Top 250 Rachel Cohn Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “Because I hadn’t known that I knew these things. Just having a notebook to write them in, and having someone to write them to, made them all rise to the surface.”

— Rachel Cohn

152. “But I couldn’t concentrate on writing in the notebook. I wanted to live inside it, not write in it.”

— Rachel Cohn

153. “I volunteer to be the comfort of the in-between.”

— Rachel Cohn

154. “Hope and belief. I’d always wanted hope, but never believed that I could have such an adventure on my own. That I could own it. And love it. But it happened.”

— Rachel Cohn

155. “Lou’s such an old punk he was around when the Ramones were junkie hustlers first and musicians second, when punk meant something other than a mass-marketing concept designed to help the bridge-and-tunnel crowd feel cool.”

— Rachel Cohn

156. “I wanted to go home to the safety of my bed and to my stuffed animals and to my people I’d known my whole life. I had nothing to say to anybody, and fervently prayed that no one there would have anything to say to me.”

— Rachel Cohn

157. “I know in my heart that I can live without him and I know in my heart that I don’t want to-that’s a good place to start, right?”

— Rachel Cohn

158. “True Love. I’m starting to suspect the concept is pure illusion, an insipid brand name manufactured by Hallmark and Disney.” – Cupcake.”

— Rachel Cohn

159. “And you were captured at pretty much every angle possible-it’s impressive that the statue of George Washington didn’t whip out an iPhone and email the photos to his friends.”

— Rachel Cohn

160. “The whole thing was silly,” I said. “Please tell her there’s no need to apologize. We set ourselves up for this. I was never going to be the guy in her head. And she was never going to be the girl in mine. And that’s okay. Seriously.”

— Rachel Cohn

161. “So there we were. Once upon a time, during the storybook version of dating we’d gone through, I’d pretended that it was possible to love her when I only mildly liked her. Now I had no desire to pretend we’d ever be in love, and I liked her madly.”

— Rachel Cohn

162. “The Strand proudly proclaims itself as home to eighteen miles of books. I have no idea how this is calculated. Does one stack all the books on top of each other to get the eighteen miles? Or do you put them end to end, to create a bridge between Manhattan and, say, Short Hills, New Jersey, eighteen miles away? Were there eighteen miles of shelves? No one knew. We all just took the bookstore at its word, because if you couldn’t trust a bookstore, what could you trust? Whatever.”

— Rachel Cohn

163. “Langston took the latest red Moleskine notebook that Grandpa bought me and, together with Benny, mapped out a series of clues to find a companion just right for me.”

— Rachel Cohn

164. “I made the mistake of turning back to look at her one last time before I left the room. It was heartbreaking, really – she just sat there, stunned. She looked like she was waking up in a strange place – only she knew she hadn’t gone to sleep yet, and that this was actually life.”

— Rachel Cohn

165. “He can sometimes act a bit loner-ish, but I think that’s not because he’s some serial killer waiting to happen; he’s just his own best company sometimes. And he’s comfortable with that. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that.”

— Rachel Cohn

166. “It’s a paradox, isn’t it? The people you know the most, the people you love the most-you’re also going to feel the parts of them you don’t know the most.”

— Rachel Cohn

167. “What did it say about me that he hadn’t? That he couldn’t possibly like me as much as I’d started to like him. That I would never be as pretty and interesting as that Sofia girl, while Dash’s handsome face would continue to appear in my daydreams. Unrequited. It wasn’t fair that I sort of missed him. Not his presence so much – I barely knew him – but having that red notebook link to him. Knowing he was out there thinking or doing something that would be communicated to me in some surprising way.”

— Rachel Cohn

168. “Ouch. Cursing – not so dashing.”

— Rachel Cohn

169. “But somehow, knowing the Moleskine was tucked away in my bag, containing our thoughts and clues, our imprints to each other, somehow that made me feel safe, like I could have this adventure and not get lost and not call my brother to save me.”

— Rachel Cohn

170. “I started to write: Langston deserves to be sick. But I erased that and wrote, Okay. I’ll make him some.”

— Rachel Cohn

171. “Here’s the thing about love,” Mrs. Basil E. replied. “You get a last chance. And then, when that doesn’t work, you make yourself another last chance. Then another. Then another. You keep going until your last chances run out.”

— Rachel Cohn

172. “When I was old enough to read and write, my parents gave me an eraser board that I kept in my room at all times. The idea was that when frustrated, I, Lily, should write down words on the board to express my feelings instead of letting she-devil Shrilly express them through shrieking. It was supposed to be a therapeutic tool.”

— Rachel Cohn

173. “Perhaps this was what was so unnerving about Lily at this moment – the trust that was required in what we were doing.”

— Rachel Cohn

174. “That’s a nice quote,” Langston said. “Underline it and fold down the page for me, will you?” I did as instructed.”

— Rachel Cohn

175. “She said those bell people are possibly religious freaks, and we are holiday-only lapsed Catholics who support homosexuality and a woman’s right to choose.”

— Rachel Cohn

176. “Lily was mittens and hot chocolate and snow angels that lifted from the ground and danced in the air. She said she loved winter, and I wondered if there was any season she didn’t love. I worked hard to accept her enthusiasm as genuine. My mental furnace was built for immolation, not warmth. I didn’t understand how she could be so happy. But such was the love I had fallen into that I decided not to question it, and to live within it.”

— Rachel Cohn

177. “I want to have fun. I don’t want commitment and I love you.”

— Rachel Cohn

178. “I wasn’t going to be tempted to play the field or sow my oats; for me, Lily was the field, and she could have all of my oats. She didn’t fit perfectly into my new life, but.”

— Rachel Cohn

179. “To be the right person at the right time for someone else is the highest service we can perform,” Sir Ian said with a bow.”

— Rachel Cohn

180. “I could always find peace in books.” “And escape?” “Escape, sure. But it wasn’t so much about getting away, as going to. You can go anywhere in a book. Books are adventure. Knowledge. Possibility. Magic.”

— Rachel Cohn

181. “Kent State by Deborah Wiles.”

— Rachel Cohn

182. “No. No no no no. It is not easy. Things that matter are not easy. Feelings of happiness are easy. Happiness is not. Flirting is easy. Love is not. Saying you’re friends is easy. Being friends is not.”

— Rachel Cohn

183. “But the older you get, the more you realize that, yes, there are all these things that link you to the past, and you’re using the same words and singing the same songs that have always been there for you, but each time, things have shifted, and you have to deal with that shift. Because.”

— Rachel Cohn

184. “It’s like nothing else exists in the world right now except him, me, touching, exploring, longing, needing, sharing, having. So much for my straight-edge vow, because I am drunk on our ing’s.”

— Rachel Cohn

185. “I miss him a lot. And we text and talk all the time, so he never feels that far. But I’m also happy to have some distance, to feel that I’m becoming myself without having to worry if the relationship is exerting too much influence. It’s good to have each other, but you also need to have your own people, your own experiences.”

— Rachel Cohn

186. “Personally, I felt yoga was something to retreat from, not toward, so the mental image involved me sitting cross-legged with an open book in my lap while everyone else did the Spread-Eagle Ostrich.”

— Rachel Cohn

187. “We are the ones who take this thing called music and line it up with this thing called time. We are the ticking, we are the pulsing, we are underneath every part of this moment.”

— Rachel Cohn

188. “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, they sang.”

— Rachel Cohn

189. “Wearing a hijab is exactly what makes me a feminist. It’s freedom of choice. My choice. It’s a modesty that expresses humility and respect. It’s a reminder of my community. It’s a reminder to believe in myself and what I stand for. What’s more feminist than that?”

— Rachel Cohn

190. “And I find myself saying, “It wasn’t really about her.” And finding it’s true. “What do you mean?” Norah asks. “It was about the feeling, you know? She caused it in me, but it wasn’t about her. It was about my reaction, what I wanted to feel and then convinced myself that I felt, because I wanted it that bad. That illusion. It was love because I created it as love.” Norah.”

— Rachel Cohn

191. “But Langston repeated, “Lily, you just don’t understand. What you need is someone to keep you occupied. You need a boyfriend.”

— Rachel Cohn

192. “Death Cab for Cutie’s “Transatlanticism.”

— Rachel Cohn

193. “Maybe it isn’t that we’re supposed to find the pieces and put them back together. Maybe we’re the pieces.”

— Rachel Cohn

194. “He was obstinate in the way that only truly miserable people can be obstinate.”

— Rachel Cohn

195. “Their first date was at the symphony. How mean can a guy be who likes Mozart? I hope, at least.”

— Rachel Cohn

196. “We’re to write our letters to Father Christmas.” “To be burned up in the chimney?” Gem asked. “One of my favorite British traditions.”

— Rachel Cohn

197. “But there was something so empty about the prospect of a Christmas Day without opening presents.”

— Rachel Cohn

198. “What I mean is that when people say right person, wrong time, or wrong person, right time, it’s usually a cop-out. They think that fate is playing with them. That we’re all just participants in this romantic reality show that God gets a kick out of watching. But the universe doesn’t decide what’s right or not right. You do.”

— Rachel Cohn

199. “The way you’re singing in your sleep The way you look before you leap The strange illusions that you keep You don’t know But I’m noticing The way your touch turns into arcs The way you slide into the dark The beating of my open heart You don’t know But I’m noticing And I’m moved, it’s so beautiful.”

— Rachel Cohn

200. “But that’s what I love about punk music. It has a sense of humor about itself, doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. It’s kickass funk with a heavy-metal edge, but with a conscience.” Good.”

— Rachel Cohn