Sarah Dessen Quotes

I'm not limited.

I'm spreading my wings at last.

I realized I was an attractive older woman who never wanted to settle down.

More having to do whatever anybody said you had to do. I couldn't really do anything on my own. But as I got older and then came to America and then Grace became my name, it somehow freed me. All of a sudden, I can be this other person.

My earliest memory of freedom was when I was about 14 and I stopped caring what people thought about me! I was so free and in charge! That whole year I was exploring myself, and I was so 'free' that I got sent away to boarding school.

The staging for 'Monsters' is all about me getting free. In the beginning I'm like tied, in a dark place... until I am scared no more, and I'm taking the lead of my life, I'm being the queen of my life, I'm ruling the world! In the end I'm taking a risk, but I'm taking the leap of faith.

I think that New York liberated me in the sense that I moved here when I was 18, so it was a fresh perspective on life. I had been living in L.A. my whole life and I had never lived anywhere else, so being away from family and really making a name for myself was huge for me.

I went to a women's college. ... it was a little like learning to swim while holding on to the side of the pool; I didn't learn the arm movements until after I graduated, but by that time I was one hell of a kicker.

I savour the idea of my new state: single and a millionaire.

You know in that moment of Disney when Ariel gets legs for the first time? I felt like that. I was like, 'I've got legs.'

I stopped feeling like I didn't belong anywhere, and realized that I actually belonged anywhere I wanted to be.

At a certain point, you must be able to slip loose. At a certain point, you found that you had been set free. You could be anyone, he thought. You could be anyone.

It was Friday, July 24, 1992, when I stepped on the train. Every year I think of it. I see it as my real birthday: the birth of me as a person, making decisions about my life on my own. I was not running away from Islam, or to democracy. I didn't have any big ideas then. I was just a young girl and wanted some way to be me; so I bolted into the unknown.

Who knows what women can be when they are finally free to become themselves?

I'm history! No, I'm mythology! Nah, I don't care what I am, I'm free!

If we stop defining each other by what we are not and start defining ourselves by who we are we can all be freer. And this is what HeforShe is about. It’s about freedom.

We can't walk where we want to walk or be who we want to be or dress the way we want to dress or go anywhere any time of day. I am talking about the freedom that comes with just knowing that you're okay, and that you have value and you have identity, and you don't have to keep proving yourself.

Analysis gave me great freedom of emotions and fantastic confidence. I felt I had served my time as a puppet.

I used to think I needed a man to define myself. Not any more.

I could finally quit my job as a bartender and stop dreaming that I might be Superman and know that I was. Then I started thinking about how cool it was.

What if you could be anything, or anybody, you chose to be? Think about it. What would you choose to be?

I've realised that I am who I am and that is it. Like it or lump it. I'm not around to please anyone any more, and it's a huge relief.

I no longer need to be someone's wife. I'm doing okay as I am.

When I got to 40, I was happy. Now I can wear what I like, listen to what I like, don't have to try and be cool. I'm someone's dad and it doesn't matter any more. That's an enormous freedom.

People have to learn who they are - you can't have somebody else telling you who you are.