Ellen Hopkins Quotes

I'm afraid it will never be perfect again. I am indelibly stained. Forever redefined, but blurred around the edges.

Words have power. The power to soothe. The power to skewer someone through the heart. The power to render someone speechless.

Something stirred beneath my skin, some being inside I'd only suspected existed, demon or angel, I couldn't say.

Forever has no meaning when you're living in the moment. I wasn't ready for that moment to end.

Fireworks. Snowflakes. Sunstroke and frostbite. It was all that I could ask for and completely unexpected. I expected demands. He gifted me with tenderness. I expected ego. He let me experiment. I expected disrespect. He called me beautiful. I expected him to expect perfection. He taught me all I needed to know.

In control. Out of control. Sometimes they're the same thing. The trick is knowing 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.

I'll Stay...leave...me....I'll...follow...you.

Love is more than blind. It's brain-dead.

The Screamingflashed me back to a timewhen mom and dad were still togetherif you could call miles apart together.

Hurt. Enough to want to make someone else hurt too.

I thought he'd run if he knew. Instead, he offered help, not that I believed he could possibly help. I thought he'd turn his back, close his heart, slink away. Instead, he promised sanctuary.

Am I more afraidOf taking a chance andlearning I'm somebodyI don't know, or of risking new territory,only to find I'm the sameold me? There is comfortin the tried and true.Breaking groundmight uncover a sinkhole,one impossible to climb outof. And setting sail inuncharted watersmight mean capsizing intoa sea monster's jaws.Easier to turn my back onthese thingsthan to try tjem and fail.And yet, a whisper insistsI need to know if they are oraren't integral to me.Status quo is a swamp.And stagnation is slow death.

Our past may shape us, but it doesn't define who we become.

Life was radical right after I met the monster.Later, life became harder, complicated.Ultimately, a living hell, like swimming against a riptide,Walking the wrong direction in the fast lane of the freeway, Waking from sweetest dreams to find yourself in the middle of a nightmare.

Taking no chances means wasting your dreams..

Empty is the perfect state of being. Nothing inside to anchor you. Nothing inside to chain you down, keep you from living your dreams. Empty, almost weightless, you are an eyelash afloat on a blink of breeze. You can rise about tension and worry, loosed from the grip of gravity. Adrift in thermal lift, you ride the wing of freedom and soar. Empty, you are Eve in Eden. Empty, you are what you were meant to be.

Perfection is a ridiculous goal because there is no such thing. Real beauty is what you are inside.

Yes, it takes two to dance. But somebody has to lead.

For a long while. Finally she says, I don't believe in love. Not sure it really exists, but even if it does for some people, it won't for me. She is serious. Then she lightens up. But, hey, if you think you love me, cool.

We kissed for aboutthe thousandth time,No promises,no demands,Just solid rebuildingof shattered trust.

Sometimes,you don't wake up.But if you happento, you know thingswill never bethe same.

Living means taking chances. Risks. Playing safe all the time is being dead inside, even if you happen to still be breathing.

I felt angry, frustrated.I felt I didn't belong, not in my,church, not in my home, not in my skin.

In fact, since the accident, Mom doesn't love anyone. She is marble. Beautiful. Frigid. Easily stained by her family. What's left of us anyway. We are corpses.At first, we sought rebirth. But resurrection devoid of her love has made us zombies. We get up every morning, skip breakfast, hurry off to work or school. For in those other places, we are more at home.And sometimes we stagger beneath the weight of grief, the immensity of aloneness.

Girls get screwed.Not that kind of screwed, what I mean is, they're always on the short end of things.The way things work, how guys feel great, but make girls feelcheap for doingexactly what they beg for.The way they get to play you, all the while claiming they love you and making you believe it's true.The way it's okay to gift their heart one day, a backhand the next, to move on to the apricotwhen the peach blushes and bruises.These things make me believe God's a man after all.

We used to do coke, till "Just Say No" put the stuff out of reach. Now it's crank. Meth. The monster. It's a bitch on the body, but damn do you fly.

It is hard to believe that something that seems so permanent was once so different. Change. I guess that really is one thing you can count on...

...I know there's no such thing as forever. So what can we be, in the now?

I've been alone since my mom met Scott.He sucked the nectar from her heartlike a famished butterfly. No nurture,no nourishment left for Kristina.A vacation is a poor substitutefor love.

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.

Have you ever had so many thoughts churning inside that you didn't dare let them escape, in case they blew you wide open?

Afraid to die loveless. Because I think if you die without knowing love in this life, that's how you'll spend eternity. Alone. Frozen. Do you think hell is fiery? I don't. I think hell is frozen.

Girls get Screwed. Not that kind of screwed, what I mean is, they're always on the short end of things. The way things work, how guys feel great, but make girls feel cheap for doing exactly what they beg for

There's a lesson here, and that is I have to find happiness inside myself before I try to partner again.

Parenting should be a passion, not a part-time pursuit.

And the scary thing is, I’m on a fast track to that same aviary. Unless I find my wings.

Spilling a Secret What its size, will have varying consequences. It’s not possible to predict what will happen if you open the gunnysack, let the cat escape. A liberated feline might purr on your lap, or it might scratch your eyes out. You can’t tell until you loosen the knot. Do you chance losing a friendship, if that friend’s well-being will only be preserved by betraying sworn-to silence trust? Once the seam is ripped, can it be mended again? And if that proves impossible, will you be okay when it all falls to pieces?

Anger is a valid emotion. It's only bad when it takes control and makes you do things you don't want to do.

I'd sleep outside naked in the blizzard,for you.

I wanted to meet the monster. Why go down if you can go up?

A chatWith the Grim Reapershould be enough to scareaway any thought of relapse.Wish it were that easy,but not even days conversingwith death can disintegratethe claws of addiction.

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

God is love," she said. "And he respects love, whether it's between a parents, and child, a man and woman, or friends. I don't think he cares about religion one little bit. Live your life right. Love with all your heart. Don't hurt others, and help those in need. That is all you need to know. And don't worry about heaven. If it exists, you'll be welcome.

Innocence eroded into nightmare.All because of very bad touch.Love, corrupted.

I felt so fine I didn't once overanalyze the perfect emotion, budding inside. The one I'd always feared most.

I keep hearing that love isn't a logical emotion. Should I worry about that?

Anger is easier than forgiveness.

Me? Beautiful? I'm plain as cardboard. That may be how you see yourself, but the rest of the world would be hard to agree. You shine brighter than the Milky Way.Now there are those who might try to take that from you, but you don't have to give it away. Keep on shining Pattyn.And when the right young man comes along, he'll love you all the more for giftin' this sad planet with your light.

A word to the unwise.Torch every book.Char every page.Burn every word to ash.Ideas are incombustible.And therein lies your real fear.

The problems with lies is they start to pile up, one on top of another, until it's hard to find your way out from under the heap.

The things they say!A truck driver would blush.I would never talk that wayto Trevor he walks on water.I want him to think I do too.For a while, he did, or at leasthe pretended to.I did things with TrevorI wouldn't dare to confessto anyone—things I didn'tknow anyone did.But he wanted me to,so I did. That's what you dowhen you love someone,right?

So you try to think of someone else you're mad at, and the unavoidable answer pops into your little warped brain: everyone.

Home...Home....the word,...has...no...meaning

Our kiss eclipses all others, real, imagine, dreamed of. It is the beginning of time, it is the end of the ages.

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.

Some peopleAre worthy of a bullet straightto the heart because that is wherecruelty evolves into evil.Somehumans aren't human at all,despite how they appear.Humanity is what lives insidepeople,harbored beneath skin, flesh,and bone.

It's not easy to get close to anyone.... Everyone's afraid of everybody else.... maybe because we're all afraid of ourselves.

Funny thing about the monster.The worse he treats you, the more you love him.

Real love finds you once, if you're lucky.

I wonder how long it would take him to realize I'm right as sin - it's the rest of the world that's wrong. I'm not even sure how I qualify for admission to Aspen Springs. Does wanting to die equal losing your mind?