They couldnโt have known that even this was a lieโthat we never really choose, not entirely. We are always being pushed and squeezed down one road or another. We have no choice but to step forward, and then step forward again, and then step forward again; suddenly we find ourselves on a road we havenโt chosen at all. But maybe happiness isnโt in the choosing. Maybe itโs in the fiction, in the pretending: that wherever we have ended up is where we intended to be all along.
Lauren OliverEverything in me feels fluttering and free, like I could take off from the ground at any second. Music, I think, he makes me feel like music.
Lauren OliverEveryone just wasting time because they have so much of it to waste, minutes slipping by on who's with who and did you hear.
Lauren OliverI keep having the urge to cross my hands over my chest, to cover up my breasts, to hide. I'm suddenly aware of how pale I look in the sunshine, and how many moles I have spotting up and down my chest, and I just know he's looking at me thinking i'm wrong or deformed. But the he breathes, 'Beautiful' and when his eyes meet mine I know that he really, truly means it.
Lauren OliverSomeday she will be saved, and the past and all its pain will be rendered as smoothly palatable as the food we spoon to our babies.
Lauren OliverIn my dream I know I am falling. But there is no up or down, no walls or sides or ceilings, just the sensation of cold and darkness everywhere. I am so scared I could scream. But when I open my mouth, nothing happens. And I wonder if you fall forever and never touch down, is it really still falling? I think I will fall forever.
Lauren Oliver