"Who on earth could feel comfortable enough to sleep in a room with no books?"
-My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand

"'We can't ever be together,' he finished.  'But I always want to know you, even if we're in the same room and you're just saying hi to me over and over again, I'll be perfectly happy.  I'll always want to be sitting across from you.'"
-More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

"Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong."
-Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

"Adults lie.  They lie about how they love children equally.  They never do.  They love children differently, and the difference is so broad that equality is not even in the picture."
-A World Without You by Beth Revis

"But it wasn't anything like the fear that accompanied my drowning nightmare - harrowing and visceral.  No, this fear made me feel fizzy.  Hopeful. 

In fact, this fear felt like waking up to discover I am still here."
-The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

"That I might always be a little bit vicious or restless.  That I might crave peace, but never a cage of comfort."
-A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

"He meets me where I am, and because of the downward tilt of the driveway, we are toe to toe, nose to nose.  'Willowdean Opal Dickson, you are beautiful.  Fuck anyone who's ever made you feel anything less.'  His chest heaves.  'When I close my eyes, I see you.  I can talk to you.  In a way I never have with anyone else.'

Beautiful, he says.  Fat, I think.  But can't I be both at the same time?
-Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

"'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 get what he means, because I think I've played pretend my whole life.  I don't know when, but a really long time ago, I decided who I wanted to be.  And I've been acting like her - whoever she is - since.  But I think the act is fading, and I don't know if I like the person I am beneath it all.  I wish there were some kind of magic words that could bridge the gap between the person I am and the one I wish I could be.  Because the whole fake it till you make it thing?  It's not working for me." 
-Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

"No matter how much I tell myself that the fat and the stretch marks don't matter, they do.  Even if Bo, for whatever reason, doesn't care, I do.

Then there are days when I really give zero flying fucks, and I am totally satisfied with this body of mine.  How can I be both of those people at once?"
-Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

"It's not that I feel unworthy.  I deserve my happy ending.  But what if, for me, Bo is a high point and, for him, I'm a lapse in judgement?"
-Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

"Because for the first time in my life, I fit.  I fit without any question."
-Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

"My stomach starts to burn.  Crushes are so stupidly physical sometimes, like colds."
-Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw

"(So this is how it happens.  This is how girls change for boys.  I am simultaneously annoyed at myself and mildly amazed that I have the ability.)"
-Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw

"He turned towards me, a familiar face but in a really unfamiliar way, his green eyes locked on me.  He moved his head closer to mine, and it felt so right that I'd already close my eyes."
-Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw

"I felt him subtly glance me up and down, quick and fluttery like a moth, as if I was some random girl walking by him on the street and we hadn't been best friends for almost seven years.  It gave me a little shiver.  In a good way, I realized."
-Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw

"I think maybe the most frustrating feeling in the world is to have something to say but not know how to put it into words.  To have lived through something but not be able to get it out of you before it festers." 
-The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

"I had the strangest feeling - like I had lost something without ever really having it in the first place - that I wasn't what I once was, and wasn't at all what I was meant to be.  The sensation made me feel hollow down to my bones."
-The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

"He wondered why we can't remember when our mothers carried us inside them:  the dark and steady heart, how it was the whole of the world, and no one harmed us, and we harmed no one."
-The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski