Jacob: "Let her stare." Terra: "What?" Jacob: "Yeah most of the starers are just curious. Smile back. That's what I used to do.

— Justina Chen

My confidence was of the hothouse variety, carefully cultivated under highly regulated conditions. One wrong look, one mean comment, and my facade would wither.

— Justina Chen

Northeast." A pause and then: "Is that Terra for I'm loutish?

— Justina Chen

Progress is hard on history.

— Justina Chen

Safe, I decided, didn't leave much room for fun.

— Justina Chen

Silence, too, can be torture.

— Justina Chen

So, really," continued Jacob as if this were perfectly normal to expound on art in these circumstances, "when you think about it, the artists who make people stop and think, who push the form, who make you uncomfortable, who are laughable, well, they're the ones who get remembered." Idly, Jacob dug a hole in the snow with his shovel and then another one next to it. "So why wouldn't you want to join the ranks of the ridiculed?

— Justina Chen

The pressure of his touch through my jacket and my sweater was more assurance than any promise ever made to me. It was a touch that said, I have your back, and I am here for you. If a girl wasn't careful, she could fall in love with a touch like that.

— Justina Chen

There must be a few times in life when you stand at a precipice of a decision. When you know there will forever be a Before and an After... I knew there would be no turning back if I designated this moment as my own Prime Meridian from which everything else would be measured.

— Justina Chen

This is beautiful," I said, ignoring the shop window to trace the gleaming stone walls fronting another boutique." You know what's funny?" Jacob asked. He didn't wait for my answer. "You can see beauty in everything, except for yourself."***I swallowed hard. Erik thought my body was beautiful, Karin that it was enviable. At random times, people had noted that my hands were beautiful, or my hair. The Twisted Sisters had called my art beautiful. Mom had the best intentions and always told me before and after my laser surgeries that I would be beautiful. But no one had ever said that I was beautiful, all my parts taken together, not just the bits and pieces.

— Justina Chen