Top 150 Ann Liang Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “It’s cruel, really, how the world tends to present its most beautiful parts to you when you’re so profoundly sad.”

— Ann Liang

52. “It’s a rare talent, the kind you can’t acquire through sheer determination and hard work” -Alice.”

— Ann Liang

53. “You’re still a kid, you know.”

— Ann Liang

54. “It’s my life, I think with amazement, and it’s beautiful, and I can paint it any color I want to.”

— Ann Liang

55. “I’ve always wanted that: to be looked up at, to be known by people I’ve never even spoken to before, to be special, distinct, standing up on the tallest, brightest platform. But only now do I realize that when you’re out in the open, alone under the lights, and everyone else is in the darkness, you make for such a terribly easy target.”

— Ann Liang

56. “Most sincere things feel at least a little embarrassing. It’s part of our defense mechanisms. Our heart’s way of protecting us from potential hurt.”

— Ann Liang

57. “You’re so weird sometimes,” he says, and it somehow sounds more affectionate than I love you.”

— Ann Liang

58. “I can’t always say pretty things, and sometimes I tease you when really I just want you to look my way, and –.”

— Ann Liang

59. “Caz cups my face with one steady, slender hand and traces a gentle line down my cheek, and my mind – my mind teeters toward oblivion. My breathing betrays me. His ink-black eyes lock on mine, and I am staring up at him, half in shock and maybe awe. He’s unreasonably beautiful and he’s so close it makes me ache and I want him closer still. I want him even though I shouldn’t. I want him to want me too.”

— Ann Liang

60. “Step Three: Observe Him More Closely. The apparent logic behind this is that crushes are like mirages; they don’t hold well under intense scrutiny.”

— Ann Liang

61. “Fix this. It’s what I’ve always done, or tried to do. Fix the gap in my family, the holes in my life, patch everything up, smooth everything over.”

— Ann Liang

62. “Everything is temporary, Yan Yan. And all the more reason to seize whatever’s in front of you while it’s still there.”

— Ann Liang

63. “You remind me of the greatest sculptors, who can turn marble into the impression of billowing silk, the coldest stone into something soft. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that everything you touch turns beautiful. The world becomes beautiful, as long as there’s you.”

— Ann Liang

64. “Because beneath my apprehension is the stronger, deeply ingrained need to be liked. To be accepted. To be forgiven. To be recognized as good. I’ll do anything to redeem myself.”

— Ann Liang

65. “There’s something almost therapeutic about the simple, repetitive motions, working alone in the peace of my room at night, smoothing out the thin squares of paper again and again under my palms, my Spotify playlist on loop in the background, the playlist Zoe and I made together before I left, with all our favorite artists: Taylor Swift and Jay Chou and BTS.”

— Ann Liang

66. “I finish underlining the date with my ruler so it’s perfectly straight. This is like my version of drugs.”

— Ann Liang

67. “The only thing I ask is that we don’t ever become strangers, because I really – ” He breaks off. Clenches his jaw, fighting against some ineffable emotion. “I don’t think I could bear it, Leah. I don’t think my heart would be able to survive it.”

— Ann Liang

68. “Because to me, wanting has always been indistinguishable from pain.”

— Ann Liang

69. “Rejection is the most humiliating form of defeat. It’s a losing battle before it even begun.”

— Ann Liang

70. “He only seems to relax when I scoot forward, bring my hand lower down to his arm, and tell him what I’ve wanted someone to say to me for as long as I can remember. What I’m still waiting for someone to say. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

— Ann Liang

71. “He’d flirt with a teaspoon if the situation called for.”

— Ann Liang

72. “He would drop anything just to keep her smiling like that.”

— Ann Liang

73. “And how many people under Heaven were really fortunate enough to know happiness? Happiness was a side dish, like the sweet, sticky rice cakes Mother made during the festivals, or the glutinous balls stuffed with rich sesame paste. But revenge – that was the salt of life. Necessary.”

— Ann Liang

74. “And then – good god – he outruns me. Or, well, outwalks, which is without a doubt much worse.”

— Ann Liang

75. “I really can’t stand it when people are angry at me. Like, I know it might be simple for others, but I can’t focus on anything else. I can’t just forget about it and go on with my own life. It’s like there’s something hard wedged inside my own chest. I’ll always feel guilty. I’ll always want to make amends.”

— Ann Liang

76. “I note quietly that this is the twenty- fifth time he’s brought up the word Harvard in the past ten minutes. If Harvard were a ghost, he would have successfully summoned it back to life by now.”

— Ann Liang

77. “If I’m not first, I’m nothing.”

— Ann Liang

78. “You’re sensitive, and maybe that means you feel pain and fear and humiliation more sharply, but you also feel joy more beautifully and completely than anyone I know.”

— Ann Liang

79. “Later, though, I would wish I had stayed longer. Woken them up, held them close. Given them the chance to say a proper goodbye. But such things only occur to you in hindsight, framed by the before and after of everything you’ve endured; when it is still happening, all you care about is what lies ahead.”

— Ann Liang

80. “I want you to hold me like a grudge, keep me like a promise, haunt me like a ghost.”

— Ann Liang

81. “My pride. God, my sanity. It would all be over. You would annihilate me.”

— Ann Liang

82. “I’ve had to recount my entire life story to strangers enough times to know that sometimes it’s easier to just let them assume what they want.”

— Ann Liang

83. “Because even though I’ve found Caz Song attractive on a physical level for a while now, my biggest turn-on has always been competence. And as it appears, Caz is unbelievably competent at his job.”

— Ann Liang

84. “His real smiles are so rare that each one feels like a miracle, like you’ve won something.”

— Ann Liang

85. “But then he calls my name once, soft, and I lift my head in surprise. He looks so obviously, genuinely moved, all his gratitude just lying wide open in his gaze, that I can’t stand it. This intimacy. The way it makes my chest heat.”

— Ann Liang

86. “The world becomes beautiful, as long as there’s you.”

— Ann Liang

87. “I really enjoy the implication that the horse poses an obstacle to sink ownership, and that the mother can only have ten sinks, eleven would just be too many.”

— Ann Liang

88. “And Sadie is the light of my life,” Julius says, his lip curling, even though there’s an odd note to his tone. Something that could be confused for sincerity. “The sun in my sky, the source of all my joy. She’s the reason I wake up every morning excited to go to my classes. Not a day goes by where I’m not grateful that she exists, that she’s there, that I get to talk to her and pass her in the halls and listen to her laugh.”

— Ann Liang

89. “I’ve always had this theory that if I wanted something badly enough, the universe will make sure to keep it just out of my reach – either out of boredom or cruelty, like an invisible hand dangling stars on a string.”

— Ann Liang

90. “The one who wanted to be an artist now has their sights set on med school.”

— Ann Liang

91. “I will meet you again in every lifetime there is.”

— Ann Liang

92. “For everyone who’s ever wished they could be someone else.”

— Ann Liang

93. “One minute until the email from Harvard arrives. Until I can know for certain if I was accepted or not. If I’m good enough or not.”

— Ann Liang

94. “I’m not sad because I don’t love life enough, but because I love life too much. I always want more of it.”

— Ann Liang

95. “You have to prove yourself over and over, and when the glory for your most recent achievement expires, as it must, as it always will, you have to start again, but with more eyes trained on you, more people waiting for the day your talent withers, and your discipline weakens, and your charm wears away. Success is only meant to be rented out, borrowed in small doses at a time, never to be owned completely, no matter what price you’re willing to pay for it.”

— Ann Liang

96. “This would be an absolutely incredible, life-changing thing if it happened to me. But for you? It’s just another accomplishment, isn’t it?”

— Ann Liang

97. “I just needed the fastest route to the best future for my family. Something that paid the bills on time, that guaranteed stability.”

— Ann Liang

98. “It takes so little for me to love someone, yet so long for me to move on.”

— Ann Liang

99. “Julius isn’t just a boy. He’s my enemy. My equal. My point of comparison. He’s the one I’m constantly trying to outrun, to outsmart, to impress.”

— Ann Liang

100. “His smile feels like a warning, but it’s not the kind that precedes a prank. It’s too sincere, his voice dropping low as he says, “I’ll keep being your enemy, if that’s what you’d prefer.” His eyes drop down too, drifting to my lips with such weight and intent that I can almost feel the ghost brush of his gaze. “I can be whatever you want me to be.”

— Ann Liang