Broken things can be made whole again. Perhaps not as they were before, but maybe stronger this time.

— Carrie Ryan

Darkness grew where it would and took what it wanted. It staked its claim and never let go. And no one else could pry you free of it.

— Carrie Ryan

Do you still believe that if you truly want something enough it can happen?" I ask. I think of all the times I wanted to stop the world from spinning, all the times I wanted to go back and start over again. All the things I've wanted to undo or take back. Did I not want them enough?

— Carrie Ryan

I don't understand how I can know so little about love and how it works. How I can be so bad at it when it's all I've ever wanted. All I've ever known is about leaving or being left.

— Carrie Ryan

If your friend really cared about you, he wouldn't let you take such risks.

— Carrie Ryan

I imagine that's what it must have been like to ride the roller coaster back in the before time. One moment teetering at the top, the world laid out before you and the rush of life filling your lungs. . . And then the plummet. The lack of control. That's what I've started to learn about this world. It might give, but it always takes away.

— Carrie Ryan

I know in my life there have been breaches, but I also know that I am very good at blocking out the memories that serve me no purpose.

— Carrie Ryan

[In my dream] they slide their lips over my skin, whispering whispering whispering. They tell me their names, they tell me their lives, they tell me their pain... I can't struggle, I can't stop laughing, I can't resist these people who once were.

— Carrie Ryan

I realize that life is risks. It’s acknowledging the past but looking forward. It’s taking a chance that we will make mistakes but believing that we all deserve to be forgiven.

— Carrie Ryan

I realize that sometimes death comes before you expect it. That while we are rarely prepared for our friends, family and loved ones to die, we are never prepared for our own deaths. Never prepared to reconcile our own regrets.

— Carrie Ryan