Quotes from “Lock and Key”, by Sarah Dessen

Which was not as impressive as her other works.

• It’s never something huge that changes everything, but instead the tiniest of details, irrevocably tweaking the balance of the universe while you’re busy focusing on the big picture.
• Funny how a beautiful song could tell such an ugly story.
• That was the thing about being alone, in theory or in principle. Whatever happened — good, bad, or anywhere in between — it was always, if nothing else, all your own.
• There’s something just obvious about emptiness, even when you try to convince yourself otherwise.
• Such simple, stupid things, and yet in the end, they were the true proof of a real life.
• Was it really this easy, once you escaped, to just not care?
• (Jamie) [N]ot everything’s perfect, especially at the beginning. And it’s all right to have a little bit of regret every once in a while. It’s when you feel it all the time and can’t do anything about it… that’s when you get into trouble.
• What I’d noticed, though, was that more and more lately, when I tried to picture where I did belong, I couldn’t. At first, it had been easy to place myself in my former life, sitting at a desk at Jackson, or in my old bedroom. But now it was like I was already losing my old life at the yellow house, without this one feeling real, either. I was just stuck somewhere in the middle, vague and undefined.
• [A]ccepting help doesn’t have to mean giving up control.
• Everyone has their weak spot. The one thing that, despite your best efforts, will always bring you to your knees, regardless of how strong you are otherwise. For some people, it’s love. Others, money or alcohol. Mine was even worse: calculus.
• There were so many levels to the unknown, from safe to dangerous to outright nebulous, scariest of all.
• But I was sure of something, too: it’s a lot easier to be lost than found. It’s the reason we’re always searching, and rarely discovered — so many locks, not enough keys.
• Whenever something great happens, you’re always kind of poised for the universe to correct itself.
• The further you go, the more you have to be proud of. At the same time, in order to come a long way, you have to be behind to begin with. In the end, though, maybe it’s not how you reach a place that matters. Just that you get there at all.

Refs:

• nice word: discombobulated
• Annabel from Just Listen (radio show, bouncy beat)
• Kristy from The Truth about Forever (scars, with Wes’s brother looking for a gift)
• Owen from Just Listen (Anger Management, music freak)
• more that I didn’t know/notice on Wikipedia