"There's this feeling I get when I watch people kiss. I become a different form of matter. Like they're water, and I'm an ice cube. Like I'm the most alone person in the world." (3)

"I don't entirely understand how anyone gets a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. It just seems like the most impossible odds. You have to have a crush on the exact right person at the exact right moment. And they have to like you back. A perfect alignment of feelings and circumstances. It's almost unfathomable that it happen as often as it does." (15)

"... there's also this: an unshakable feeling that something wonderful is about to happen. That's the part I can't explain. No matter how unlikely, I always have a shred of hope. And as feelings go, that's a pretty addictive one." (56)

"I think I have a wandering kind of mind. When I'm able to rein it in, it's a pretty cool feeling— it's like, just for a minute, I stop wanting things. I didn't even realize how much time I spend wanting. And yearning, and crushing, and aching. It's like I have this perpetual sense that something is missing." (121)

"Because I have to admit, there's something really badass about truly, honestly not caring what people think about you. A lot of people say they don't care. Or they act like they don't care. But I think most people care a lot." (184)

"Because that's the thing about change. It's so painfully normal. It's the most basic of all tragedies. … And it's weird how I can know this, but it doesn't make it hurt less." (300)

" 'But you know, there's an upside here. Because when you spend so much time just intensely wanting something, and then you actually get the thing? It's magic.'

All of a sudden, I feel like crying. In a good way. In the best way. Because I know exactly what she means. It's butterflies and haziness and heart eyes, but underneath all that, there's this bass line of I can't believe this. I can't believe this is me.

I can't quite articulate the sweetness of that feeling.

It's finding out the door you were banging on is finally unlocked. Maybe it was unlocked the whole time." (315-316)