Sarah Dessen Quotes

I had a very easy time loving an audience. But when it's one-on-one with somebody, all I wanted to do was run away, because maybe they're going to want something from me I can't give, or they're going to hurt me.

People have become afraid of love because in love also, death penetrates. If two lovers are sitting side by side in deep love and intimacy, not even talking.... Talking is an escape, an escape from love. When two lovers are talking that simply shows they are avoiding the intimacy. Words in-between give distance - with no words distance disappears, death appears. In silence there is death just lurking around - a beautiful phenomenon. But people are so afraid that they go on talking whether it is needed or not. They go on talking about anything, everything - but they cannot keep silent.

I couldn't meet his gaze. I stared at the table just behind him--the mess of cards on it, the lantern giving off its quiet glow. "When you gave me your shirt to wear that night, I could feel you. I could feel your essence." The world went still. We were standing only inches from each other, not touching. Outside, I could hear the faint murmur of the wind blowing through the trees. "What did it feel like?" he asked in a low voice. "Like...coming home," I admitted.

Sometimes, in my adult life, I have memories of when I was young and really scared of being too close to people.

Please stop looking at me, she thought, afraid of his eyes and terrified of her own heart.

Love is a vulnerable thing. Falling in love is like a great drug. But then to really be known and really let someone else be known is very vulnerable. It's a weird thing.

There are those who never stretch out the hand for fear it will be bitten. But those who never stretch out the hand will never feel it clasped in friendship.

Perhaps he was afraid as I was that we'd be caught. Or perhaps he was breathing me in just as I was letting him come into my lungs, my eyes, my heart.

...available people are the ones who are dangerous, because they confront us with the possibility of real intimacy.

It's an industry of lonely people in a crowd, Bill Margold was saying. 'They're scared to get close to each other. You're far better off having someone to sleep next to then having someone to sleep with because you have to trust someone you sleep next to.

Is my mom all right?" "She's perfectly fine. don't worry, Bella, I have no quarrel with her. Unless you didn't come alone, of course." Light, amused. "I'm alone." I'd never been more alone in my entire life.

I'm a total wreck. Afraid to let anyone near. Afraid they'll see the real me.

Sometimes when we touch..The honesty's too much, and I have to close my eyes and hide. I want to hold you till I die, 'til we both break down and cry, I want to hold you till this fear in me subsides.

Even though I'm in love, sometimes I get so afraid.

I think connection makes me vulnerable. Commitment makes me vulnerable, really.

Leave me in the night but please don't leave me in the dark

I don't have any fear of intimacy, but rather thrive on it, which is rare in a public person.

You aren't going to leave me alone are you?

Fear is the great enemy of intimacy. Fear makes us run away from each other or cling to each other but does not create true intimacy.

Intimacy is not a happy medium. It is a way of being in which the tension between distance and closeness is dissolved and a new horizon appears. Intimacy is beyond fear.

I traffic in empathy. I try to be vulnerable with people so they can be vulnerable back. I've always been searching for empathy in other people. It's when I feel most not alone.

At the beginning and at the end of love, the two lovers are embarrassed to find themselves alone.

If fear is the great enemy of intimacy, love is its true friend.

It's a very intimate thing to invite someone into your home; there's a lot of trust involved.