Sarah Dessen Quotes

My life so far has been a long series of things I wasn't ready for.

The truth is, I was afraid the day I walked into Stanford. And I was afraid the day I walked out.

I sat out a few years because I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do next. So many things were changing in music and in culture, so it seemed like a good time to step back.

After you've graduated, you're supposed to be an adult and go out into the world, and you're still not formed. It's an interesting... horrible, horrible time.

Leaving 'NCIS' was not planned, so there is no plan. If I were panicking now, it would defeat the purpose.

I can adapt to change easily, but I'm not a fan of it.

If you're human, you've had phases in your life when things are in flux.

My becoming an actor was a massive shift for me, and a terrifying one.

I still just sort of live my life the way that I was before. I don't know when I will feel that it's different.

At times when you transform yourself and when you've opened too much, you tend to doubt how you're going to face it, how you're going to react to a situation, so it's important that you believe yourself.

My world was changing, and I was not ready for it.

Whether we're prepared or not, life has a habit of thrusting situations upon us.

I stared at the creased map on my wall, the thin green line connecting all the places I had read about. There they were, all the cities of my imaginary future, held together with tape and marker and pins. In six months, a lot had changed. There was no thin green line that could lead me to my future anymore. Just a girl.

When there's trouble I don't like running, but I'm afraid I got more in common with who I was, than who I am becoming

I worry hope will crush me, the way love has so many times before. Are they so different, hope and love? O & E in the same place, half of the other in each word. Both swimming in unknowns. I’ve been through the big changes. These ones should seem easier in comparison, I should be more prepared, but they don’t and I’m not. Sometimes I feel like a broken-wing butterfly, clinging to a window screen. Afraid to let go. Afraid to stay. Wondering how much wing is enough to fly.

I feel that when we leave here I think it's just another transition and whatever it is I hope I'm prepared for it.

This middle age thing is a little weird. Some friends and mentors are gone, and there's a very forward-looking new generation coming up behind me. So it's very much finding my own place.

It is always the first and last steps that are the hardest to take. We walk away and try not to turn back, or we stand just outside the gates, terrified to find what's waiting for us now that we've returned. In between, we stumble blindly from one place and life to the next. We try to do the best we can. There are moments like this, however, when we are neither coming nor going, and all we have to do is sit and look back on the life we have made.

You only know who you think you are. You sort of feel like you could change at any minute.

Vulnerability is not weakness, and the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure we face every day are not optional. Our only choice is a question of engagement. Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose; the level to which we protect ourselves from being vulnerable is a measure of our fear and disconnection.

There are two types of change: the change we choose and the change that chooses us.

There's a time for everyone, If they only learn, that the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn.

My daddy tried to get me up to speak for the 17 years that I worked behind the scenes, but I never had the desire. Naturally, I was nervous and kind of shy. I just didn't want to do it.

Life changes a lot. I guarantee you.

You can't keep wanting to be 20 years old. Everybody knows that, but what's in the next room?