Quote

Writing a novel is like childbirth: once you realize how awful it really is, you never want to do it again.

Sarah Dessen

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Sarah Dessen
Age: 54
Born: 1970
Born: June 6
Novelist
Writer
Evanston
Illinois
Awful
Realize
Novel
Realizing
Writing
Really
Never
Like
Childbirth

More quotes by Sarah Dessen

Image
I wasn't ready for this, but then I probably never would be, and this year, like so much else, wouldn't wait. I had no choice but to get out of my car, with everyone watching and begin in earnest, alone. So I did
Sarah Dessen
Image
Obviously it won't all run smoothly. But it's important to awknowledge that while we may make mistakes, in the long run, we may also learn fromt them.
Sarah Dessen
Image
Even if you couldn't see it beneath the surface, molecules were bonding, energy pushing up slowly, as something worked do hare, all alone to grow.
Sarah Dessen
Image
How do you even begin to return to someone, much less convince them to do the same for you? I had no idea. More than ever, though, right then I had to believe the answer would just come to me.
Sarah Dessen
Image
Holding people away from you, and denying yourself love, that doesn't make you strong. if anything, it makes you weaker. Because you're doing it out of fear.
Sarah Dessen
Image
It's the same thing,' I told her. 'What is?' 'Being afraid and being alive.' 'No,' she said slowly, and now it was as if she was speaking a language she knew at first I wouldn't understand, the very words, not to mention the concept, being foreign to me. 'Macy, no. It's not.
Sarah Dessen
Image
In a way, I was almost happy to see her. The worst part of me, out in the flesh. Blinking back at me in the dim light, daring me to call her a name other than my own.
Sarah Dessen
Image
So while it seemed like you were seeing everything, you really weren't. Just bits and pieces that looked like a whole.
Sarah Dessen
Image
I think I'm too lazy a writer to do something like historical fiction. You have to do so much research. I just write what I know.
Sarah Dessen
Image
Whether it was a song, a person, or a story, there was a lot you couldn’t know from just an excerpt, a glance, or part of a chorus.
Sarah Dessen
Image
Some things you don't have to tell. Some things, between sisters, are understood.
Sarah Dessen
Image
But I think, personally, that it would be worse to have been alone all that time. Sure, maybe I would have protected my heart from some things, but would that really have been better? To hold myself apart because I was too scared that something might no be forever?
Sarah Dessen
Image
Mayonnaise is a lot like men, it can make everything much better, adding flavor and ease to your life. Or, it can just be sticky and gross and make you nauseous- Keeping the Moon
Sarah Dessen
Image
Best Friends. And I thought of what she had done all the millions of times I cried to her, collapsing at even the slightest wounding of my heart or pride. So I reached over and pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her, and held my best friend close, returning so many favors all at once.
Sarah Dessen
Image
She was just a shell of her former self, functioning and talking but hardly alive.
Sarah Dessen
Image
And for one second, it was like I could feel the timing clicking together, finally pieces falling into place.
Sarah Dessen
Image
All I'd wanted for so long was for someone to explain everything that had happened to me in this same way. To label it neatly on a page: this leads to this leads to this.
Sarah Dessen
Image
But all I could think of was how when nothing made sense and hadn't for ages, you just have to grab onto anything you feel sure of.
Sarah Dessen
Image
I'd been convinced I was on the outside, but really, I'd always been within arm's reach. All I had to do was ask, and I, too, would be easily brought back, surrounded and immersed, finding myself safe, somewhere in between.
Sarah Dessen
Image
If things don't work out the way you want, hold your head up high and be proud. And try again. And again. And again!
Sarah Dessen