Ellen Hopkins: I need to capture my sprite with trembling hands. Excep...

Love means holding on to someone just as hard as you can because if you don't, one blink and they might disappear...forever.

Ellen Hopkins

forever might mean

In control. Out of control. Sometimes they're the same thing. The trick is knowing that, realizing it's okay to feel out of control once in a while, as long as you're sure you can regain the upper hand when you absolutely need to.

Ellen Hopkins

knowing long hands

You have to realize there is nothing more you can do to convince someone you love to turn their life around. You simply have to say, "Look. I love you, but I cannot stand by and watch you kill yourself slowly. When you want help I'm here. Until then, goodbye." That may sound cruel, but self-preservation is paramount to helping someone else. If you're a wreck, you're useless to them, anyway. And if they refuse help, despite knowing the likely outcome, they will head down that path anyway.

Ellen Hopkins

self love-you goodbye

Now that I have opened that bottle of memories they're pouring out like wine, crimson and bittersweet.

Ellen Hopkins

bottles wine memories

HAPPY EVER AFTER is a concept I'll never believe in. I would be content to sample some little taste of happiness today, tonight, right now. Though I know without a doubt that tomorrow will come saturated with pain. Life is like that. At least my life. And honestly, I cant think of anyone whose life is any different. The price tag for joy is misery. [...]

Ellen Hopkins

pain believe thinking

You were a summer gift, one I'll always treasure. You were a dream I never wanted to wake up from. You opened my eyes to things I'll never really see. You're the best thing that will ever happen to me.

Ellen Hopkins

eye summer dream

Life is all about change. If it were static, think about how boring it would be. You can't be afraid of it, and you can't worry that you'll mess things up. You deserve good things, and I want to be one of them.

Ellen Hopkins

change hope life

Scientists say every action initiates an equal and opposite reaction. I say that's just the start. I say every action initiates a most unequal and upredictable chain reaction, that every filament of living becomes part of a larger weave, while remaining identifiable. That every line of latitude requires several stripes of longitude to obtain meaning. That every universe is part of a bigger heaven, a heaven of rhythm and geometry, where a heartbeat is the apex of a triangle.

Ellen Hopkins

stripes opposites heaven

Sometimes the little things in life mean the most.

Ellen Hopkins

things-in-life thankful mean

The problem with resolutions is they're only as solid as the person making them.

Ellen Hopkins

resolution problem persons

Eventually, it becomes a matter of scale. When the good outweighs the bad, you stay. When the bad is the only thing you notice anymore, you think about your future, or what's left of it, consider options.

Ellen Hopkins

matter life thinking

It's probably weird to think about an addiction like it's a sentient being, but that's how it feels. Like it's something living inside you. Something you can't get rid of because killing it means killing you.

Ellen Hopkins

addiction mean thinking

The first time I kissed you. One kiss, and I was totally hooked. Addicted to you. I could never love anyone the way I love you. I'd follow you across the universe.

Ellen Hopkins

across-the-universe kissing love-you

The wind kicks in stronger, branches clatter. Or maybe skeletons. Bones of abandonment. Ghosts that will never be.

Ellen Hopkins

skeletons stronger wind

Her smile is like summer moonlight-beautiful and magical, with a fire that could melt the night.

Ellen Hopkins

summer beautiful night

Forgiveness is easy. Trust is much more difficult, and should never be given lightly.

Ellen Hopkins

given should easy

HOW do you define a word without concrete meaning? To each his own, the saying goes, so WHY push to attain an ideal state of being that no two random people will agree is WHERE you want to be? Faultless. Finished. Incomparable. People can never be these, and anyway, WHEN did creating a flawless facade become a more vital goal than learning to love the person WHO lives inside your skin? The outside belongs to others. Only you should decide for you - WHAT is perfect.

Ellen Hopkins

creating two people

Even good girls have secrets, ones even their best friends must guess.

Ellen Hopkins

good-girl girl secret

Some people never find the right kind of love. You know, the kind that steals your breath away, like diving into snowmelt. The kind that jolts your heart, sets it beating apace, an anxious hiccuping of hummingbird wings

Ellen Hopkins

love-you heart wings

Taking no chances means wasting your dreams.

Ellen Hopkins

chance dream mean

I need to capture my sprite with trembling hands. Except I could crush her. Wonder how many small things of beauty - flowers, seashells, dragonflies - have met such a demise. Wonder how much fragile love has collapsed beneath the weight of confession.