Top 60 Ashley Herring Blake Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “It’s changed me forever, but changed doesn’t have to mean broken.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

2. “The feeling was wild and sort of unpredictable, like a good summer storm.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

3. “It’s okay not to be okay. Most people don’t think so, but I do. It has to be okay to not be okay all the time.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

4. “I just want to move on.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

5. “What else is there for any girl to do, when everyone but her can just forget everything like a random bad dream?”

— Ashley Herring Blake

6. “I didn’t break then and I’m not breaking now.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

7. “I tell myself that I don’t need him. But he’s the only person I want right now.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

8. “Her heart was no longer zooming. It wasn’t melting or standing still. It was shattering.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

9. “I wanted you. I wanted us. You made all of this... I don’t know. It sounds crazy, but you, in my life- knowing you almost made everything worth it.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

10. “In my heart’s sequestered chambers lie truths stripped of poet’s gloss .”

— Ashley Herring Blake

11. “Because she was worth the telling.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

12. “How was Ivy supposed to know how to handle all these feelings for June, all these feelings at all, if everything she saw and read about and heard about was all boy-girl, girl-boy?”

— Ashley Herring Blake

13. “And I’m not sure I ever will recover from what Mr. Knoll did. Not fully. It’s changed me forever, but changed doesn’t have to mean broken.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

14. “Maybe ‘perfect’ was just another word for belonging. For feeling like yourself. It didn’t mean things weren’t hard. It just meant they were right.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

15. “She felt raw, a painting that wasn’t dry yet. One hard nudge and she’d smear all over the place.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

16. “Here’s the thing about wishes: they’re always changing on you. They’re either dying out or they’re realized, and then they’re not wishes anymore. They’re only truly alive in their anticipation” -Grace.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

17. “The whole world was crying as everything fell apart.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

18. “The words fall out of my mouth like rain- I felt them coming, smelled them in the air, but there was nothing I could do to stop them.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

19. “But there are too many other unsaid things that keep me from saying anything at all.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

20. “Just because you’re scared to like someone doesn’t make the like go away.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

21. “Sadness is awkward. Grief is awkward. A missing mother is awkward, no matter what form that missing takes. And no one likes awkward. No one knows what to do with it unless you’re the person used to receiving all those averted gazes.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

22. “Mom’s told me more than once that she loves purple because it’s this beautiful mix of blue’s calm stability and red’s fierce energy.” -Grace.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

23. “We are worth the telling. We are worth the fight. We are worth a good life and love after.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

24. “I’m left with a mouthful of words that wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

25. “This. This is why I never said anything. Because no one ever believes the girl.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

26. “She tilts her head and puts her soft hand on my face, letting her fingertips glide down my neck, to my chest. She flattens her palm there, the heat of her hand searing through my shirt. “You’re... ” She pauses and I take a breath, my heart thumping madly. “I don’t know. It sounds stupid, but... you’re like home.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

27. “When he finally comes out, I edge down a little in the front seat of my car, torn between wanting to disappear and wanting him to see me so he’ll know how much I hate him and love him and every blurry shade of gray in between.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

28. “My heart is crushed within me. Here is the truth: You made me love you- your eyes and mouth and voice. You pulled me into your heart. You don’t want me there and I don’t want to be there, but it’s where I will always live.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

29. “His eyes said everything. They always did.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

30. “Even when we were together, in those quiet name-whispering moments, he never knew me. Never. And yeah, that was my fault, my choice, but it still stings that he never even realized it. Never knew I was holding back.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

31. “For a long time, when I was a little younger, I thought that was how every girl saw other girls – this mix between beauty and awe and curiosity, a thin layer of lust just underneath. Took until I was fourteen to realize that no, the way I thought about other girls was a little different.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

32. “If anyone can inspire you to believe in real, honest-to-God love stories again, it’s William Shakespeare.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

33. “My belief seems to break her. It breaks me, too. To believe one person is to disbelieve another.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

34. “Belief isn’t easy. It isn’t black and white.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

35. “You and me, we’re sandy spoons and fireworks, lighthouses and wishes and peanut butter” -Grace.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

36. “Because when they thought the stars were sticking to her, really all the loneliness and sadness were falling off. The stars were underneath.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

37. “Such a loaded word – live. It could simply mean existing. Heart pumping blood, lungs taking in air. Or it could meant settling into something. Being a part of what’s around you. Investing.” -Grace.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

38. “I still kept so much from her at that time, but she made me feel like, someday, I wouldn’t anymore – she made me feel so many somedays.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

39. “Sam and me- star-crossed and still entangled up on a hill overlooking the city. On top of the world. I almost laugh at how ridiculous it is. How silly it is that we found each other, that we grounded each other, that we gave each other a sense of freedom and a home.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

40. “I watch her duck into the building, a cavern in my chest so huge, I’m sure my next breath will flip me inside out.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

41. “Love isn’t really love unless it’s a little scary.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

42. “Delilah Green didn’t care. Because they’d never once cared about her.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

43. “My heart is a wild beast, just like the dog. It’s barking and gnashing its teeth, chasing the rest of my body, which feels like it’s trying to leave my heart behind.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

44. “Aunt Iris finally punched you, huh?” she said. “I’m glad to see my work is noted and appreciated,” Iris said.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

45. “And Delilah had gotten through life by putting herself first, only concentrating herself with what she knew was true, because she’d learned a long time ago that she couldn’t control anyone but herself. She couldn’t change anyone’s mind, couldn’t make someone love her who had no interest in doing so, and couldn’t keep someone from leaving her if that’s what they wanted to do.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

46. “I’m going to let this go, because I know you’re upset right now. But just so we’re clear, I don’t owe you an explanation or a story or even one juicy detail. YOU put this in motion, Mara. I’m only doing what you said we should.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

47. “Next to me, a car slows and I stiffen. Immediately, I realize the sky is dark, and my eyes peel through my surroundings for some place to run or hide.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

48. “If eyes were the window into the soul, Delilah’s had long been shuttered.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

49. “Ruby saw the world in a way that felt familiar to Delilah, an artist’s point of view, and it could be a lonely way to move through life. Ruby wasn’t alone, of course. She had myriad people who cared about her, so she and Delilah were different in that way. But in other ways, with this little birdbath and what it might symbolize, they were alike.”

— Ashley Herring Blake

50. “She’s not a big fan of surprises.”

— Ashley Herring Blake