Cut privet still smells of sour apples, as it did when I was sixteen; but this is a rare, lingering exception. At that age, everything seemed more open to analogy, to metaphor, than it does now. There were more meanings, more interpretations, a greater variety of available truths. There was more symbolism, Things contained more.

~ Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Adolescence Meaning Sixteen

Every time you look up at the stars, it’s like opening a door. You could be anyone, anywhere. You could be yourself at any moment in your life. You open that door and you realize you’re the same person under the same stars. Camping out in the backyard with your best friend, eleven years old. Sixteen, driving alone, stopping at the edge of the city, looking up at the same stars. Walking a wooded path, kissing in the moonlight, look up and you’re eleven again. Chasing cats in a tiny town, you’re eleven again, you’re sixteen again. You’re in a rowboat. You’re staring out the back of a car. Out here where the world begins and ends, it’s like nothing ever stops happening.

~ Bryan Lee O'malley

Bryan Lee O'malley Cats Comic Eleven Graphic Novel Lost At Sea Sixteen Staring At Stars Stars Teenager

I am seventeen. The good things about seventeen is that you’re not sixteen. Sixteen goes with the word sweet, and I am so far from sweet.

~ Francine Pascal

Francine Pascal Age Seventeen Sixteen Sweet Sweet Sixteen Teens

He makes a face and tosses the flower at me. It lands on my cheek, and I pick it up and twirl it between my fingers. I could lie out here all day, not moving an inch, feeling the sun above and the grass below. With a contented sigh, I stretch my arms wide, raking the grass with my fingers—and find myself brushing Aladdin’s hand with my own. I pull it away quickly, my cheeks warming. He laughs a little.“Sometimes,” he says, “I forget you’re supposed to be four thousand years old. You act as shy as a girl of sixteen.”“I do not!” I sit up and glare at him.He grins and shrugs, sliding his hands under his head. There are bits of grass stuck in his hair, and after a moment’s hesitation, I reach over and flick them away.Aladdin watches me silently, his throat bobbing as he swallows. I drop my gaze.

~ Jessica Khoury

Jessica Khoury Aladdin Girl Intimate Jinni Sixteen Touch Zhara

It’s normal to like guys who seem to like you; it’s normal to want to be loved.”Kami raised her eyebrows. “I’m sixteen,” she said. “I’m not looking for love.”“Oh,” said Liz. “Uh, what are you looking for?”“Cheap thrills, mostly,” said Kami.

~ Sarah Rees Brennan

Sarah Rees Brennan Love Sixteen Teen

I was eleven, then I was sixteen. Though no honors came my way, those were the lovely years.

~ Bernard M. Baruch

Bernard M. Baruch Eleven Honors Lovely Sixteen Teen Years

Remember sixteen – when all the world was new and a lifetime stretched before you like fresh snow just waiting for your footprints?

~ Peggy Toney Horton

Peggy Toney Horton Footprints Fresh Snow Lifetime New Remember Sixteen

Remember sixteen - when all the world was new and your life stretched out before you like fresh snow waiting for your footprints?

~ Peggy Toney Horton

Peggy Toney Horton Footprints Fresh Snow Life New Remember Sixteen

Remember sixteen - when all the world was new and your life stretched before you like fresh snow waiting for your footprints.

~ Peggy Toney Horton

Peggy Toney Horton Footprints Fresh Snow New Remember Sixteen World

From sixteen to twenty, all women, kept in humor by their hopes and by their attractions, appear to be good-natured.

~ Samuel Richardson

Samuel Richardson Women Hopes Sixteen

The best substitute for experience is being sixteen.

~ Raymond Duncan

Raymond Duncan Experience Being Sixteen