Favorite Quotes from YA Literature: John Green

About once a week I find myself at a bookstore browsing the young adult literature shelves.  The other day I was there, doing my usual canoodling and overheard a twenty something couple quickly careening the book covers.  Their conversation went something like this:
"Oh my gosh.  Have you seen the teen book section?  All you see is vampires."
I started cracking up because  although there's a whole lot vampire books these days, that's far from the only thing there.  Here I was, my 36 year old self, scoping out my next read, and I haven't picked up a vampire book since Twilight three years ago or so.
In the past few years I've fallen in love with Young Adult Literature.  I love it like I love my students; The experiences are so fresh and significant.  Their voices are raw and unapologetically truthful.  I love quotes; I love how in a condensed sentence or two a powerful bullet of someone's truth penetrates to the heart.  It makes a direct hit to a part of your soul that says, "Yes."
About two years ago I was obsessed with the young adult author, John Green.  His powerful stories with unforgettable characters and dialogue stuck with me for weeks afterwards.  Here are some of my favorite John Green quotes.  Enjoy.

"Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back." 
-An Abundance of Katherines 


"When adults say, "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail." 
-Looking for Alaska 


"The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive." 
-Looking for Alaska 

"What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person." 
-Paper Towns 


"What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?" 
-An Abundance of Katherines 

"Francois Rabelais. He was a poet. And his last words were "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." That's why I'm going. So I don't have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps." 
-Looking for Alaska 




"When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out." 
-Paper Towns 


"If you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all." 
-Paper Towns


"That's always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people want to be around someone because they're pretty. It's like picking your breakfeast cereals based on color instead of taste." 
-Paper Towns


"I wanted to be one of those people who have streaks to maintain, who scorch the ground with their intensity. But for now, at least I knew such people, and they needed me, just like comets need tails." 
-Looking for Alaska


...and my favorite and what I feel is the most provocative:
"I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for want of heaven or fear of hell, but because He is God." 
-Looking for Alaska