"'Why?'  I drop my bag in the driveway.  'Why do you want to be with this?'  I wave my arm up and down the length of my body.  Immediately, I hate myself for this.  The only person making this about my body is me." 
-Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

"I expected to hear from Mitch yesterday.  A follow-up call of some sort to make sure we were cool after Halloween.  Or maybe, like, a customer service call to rate my satisfaction.  But nothing." 
-Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

"I know that if I want to understand what it means to let someone in, someone other than Benny, I'll have to take a risk.  I have to hope that he won't let me down.  That he can be a person who is a place - a place where I can go and call a time-out on all the uncertainty and awfulness of my life."
-Something Real by Heather Demetrois

"'What are we waiting for?'  The words hung in the air for a moment, and I wondered if he knew what I meant.  I was still tiptoeing, not daring to cross the friendship line.'"
-The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

"I wondered where somewhere was.  I wondered if this was a date.  I wondered if he had planned all of this and what it meant.  But most of all, I wondered if a person could actually burst from so many feelings at once."
-The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord