Sarah Dessen’s “Along for the Ride” Quotes (46 Quotes)

Because maybe, the best of times were yet to come. You never knew.

It was so weird, because usually I was totally nervous talking to guys. But Eli was different. He made me want to say more, not less. Which was maybe not a good thing.

Sometimes, you get things right the first time. Others, the second. But the third time, they say, is the charm.

Call it crazy, or just chicken salad.

It was terrible and awful when someone left you. You could move on, do the best you could, but like Eli had said, an ending was an ending. No matter how many pages of sentences and paragraphs of great stories led up to it, it would always have to have the last word.

Sometimes, you have to manufacture your own history. Give fate a push, so to speak.

Eventually, it wasn't even your dad I wanted, just anybody. Anybody at all.

ItÆs still a memory worth having, even if itÆs not exactly what you imagined

Stuff that would be weird in the bright light of day just wasn't so much once you passed a certain hour.

Everyone laughed, and just like that, the conversation shifted, jumping to another topic. It was fast and furious, the talking, the emotions, the back-and-forth and forth-and-back. I realized that if I tried to focus on it too much, I got overwhelmed. So I just decided to relax into it, bumpy and crazy as it might be, and try for once to just go along for the ride.

ItÆs the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth.

That first love. And the first one who breaks your heart. For me, they just happen to be the same person.

He was the closest thing I'd ever had to something, or someone, that mattered. But in the end, close didn't count. You were either in, or you weren't.

It's still a memory worth having, even if it's not exactly what you imagined.

The truth was, I wasn't sure. But I wanted to keep believing people could change, and it was certainly easier to do so when you were in the midst of it.

I looked down again at the sign in my hand - ENJOY THE RIDE! - and it seemed, suddenly, to be just that. A sign.

Life is full of screwups. You're supposed to fail sometimes. It's a required part of the human existance.

This is a 911? You know you only text that when someone is dead or dying. You scared the crap out of me.

I told you, everyone understands a quest.

Maybe it was true, and being a girl could be about interest rates and skinny jeans, riding bikes and wearing pink. Not about any one thing, but everything.

Watching him, I thought, not for the first time that night, that maybe it should have felt strange to be with him, here, now. And yet it didnÆt, at all. That was one of the things about the night. Stuff that would be weird in the bright light of day just wasnÆt so much once you passed a certain hour. It was like the dark just evened it all out somehow.

I trailed off and he didn't push me to finish. I was finding that I liked that.

Maybe the truth was it shouldnÆt be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. ItÆs the things that you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When somethingÆs difficult to come by, youÆll do that much more to make sure itÆs even harderùif not possibleùto lose.

What do you do when you finally hear everything you've always thought said aloud?

I waited. Because with Eli, he was never trying to get you to finish for him. He always knew where he was going, even if it took a little while to get there.

Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be risky to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder - if not impossible - to lose.

When you don't know where you're going, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to have more than you need.

I wondered if emotions were like menstrual cycles, if you get enough women together. Give it time, and everyone was crying.

Maybe we were all destined to just keep doing the same stupid things, over and over again, never really learning a single thing.

You couldn't just pick and choose at will when someone depended on you, or loved you. It wasn't like a light switch, easy to turn on or off. If you were in, you were in. Out, you were out.

I'd learn that it's not just where you go, but how you choose to get there. So I pulled that sign off the green bike - ENJOY YOUR RIDE! - and went inside to take the first step toward doing just that.

Morning would come before we knew it. It always did. But we still had the night, and for now, we were together, so I just closed my eyes and drank it all in.

You didn't fail. You just opted out. There's a difference.

Impulsiveness can be charming but deliberation can have an appeal, as well.

Oh darling, don't be bitter. It's the first instinct of the weak.

You own a Tic Tac. Gum is just borrowed. - Esther

It shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder--or impossible-- to lose.

People don't change. If anything, you get more set in your ways as you get older, not less

It was like reaching for someone's hand, then missing their fingers, or even their arm, and hitting their shoulder instead. But no matter. You hang on tight anyway.

Really, it had been stupid to expect anything anyway. A few late nights does not a habit, or a relationship, make.

An ending was an ending. No matter how many pages of sentences and paragraphs of great stories led up to it, it would always have the last word.

It was so easy to disown what you couldnÆt recognize, to keep yourself apart from things that were foreign and unsettling

Relationships dont always make sense. Especially from the outside

And all that pink. It's like a giant vagina in there

It was so easy to disown what you couldn't recognize, to keep yourself apart from things that were foreign and unsettling. The only person you can be sure to control, always, is yourself. Which is a lot to be sure of, but at the same time, not enough.

Sometimes a question can hurt more than an answer.