I wished I'd walked into my mother's open arms the few times she'd tried to pull me close, and pressed my face to her chest, letting my sad heart find solace there. But I hadn't. I wanted to be a help to her, not a burden, so I held back. And after a while, she stopped offering. She thought I was beyond that, when in fact I needed it now more than ever.

—Sarah Dessen in The Truth About Forever

About Sarah Dessen

Portrait of Sarah Dessen

Sarah Dessen (born June 6, 1970) is an American novelist known for her contributions to young adult fiction. Her first book, That Summer, was published in 1996, and has since published more than a dozen other novels and novellas. In 2017, Dessen won the Margaret Edwards Award for some of...

More quotations from Sarah Dessen

I was tired of hanging on, taking the torn pieces to make something whole with them.

—Sarah Dessen in That Summer

Believe me, I'd go back to the way things were in a minute if I could. But it's just not an option.

—Sarah Dessen in Lock & Key

change control nostalgia

I don't think you understand how easy it is to make a mistake that will cost you forever.

—Sarah Dessen in Someone Like You

mistakes error loss disaster

I thought it must be fate that I kept bumping into him, some strange sign that he was meant to come back into my life and fix or change something, a voice from the past arriving in the present with the answers to everything.

—Sarah Dessen in That Summer

relationships past fate answers

And I knew I would remember this night, in the same misty way I'd remembered all the good things, as a time when things were as perfect as they could be.

—Sarah Dessen in That Summer

time memory perfection

History

28 Feb 2015 Added