The whole pleasure of being in a state of unknowing is that as long as you don’t know, all possible outcomes feel as if they are happening.

We don't suffer from a shortage of metaphors . . . But you have to be careful which metaphor you choose, because it matters.

One of those moments he knew he'd remember and look back on, one of those moments that he'd try to capture in the stories he told. Nothing was happening, really, but the moment was thick with mattering.

Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.

That doesn't sound like my Margo", she said, and I thought of my Margo, and all of us looking at her reflection in different funhouse mirrors.

Jesus, I'm not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they're going to do. I'm just going to do it.

We idealize them as gods or dismiss them as animals.