Do you know what my father used to say?" I ask her. "He used to say that songs had a heart. A… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
I should not have loved my daughter as I did. Not in this world in which nothing lives for long. You children… — Lauren DeStefano Children Copy Share Image
I start trying to stay unconscious. The problem with this is that no amount of willpower can change the reality. — Lauren DeStefano Discipline Copy Share Image
Before I can process what’s happening, Deirdre has opened her hands and Linden has taken the ring from her and slipped it… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
“It's best not to wonder at what cost. Freedom is the only price to pay for anything in this place.” — Lauren DeStefano Freedom Copy Share Image
There is a silence so great that I can hear the ice crystals cracking and falling from eyelashes of girls who will… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
You can't be afraid. You can be sad if you like. You can be angry. But it's the fear that'll freeze you… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
“And it only seems fitting that, in this moment of illusion, the words just come out of me. "I love you, too.” — Lauren DeStefano Illusion Copy Share Image
“Only bottles and locks and drawn curtains," Pen says, trying to balance on the edge of the sidewalk to little avail. "This… — Lauren DeStefano Cold Copy Share Image
“Thick black smoke disappears into the darkness of night, blotting out patches of stars. Somewhere up there, higher than his world and… — Lauren DeStefano Darkness Copy Share Image
“Maybe it really was a spirit," Pen offers. “Spirits aren't real,“ he says. "The living invent them to console themselves. If you… — Lauren DeStefano Life Copy Share Image
I wonder if she has figured out that I'll never love Linden, especially not in the way she does, and that he'll… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
I want to make a world more magical than my own. I don't care if it makes sense, I don't care if… — Lauren DeStefano Care Copy Share Image
There is warmth shooting through my broken body where there should be pain, and I put my arms around the back of… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
“And about a thousand other things," he says, pausing sometimes between his words, making sure he has them right. I get the… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
“When Cecily comes to sit beside me, we rest our heads together and I tell her a final story about the twins.… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
Vaughn is talking about the heat, and his voice is so excited that it breaks into whispers at times. He loves his… — Lauren DeStefano Bird Copy Share Image
“But you," "Sixteen is perfect. You can spend the rest of your lives together. He won't have to be alone.” — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
Forget who you are and what you think is there, and you'll discover things that don't exist to be known. — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
“...our parents' death broke his sense of wonder. My left-brained brother, who once had dreams of saving the world, now laughs at… — Lauren DeStefano Death Copy Share Image
She's been conned, ruined, left for dead, and she's not going to forgive any of it. She will soldier on, if only… — Lauren DeStefano Forgiving Copy Share Image
“Suppose it was painful," she whispers. "All that broken skin." She has been so steely I can almost forget she's in mourning.” — Lauren DeStefano Grief Copy Share Image
I watch the ashes swim around like dandelion puffs, making swirls where bodies and walls once stood. — Lauren DeStefano Ashes Copy Share Image
“I keep staggering forward because I have to, but what Linden said last night is true: It’s not much of a plan.” — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
“Now isn't the time to be angry with my brother, but I suppose the anger I feel for him never goes away.… — Lauren DeStefano Anger Copy Share Image
Living in a place like this, she must have learned how to see all the monsters that can hide a person. — Lauren DeStefano Monsters Copy Share Image
Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving… — Lauren DeStefano Autumn Copy Share Image
On tiptoes the redhead wouldn't even reach my shoulders; she is clearly too young to be a bride. And the willowy girl… — Lauren DeStefano Brides Copy Share Image
“Without trying, I seem to write about these poor boys who are absolutely mad for girls who are otherwise engaged in perilous… — Lauren DeStefano Writing Copy Share Image
Good night, sweetheart," he says. "Good bye, sweetheart," I say. And it's so casual, so innocent that he doesn't suspect a thing. — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
“You--" she chokes on a sob and draws back. "You're scared? What a thing to say. You had me thinking you were… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
“Do you even know what it feels like to lose someone you loved?" he asks. "I lost everyone I loved," I tell… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
“I feel unburdened, and after a while I start to imagine that the divan is a boat moving over the ocean. Sunken… — Lauren DeStefano Music Copy Share Image
And everywhere girls, tumbling from trees like orange blossoms and hitting the earth with sickening thuds. They crack open. — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
Linden just wants to protect her, is what I want to say. She's all he has. I left him. I'm at arms… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
The seeds are tiny, unborn things, and I resent them. They'll be planted and they'll grow into exactly what they're meant to… — Lauren DeStefano Flower Copy Share Image
It's quiet for a while, and then Rowan says; "We could talk now. We're alone out here. No walls." "There are always… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
Every generation has a macabre notion that wars, government prohibition, natural disasters or mankind itself could be the downfall of society and… — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
She would do anything, anything to belong to his son after a lifetime of belonging to no one at all. — Lauren DeStefano Copy Share Image
“Bright spots move around him like someone shook the stars from a blanket and they all went flying.” — Lauren DeStefano Astronomy Copy Share Image
