Books
No one knows more about all of the emotions that summer can bring forth than YA author Sarah Dessen, queen of the summer romance novel. The author has been penning rom-dramas for over 20 years, since the release of her first book, That Summer, in 1996. Since then she has written 14 full-length novels that often explore coming-of-age, first love, family issues, grief, and hope through the eyes of a teenaged protagonist, often during a summer that changes everything. Dessen's work has become a mainstay of YA, and with the recent announcement that Netflix will adapt three of Dessen's novels, her influence will only continue to grow.
In an interview with Bustle Books editor, Cristina Arreola, Dessen spoke about why she loves to write books set during the summer: "I think it's from my own high school years. There was so much potential in a summer back then, and in those three months it seemed like anyone and anything could change." And if you, like Dessen, are looking forward to a season full of magic, I've got 25 ideal quotes from her books for you to use on all your 'Grams over the next few months.
Whether you're at a music festival, hanging out with friends, going on a road trip, getting lost in a summer romance, or just find yourself contemplating life and love on a balmy summer evening, there's a ready-made caption for your social media pics below:
“There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you'd better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you'll never understand what it's saying.”
― Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
“What you have to decide... is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, would this be how you'd want to have spent it? Listen, the truth is, nothing is guaranteed. You know that more than anybody. So don't be afraid. Be alive.”
― Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
“Music is a total constant. That's why we have such a strong visceral connection to it, you know? Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in your or the world, that one song says the same, just like that moment.”
― Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
“There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.”
― Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
“The thing is I'm a great believer in the perfect moment. They don't come around that often.”
― Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
“This was just one night, one chance to vary and see where it took me. The fireflies were probably already out: maybe it wasn’t just a season or a time but a whole world I’d forgotten. I’d never know until I stepped out into it. So I did.”
― Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
“Morning would come before we knew it. It always did. But we still had the night, and for now, we were together, so I just closed my eyes and drank it all in.”
― Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
“Isn't that the way everything begins? A night, a love, a once and for all.”
― Sarah Dessen, Once and for All
“Sometimes, you get things right the first time. Others, the second. But the third time, they say, is the charm.”
― Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
“So many things we ask for, hope for, prayers put out into a world so wide: there was no way they could all be answered. But you had to keep asking. If you didn't, nothing even had a chance of coming true.”
― Sarah Dessen, Once and for All
“May you always have the answers to each other's most important questions.”
― Sarah Dessen, Once and for All
“This true difference in me now: I had these experiences, these tales, more of this life. So maybe it wasn't the fairy tale. But those stories weren't real anyway. Mine were.”
― Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
“Sometimes, you have to manufacture your own history. Give fate a push, so to speak.”
― Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
“Embrace the messy and when things do come together just right, you'll always be pleasantly surprised.”
― Sarah Dessen, Once and for All
“It’s still a memory worth having, even if it’s not exactly what you imagined”
― Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
“Some things don't last forever, but some things do. Like a good song, or a good book, or a good memory you can take out and unfold in your darkest times, pressing down on the corners and peering in close, hoping you still recognize the person you see there.”
― Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby
“To me, summer has always been about potential...As a teenager, I was always hoping to change, to become someone other than who I was. Each summer, I felt I had the chance to do that. All I had to do was wait and see what happened.”
― Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
“But it was too early to know: there were always more pages to go, more words to be written, before the story was over.”
― Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby
“And in that moment, if only for that moment, we were right where we were supposed to be.”
― Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
“Just me and the future, finally together. Now there was a happy ending I could believe in.”
― Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby
“As impossible, in fact, as keeping the moon...So I looked down the line at all my friends, knowing I would always remember this. And then I turned my gaze back up to the sky, and put my faith in that moon and its return.”
― Sarah Dessen, Keeping the Moon
“You know the minute you stop thinking about it, it'll happen.”
― Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key
“It was the very nature of summer. So many long, lazy days when blissfully, nothing changes, and then everything does, all at once.”
― Sarah Dessen, The Moon and More
"Maybe, when a life and summer was going so fast, you couldn't wait for fate to punch the time card. You had to do it yourself.”
― Sarah Dessen, The Moon and More
“It’s funny how one summer can change everything. It must be something about the heat and the smell of chlorine, fresh-cut grass and honeysuckle, asphalt sizzling after late-day thunderstorms, the steam rising while everything drips around it. Something about long, lazy days and whirring air conditioners and bright plastic flip-flops from the drugstore thwacking down the street. Something about fall being so close, another year, another Christmas, another beginning. So much in one summer, stirring up like the storms that crest at the end of each day, blowing out all the heat and dirt to leave everything gasping and cool. Everyone can reach back to one summer and lay a finger to it, finding the exact point when everything changed. That summer was mine.”
― Sarah Dessen, That Summer
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