David Levithan Quotes

I wake up feverish, sore, uncomfortable.Is it sickness or is it heartbreak?I can't tell.The thermometer says I'm normal, but I'm clearly not.

~ David Levithan

We could call you an ambisexual. A duosexual. A—”“Do I really have to find a word for it?” Kyle interrupts. “Can’t it just be what it is?”“Of course,” I say, even though in the bigger world I’m not so sure. The world loves stupid labels. I wish we got to choose our own.We pause for a moment. I wonder if that’s all—if he just needed to say the truth and have it heard. But then Kyle looks at me with unsure eyes and says, “You see, I don’t know who I’m supposed to be.”“Nobody does,” I assure him.

~ David Levithan

I'll see you soon. I promise.”And there is, that moment, a shock of recognition. Elijah doesn't even know yet what he is recognizing. There is only the shock. The sense. That feeling of something happening that was meant to happen. Two people fitting in a space and time.For a moment.

~ David Levithan

It's up to you, not fate.

~ David Levithan

Maybe fate's arithmetic is so diffuse that it's not arithmetic at all.

~ David Levithan

the answer is to just let gothe betrayal is to the pastthe cocoon dangles emptythe desire outlasts the objectthe effort lingersthe frustration is in how pointless the effort wasthe ghost does not make itself transparentthe heart knows nothing except its own mindthe ideas are not enoughthe jealousy is always therethe killing blow is sometimes the softestthe life you lead can be detouredthe moment you know cannot be taken backthe new you will try to bury the old methe opportunity has passedthe past is inopportunethe questions all grow from whythe reality will always be contendedthe sadness will ebbthe trouble is the time it might takethe ugly words cannot be erased, only discreditedthe versions are never the samethe wonder is that we make it throughthe x is the unknown variablethe yesterday cannot be repeatedthe zenith is the point when you look down and realize you’re no longer below

~ David Levithan

The world was full of waistrels and waifs, sycophants and spies - all of whom put words to the wrong use, who made everything that was said or written suspect

~ David Levithan

There are so many words in our language, we get to know so few of them.

~ David Levithan

One last song. One last turn. One last street. no matter how hard you try to keep hold of a day, it's going to leave you

~ David Levithan

She is no longer a person in his life; instead, she is a person that other people will remind him of.

~ David Levithan

How did my world get so small?

~ David Levithan

It is always the ones who believe that are hurt the worst when things go wrong.

~ David Levithan

No more looking at a wall and pretending it's a mirror. No more shelving fiction in the non-fiction section. No more thinking I could get away with it.

~ David Levithan

Falling in love with someone doesn’t mean you know any better how they feel. It only means you know how you feel.

~ David Levithan

Feelings don’t follow rules. Guilt does. Fear does. But attraction? No way.

~ David Levithan

People say that time slips through our fingers like sand. What they don't acknowledge is that some of the sand sticks to the skin. These are the memories that will remain, memories of the time when there was still time left.

~ David Levithan

He was beautiful in the way that a breeze is beautiful—the kind of beauty you feel gratitude for.

~ David Levithan

But once upon a time - that would be our time - a telephone cord seemed like nothing less than a lifeline.It was your attachment to the outside world and, even more than that, your attachment to the people you loved, or wanted to love, or tried to love. Everything about it was fitting - the way it curled in on itself, the way it got so easily tangled, the way you could pull it only so far before it kept you in place.Twisted and knotted and essential.

~ David Levithan

I want you to be honest with me. Even if it hurts. Although I would prefer for it not to hurt. - A

~ David Levithan

Max is a marvel to us. He will never have to come out because he will never have been kept in. Even though he has a mom and a dad, they made sure from the beginning to tell him that it didn't have to be a mom and a dad. It could be a mom and a mom, a dad and a dad, just a mom, or just a dad. When Max's early affections became clear, he didn't think twice about them. He doesn't see it as defining him. It is just a part of his definition.

~ David Levithan

It had never occurred to me that a person could know all the right things to say and deploy them to get what she wanted, without having to mean any of it.

~ David Levithan

To love--to fall--is not a question. To touch--to kiss--to speak--those are questions. There is nothing worse than a ruined friendship. There is nothing better than a companion. Somewhere in between lies risk. Somewhere in between, lies.

~ David Levithan

you’d think that silence would be peaceful. but really, it’s painful.

~ David Levithan

We switch to another language-- not our invented language or the language we've learned from our lives. As we walk further up the mountain, we speak the language of silence. This language gives us time to think and move. We can be here and elsewhere at the same time.

~ David Levithan

The question is there in each silence. The question is there in the space between you. But you cannot bring it aloud.

~ David Levithan

What strange creatures we are, to find silence peaceful, when permanent silence is the thing we most dread

~ David Levithan

O Lord, as I walk through the valley of the shadow of doubt, at least let mewear a Walkman...

~ David Levithan

Dreaming and loving and screwing. None of these are identities. Maybe when other people look at us, but not to ourselves. We are so much more complicated than that.

~ David Levithan

How much of my body is really me? My face is me, for sure. Anyone who looked at my face would know it was me. (...) But after that? If I showed myself a picture of myself from the shoulders down, would I be sure it was me? (...) I close my eyes and ask myself what my feet look like. I only kind of know. (...)I let it define me, but I can't even define it.

~ David Levithan

When Dawn looked at Vic, she saw Vic exactly as he wanted to be seen. Whereas Vic's parents couldn't help seeing who he used to be, and so many friends and strangers couldn't help seeing who he didn't want to be anymore, Dawn only saw him. Call it a blur if you want, but Dawn didn't see a blur. She saw a very distinct, very clear person.

~ David Levithan

There was a time before youbut I can't remember it nowa time before your beauty and Iwere formally introducedI'm sure I lived without youbut I don't remember howcan't imagine living withoutthese feelings you've produced

~ David Levithan

It’s one thing to fall in love. It’s another to feel someone else fall in love with you, and to feel a responsibility toward that love.

~ David Levithan

I say good-bye to hope, but I also say goodbye to hope's disappointment.

~ David Levithan

There's no way to know if we would have lasted. There's no way to be sure, and plenty of reasons to doubt it. I just wish I'd had the chance. That is one of the things I miss the most— the chance to make it work.

~ David Levithan

You can't wander around and think the wandering will call them back.

~ David Levithan

I've always wanted the happy ending, but now I'll just settle for the ending.

~ David Levithan

Now I just want it to end. I’ve always wanted the happy ending, but now I’ll just settle for the ending.

~ David Levithan

That's what it felt like---that if I let a little of the hurt out, it would keep pouring out until I was a deflated balloon of a person, with a big monster of hurt in front of me.

~ David Levithan

It’s not easy,” she says, in that voice that mothers have, that mix of unwanted knowledge and small consolation. “Whatever you had—I don’t know exactly what it was, and that’s fine. But it must not be easy for you. You miss him, and that’s okay. But you have to figure that if it’s too hard to hang on, then maybe you should let go.

~ David Levithan

My eyes are open and I’m not seeing a thing because I am so lost inside.

~ David Levithan