer fools. I ~ E. Lockhart

It is good to be loved, even though it will not last. ~ E. Lockhart

Mirren, she is sugar, curiosity, and rain. ~ E. Lockhart

I'm going to run away now," says Gat. "Don't take it personally."
"Okay."
"It's better for the starting over if I run. Because walking will just be awkward."
"I said okay."
"Okay, then."
And he runs. ~ E. Lockhart

Most secret societies - at least those you can read about in books or on the Internet - are collegiate. Or adult ... They are like fraternities, only they don't have houses or public identities. In colleges, their members are usually local, not national, but the adult ones tend to be more serious and on a larger scale.
We don't actually know what they do. Because they're secret. ~ E. Lockhart

Secrets are more powerful when people know you've got them. ~ E. Lockhart

I'd a million times rather live and risk and have it all end badly than stay in the box I've been in for the past two years. ~ E. Lockhart

A tomato may be a fruit, but it is a singular fruit. A savory fruit. A fruit that has ambitions far beyond the ambitions of other fruits. ~ E. Lockhart

She didn't know if she could love her own mangled, strange heart. She wanted someone else to do it for her, to see it beating behind her ribs and to say, I can see your true self. It is there, and it is rare and worthy. I love you. ~ E. Lockhart

Suffer. You could say it means endure, but that's not exactly right ~ E. Lockhart

The problem is I can think whatever I think but I still feel the way I feel. ~ E. Lockhart

I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools. ~ E. Lockhart

Also, I was living in the middle of my parents' marriage. No one ever says this about families, and maybe people who aren't only children don't even notice it, but half the time I feel like I'm this extra person watching them have a marriage. They fight, they kiss, they discuss the inlaws, they do projects, they take down the Christmas tree and reminisce about things I don't remember, they fight some more-and it's all this personal stuff that I really have no business witnessing, except I have nowhere else to go because I live here. I'm just trying to eat my dinner and instead I'm in the middle of this grown-up relationship that is complicated and disgustingly mushy and sometimes angry. ~ E. Lockhart

Three flowers for you. You should have three. He looks pitiful. He looks powerful. I love him, but I am not sure I like him. I take his hand and lead him inside. ~ E. Lockhart

He is shivering slightly and he kisses my neck with cold lips.We stay like that,enfolded in each other's arms,for a minute or two,
and it feels like the universe is reorganizing itself,
and I know any anger we felt has disappeared.
Gat kisses me on the lips,and touches my cheek.
I love him.
I have always loved him. ~ E. Lockhart

Johnny, he is bounce, effort, and snark. ~ E. Lockhart

We can't know or say what other people do. You have to think what you want to do to get the situation where you want it to be. ~ E. Lockhart

Always do what you're afraid to do.
...
I will prove myself strong when they think I am sick.
I will prove myself brave when they think I am weak. ~ E. Lockhart

People with money love Gershwin. ~ E. Lockhart

Love is when you give someone else the power to destroy you, and you trust them not to do it. ~ E. Lockhart

And Gat did shut up, but his face contorted. He stood abruptly, picked up a rock from the sand, and threw it with all his force. He pulled off his sweatshirt and kicked off his shoes. Then he walked into the sea in his jeans. Angry. ~ E. Lockhart

Why did you do all that, Frankie?" asked Porter. "I mean, it was brilliant, what you did, what you made us do - but why would you bother? That's what I can't figure out."
Frankie sighed. "Have you ever heard of the panopticon?" she asked him.
Porter shook his head.
"Have you ever been in love?"
He shook his head again.
"Then I can't explain it," Frankie said.
They went inside and took the geometry test. ~ E. Lockhart

You hate cake doughnuts."
"Of course," says Mirren. "But we didn't get the cake, we got glazed twists."
"And Boston cream," says Gat.
"And Jelly," says Johnny.
But I know Downyflake only makes cake doughnuts. No glazed. No Bodton cream. No jelly.

Why are they lying? ~ E.lockhart

One day I looked at Gat, lying in the Clairmont hammock with a book, and he seemed, well, like he was mine. Like he was my particular person. ~ E. Lockhart

You would have been a light in the dark for so many people. ~ E. Lockhart

Do not accept an evil you can change. ~ E. Lockhart

I thought she was a conniving, lying, man-stealing bitch, and I hoped she would fall in a volcano and die a horrible lava death.7 But ~ E. Lockhart

My whole body sings to be near him,because every movement he makes is charged with electricity.I often think of putting my arms around him or running my fingers along his lips.When I let my thoughts go there the sharp pain of unrequited love invites the migraine in. ~ E. Lockhart

See?" I said. "That's exactly the person I don't want to be with. And he's always there, underneath all your charm. ~ E. Lockhart

I lie in my darkened room. Scavenger birds peck at the oozing matter that leaks from my crushed skull. ~ E. Lockhart

IN EUROPE, I vomited into small buckets and brushed my teeth repeatedly with chalky British toothpaste. I lay prone on the bathroom floors of several museums, feeling the cold tile underneath my cheek as my brain liquefied and seeped out my ear, bubbling. Migraines left my blood spreading across unfamiliar hotel sheets, dripping on the floors, oozing into carpets, soaking through leftover croissants and Italian lace cookies. ~ E. Lockhart

Yes, it's true that I fell in love with someone and that he died, along with the two other people I loved best in this world. That has been the main thing to know about me, the only thing about me for a very long time, although I didn't know it myself. But there must be more to know. There will be more. ~ E. Lockhart

Please, that is so antiquated. The institutions of male supremacy only have real power over you if you buy into that notion. Go found your own club and tell them they can't join. Or better yet, drop the idea of clubs altogether because they're exclusionary, and embrace some other, more flexible way of connecting with people. ~ E. Lockhart

We know what you are thinking. It is not girls who need lessons in how to talk on the telephone.
We are experts at it.
Some of us could even medal in it.
The problem is the boys. And they need to shape up.
True, true, true.
However.
The boys are not going to shape up. They are not going to read magazines or informational textbooks such as this one that tell them how to talk to girls on the telephone. And they are not going to magically figure out how to converse either. It is a demonstrated fact that even bona fide boyfriends such as Finn and Jackson and Kaleb are hit with paralyzing stupidity and boringness on the telephone, and you, my girlfriends, you are the only ones who can do anything about it.
Some tried-and-true tips
1. No feelings. Not if you can possibly avoid it. Feelings in person only.
2. No long silences. The male of the species hates long silences. If he is silent, say, "I gotta go, I'll see you later." And hang up. This is mysterious and alluring. And if it is not, at least you don't have any more awkwardness.
3. Some people will tell you that you shouldn't call guys, you should wait for them to call you. Hello? This is the twenty-first century. We can call them.
4. But have a reason. Don't call "just to talk," because they have nothing to talk about. Have a story to tell them, or ask if they watched some TV show just now, or ask about homework, or make a plan for the weekend. ~ E. Lockhart

Be a little kinder than you have to.
Never eat anything bigger than your ass
Do not accept an evil you can change
Always do what your afraid to do ~ E. Lockhart

We should not accept an evil we can change. ~ E. Lockhart

When we say Shut up, Gat, that isn't what we mean at all. ~ E. Lockhart

Jule believed that the more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle.
She believed that the best way to avoid having your heart broken was to pretend you don't have one.
She believed that the way you speak is often more important than anything you have to say.
She also believed in action movies, weight training, the power of makeup, memorization, equal rights, and the idea that YouTube videos can teach you a million things you won't learn in college. ~ E. Lockhart

They can't beat when I'm unhappy. They try and fix it; they'd fix the whole world if they could, just to make me feel better-even when it's none of their business. It's one of the many hazards of being an only child. ~ E. Lockhart

It shattered something inside me that hadn't been broken before. ~ E. Lockhart

I am so angry. And so happy to see him. ~ E. Lockhart

Don't worry, said Frankie. I'm indelible. ~ E. Lockhart

Gat was my love,my first and only.How could I let him go?
He was a person who couldn't fake a smile but smiled often.He wrapped my wrists in white gauze and believed wounds needed attention.He wrote on his hand and asked me my thoughts.His mind was restless,relentless.He didn't believe in God anymore and yet he still wished that God would help him. ~ E. Lockhart

Be a little kinder than you have to, Cady, and things will be all right. ~ E. Lockhart

What fun we'd had, how beautiful we were. ~ E. Lockhart

Gideon laughed. "I like to be direct."
"Okay," I said. "But I warn you, I like to be evasive, inserutable and generally send mixed messages."
"I doubt it."
"Human interaction is not my strong point," I told him.
"Not seriously."
"Seriously," I said. Thinking: There is so much about me he doesn't know.
Gideon put his hand on my leg. "What's your strong point, then?"
"Goats," I told him. "I am excellent with goats. ~ E. Lockhart