Sarah Dessen Quotes About Books

Quotes about: Books

• Some things don't last forever, but some things do. Like a good song, or a good book, or a good memory you can take out and unfold in your darkest times, pressing down on the corners and peering in close, hoping you still recognize the person you see there.

  Sarah Dessen

  Song, Memories, Book

  Sarah Dessen (2004). “This Lullaby”, p.231, Penguin

• I am never happy when I finish a book. I always start feeling good, and then I get to about Page 75 and start losing momentum - and I kind of pull it together at the end, but by then I think it's just all over. It's become almost a running joke among my agent and my editor - I always say that, so they don't take me seriously anymore.

  Sarah Dessen

  Running, Book, Writing

• When I pictured myself, it was always like just an outline in a colouring book, with the inside not yet completed.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Like You, Plaid

  Sarah Dessen (2004). “Someone Like You”, p.20, Penguin

• When I pictured myself, it was always like just an outline in a coloring book, with the inside not yet completed. All the standard features were there. but the colors, the zigzags and plaids, the bits and pieces that made up me, Halley, weren't yet in place. Scarlett's vibrant reds and golds helped some, but I was still waiting.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Color, Waiting

  Sarah Dessen (2004). “Someone Like You”, p.20, Penguin

• It was a basic plot in any number of her books: girl strikes out, makes good, finds love, gets revenge. In that order. The making good and striking out part I liked. The rest would just be bonus.

  Sarah Dessen

  Girl, Revenge, Book

  Sarah Dessen (2004). “This Lullaby”, p.108, Penguin

• Once, she'd been a pro at decompressing, loved to sit on the back deck of the beach house in one of our splintery Adirondack chairs for hours at a time, staring at the ocean. She never had a book or the paper or anything else to distract her. Just the horizon, but it kept her attention, her gaze unwavering. Maybe it was the absence of thought that she loved about being out there, the world narrowing to just the pounding of the waves as the water moved in and out.

  Sarah Dessen

  Beach, Ocean, Book

  Sarah Dessen (2006). “The Truth About Forever”, p.132, Penguin

• I think part of the problem sometimes is that there's so much happening in my books, to whittle it down into a single script is hard.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Thinking, Scripts

  "Author Sarah Dessen on turning her books into movies and why she thanks Mandy Moore every day" by Jean Bentley, www.mtv.com. May 09, 2011.

• Usually when I finish the draft of a book, I'm sure I'll never write another one. I'm just that tired and sick of myself. But then another idea starts percolating. It usually begins with the narrator's name, then some idea that intrigues me about her life or situation. I try to ignore it as long as I can, because I know when I start writing, I'll be right back into it, every single day. But eventually, I just have to. It's a compulsion!

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Writing, Tired

  Source: fortheloveofya.com

• I have SO many books I didn't sell. Some my agent rejected outright, others made it all the way to my editor to be turned away. Not everything is a winner, which is tough when you've devoted eight or nine months of your life to something.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Editors, Eight

  Interview with Claire Zulkey, www.wbez.org. January 13, 2012.

• Maybe other writers have perfect first drafts, but I am not one of them. I always try to get the book as tight as I can, but you reach a point as the author where you have lost all
  perspective.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Perfect, Perspective

  Interview with Regina Hayes, www.slate.com. June 7, 2013.

• Every book teaches me something about my process, and they are all challenging in one way or another.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Challenges, Way

  "El Templo" Interview with Lucía Gayo, www.eltemplodelasmilpuertas.com. June 2013.

• My agent is so totally honest, which is just what every writer needs. She won't let me sell a crappy book, even if I want to.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Want, Needs

  Interview with Claire Zulkey, www.wbez.org. January 13, 2012.

• I think readers are just looking for things that maybe they recognize or can relate to in the books.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Thinking, Reader

  "El Templo" Interview with Lucía Gayo, www.eltemplodelasmilpuertas.com. June 2013.

• It's a great compliment that people think they're fast reads. It's always funny to me because it takes so long to get a book (written) -- for me, it's never quick.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Thinking, Long

• My dad is a retired Shakespeare professor, my mother a retired classicist. Suffice to say I grew up in a house full of books, where reading was encouraged if not required.

  Sarah Dessen

  Mother, Dad, Book

  "Author Interview: Sarah Dessen on Just Listen". Interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith, cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com. December 12, 2006.

• I really just love to read, period, whether it be books or magazines or the back of the cereal box. It's the one thing I can always count on to calm me down, take me away and inspire me,
  all at once.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Cereal, Inspire

• I think having a good agent is key. I've been with mine for ten years now, and she's very honest with me. There are a lot of times I've sent her books that were not so good because I was tired of writing, or panicked about money, and she's told me flat out, "You don't want this to be your next book. Trust me."

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Writing, Tired

  Source: cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com

• My books are so tame!

  Sarah Dessen

  Book

• I don't talk about my books while I'm writing them: not even my husband knows what a novel's about until it's done.

  Sarah Dessen

  Husband, Book, Writing

  "Author Interview: Sarah Dessen on Just Listen". Interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith, cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com. December 12, 2006.

• Once I’m done with a book, I’m done! I’m just not a sequel kind of girl. By the time I’ve finished a book I’ve read it so many times that it’s time to move on.

  Sarah Dessen

  Girl, Moving, Book

  "Saint Anything: book launch + Sarah Dessen interview + giveaway!". Interview with Wendy Darling, www.themidnightgarden.net. May 8, 2015.

• I think as a writer one of the benefits is that you can put things that you're interested in into your books. I always have put a lot of food and restaurants because I was a waitress and I love to eat.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Thinking, Benefits

• Each time, I think I'm never going to write another book. It never gets easier.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Writing, Thinking

• I think my biggest problem, though, at least in drafts, is not repeating myself. After eight books I get worried that a character or piece of dialog might be too much like something I've already done. So it's a challenge to keep it fresh.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, Character, Thinking

  Interview with Adele Walsh, www.persnicketysnark.com. April 18, 2010.

• I'm incredibly flattered when people tell me that my books helped them through high school. Because of my own experience, the thought that something I wrote might help someone who felt the way I did when I was a teen...that's huge. It awes me.

  Sarah Dessen

  Book, School, People

  Source: blogs.idahostatesman.com

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