Top 120 Francesca Zappia Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be the person whose color comes through even when standing still.”

— Francesca Zappia

52. “She drew so many monsters that she became a monster herself.”

— Francesca Zappia

53. “You smell like lemons.”

— Francesca Zappia

54. “My heart jumps out of staccato rhythm in my chest and my stomach sloshes around like the great foaming tides of Orcus.”

— Francesca Zappia

55. “Panic disorder? I don’t have panic disorder. Panic disorder was a thing that came up in my psychology elective last year. I read like half a paragraph on it.”

— Francesca Zappia

56. “Real people don’t have concise character arcs.”

— Francesca Zappia

57. “I know it sounds weird. Sorry. I don’t think it’ll go well if I know it’s coming. I will definitely freak out and punch you in the face or scream bloody murder or something like that.”

— Francesca Zappia

58. “Do you think the lobsters in the tank try to help the other lobsters? Is that why they pile up like that? Or is it just for company, because they know they’re all doomed? Better.”

— Francesca Zappia

59. “Our neighbors turned to stare at us, because Miles Richter laughing was one of those things that the Mayans had predicted would signal the end of the world. He wasn’t particularly loud about it, but it was Miles laughing, a sound no mortal had ever heard before.”

— Francesca Zappia

60. “Survivors. What better word for people who made it out of this place alive?”

— Francesca Zappia

61. “I bet college doesn’t have parking issues like this.”

— Francesca Zappia

62. “There’s more to life than stories, Eliza.”

— Francesca Zappia

63. “You can have people who call themselves your friends and you can still be alone.”

— Francesca Zappia

64. “I start to say no, then stop myself. I have to try. I have to try, because I’m doing it again-I’m shutting everything out because I’m frustrated and tired and because the real world is difficult and I’d rather live in one of my own making. But I can’t. I am here, and I have to try.”

— Francesca Zappia

65. “I feel like someone told a joke and I missed the punchline, and now everyone’s laughing without me.”

— Francesca Zappia

66. “What you loved as a child, you will love forever.”

— Francesca Zappia

67. “There is a small monster in my brain that controls my doubt. The doubt itself is a stupid thing, without sense or feeling, blind and straining at the end of a long chain. The monster, though, is smart. It’s always watching, and when I am completely sure of myself, it unchains the doubt and lets it run wild. Even when I know it’s coming, I can’t stop it.”

— Francesca Zappia

68. “If I like a book, I devour it in one sitting, and then I forget a lot. It’s fine with me, because I read them over and over again.”

— Francesca Zappia

69. “Made you breakfast. Are you feeling okay? You look a little gray.” I grunt. Morning is the devil’s time.”

— Francesca Zappia

70. “That computer is my rabbit hole; the internet is my wonderland.”

— Francesca Zappia

71. “Thank god. I thought I had cabin fever or something.” “High school fever.” “High school fever: like The Shining, but with teenagers.”

— Francesca Zappia

72. “Creating art is a lonely task, which is why we introverts revel in it, but when we have fans.”

— Francesca Zappia

73. “People say teenagers think they’re immortal, and I agree with that. But I think there’s a difference between thinking you’re immortal and knowing you can survive. Thinking you’re immortal leads to arrogance, thinking you deserve the best. Surviving means having the worst thrown at you and being able to continue on despite that. It means striving for what you want most, even when it seems our of your reach, even when everything is working against you.”

— Francesca Zappia

74. “People are too much sometimes. Friends, acquaintances, enemies, strangers. It doesn’t matter; they all crowd.”

— Francesca Zappia

75. “A feeling erupted in my stomach, like nothing would ever be the same again. Like good karma was catching up with me. Like someone had opened up the lid to my lobster tank and I was finally breathing in the shockingly fresh air.”

— Francesca Zappia

76. “Eliza Mirk is barely a footnote in anyone’s life. Including mine.”

— Francesca Zappia

77. “She saw ghosts. No one really believed that, and she didn’t want them to, because it was true.”

— Francesca Zappia

78. “Yeah, we never said we liked you,” said Ian, smiling. “We just prefer that you don’t die.”

— Francesca Zappia

79. “Do you ever feel,” he said, “like there’s something wrong with the world but you don’t know what it is?”

— Francesca Zappia

80. “It is weird for him to point it out. No one points out how I look. I am not a “point out how she looks” kind of girl.”

— Francesca Zappia

81. “Everyone’s interesting if you stare at them long enough.”

— Francesca Zappia

82. “The only thing missing was Miles. But he was probably circling somewhere, destroying villages and hoarding gold in his mountain lair.”

— Francesca Zappia

83. “I was a schizophrenic, not a damn invalid.”

— Francesca Zappia

84. “It’s a strange feeling to like someone so much and yet be terrified to have them in your space, touching you. It isn’t that I don’t like it when we touch- when we brush arms or when he taps me on the shoulder or when I pick a piece of lint off his shirt. I like it too much. My body gets excited without my permission, and it’s not okay. It’s out of control.”

— Francesca Zappia

85. “I’m not going. I like to tell myself I might go – I like to tell myself I might do a lot of things – but I and my brain and everyone else know that I’m going to chicken out in the end and barricade myself in my bedroom with a plate of pizza rolls and my Netflix subscription.”

— Francesca Zappia

86. “Where Monstrous Sea once wrapped around my heart, there is nothing anymore. Maybe that’s normal. The things you care most about are the ones that leave the biggest holes.”

— Francesca Zappia

87. “Anyone who thinks that’s an easy way out hasn’t had to face it.”

— Francesca Zappia

88. “Stop calling me a Nazi.” “Why should I?” Miles’s hand came down on the desk. “Because the systematic slaughter of millions of people isn’t funny!”

— Francesca Zappia

89. “It’s Christmas?”

— Francesca Zappia

90. “Do you ever have an idea for a story, or a character, or even a line of dialogue or something, and suddenly it seems like the whole world is brighter? Like everything opens up, and everything makes sense?”

— Francesca Zappia

91. “Everything will work better when I’m gone, anyway; I won’t be around to mess up family togetherness time, or bother Max and Emmy with my problems, or remind Wallace of everything he could have had. I’m so tired. I’m tired of anxiety that twists my stomach so hard I can’t move the rest of my body. Tired of constant vigilance. Tired of wanting to do something about myself, but always taking the easy way out.”

— Francesca Zappia

92. “There is no force in high school more powerful than one person’s blunt disagreement.”

— Francesca Zappia

93. “I couldn’t think of anyone else.”

— Francesca Zappia

94. “You don’t go looking for the truth to be happy. You go looking so that you know.”

— Francesca Zappia

95. “Of course, there are crude messages. Vile ones. Ones that don’t seem like they cam from a real human being at all, but some computer program designed to say things no person should say to another person. I read all of those too, like Pringles- they might be terrible for you, but once you pop, you can’t stop. This is a rollercoaster that only goes down. Near the end I feel like a hollow shell clicking a mouse, scanning words with aching eyes.”

— Francesca Zappia

96. “Honey, your father’s just saying that, you know, this is the first time you’ve really hung out with a boy, and we should think about scheduling a few doctors’ appointments –.”

— Francesca Zappia

97. “I grab the gifts I’ve been meaning to send Max and Emmy – a copy each of the newest Monstrous Sea graphic novel compilation and a pack of Twizzlers for Max and Starburst for Emmy – and pack them up. Max lives in Canada; Emmy goes to school in California. Max’s shipping is usually a killer, but whatever, I can write it off as business expense.”

— Francesca Zappia

98. “You are never as great or as pitiful as you think you are.”

— Francesca Zappia

99. “Wallace stares at the field for a long second, then turns back and, before I can react, leans down to kiss me. He tastes like sweat and lemonade. It’s quick. Easy. He pulls away, eyes down, voice soft. “Surprise,” he says. The relief registers. I wrinkle my nose and laugh. “Like hell.” “Please, you know you love this.” He flaps his sweaty shirt in my direction before turning and jogging back. “I love you,” I say, but he’s too far away to hear it. That’s okay. He knows.”

— Francesca Zappia

100. “This year, though, Aunt Carol has the flu and the rest of the family is going to Florida, because I guess going to Florida for Thanksgiving is a thing people do. I don’t have to field questions from the rest of the family, a miracle tarnished only by the fact that my parents have decided that in exchange, this will be the most Mirk Thanksgiving that ever Mirked.”

— Francesca Zappia