He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee. I could have looked at him forever.

— E. Lockhart

I can feel like a hag some days if I want! And I can tell everybody how insecure I am if I want! Or I can be pretty and pretend to think I'm a hag out of fake modesty –- I can do that if I want, too. Because you, Livingston, are not the boss of me and what kind of girl I become.

— E. Lockhart

I can't forget things, or ignore them-bad things that happen," I said. "I'm a lay-it-all-out person, a dwell-on-it person, an obsess-about-it person. If I hold things in and try to forget or pretend, I become a madman and have panic attacks. I have to talk.

— E. Lockhart

If you don't want to be in an argument with someone, it is probably best to try to solve the problem, rather than lying around hoping the other person will do it for you.

— E. Lockhart

I know they're not getting divorced or anything, but when your parents argue it makes the whole universe seem like it's tipping, like everything could change if they got mad enough at each other, like the world isn't a safe place. And of course, that's true, isn't it? The world is not a safe place.

— E. Lockhart

In fact, the mark of tragedy became, with time, a mark of glamour.

— E. Lockhart

I say, thirteen is too many dogs for good mental health. Five is pretty much the limit. More than five dogs, and you forfeit your right to call yourself entirely sane. Even if the dogs are small.

— E. Lockhart

I think it was the institution... I was trying to master it.

— E. Lockhart

It shattered something inside me that hadn't been broken before.

— E. Lockhart

It's not objective. It's subjective.” Katya hooks her bra behind her back. “It's just what you think, not the truth.

— E. Lockhart