Top 250 Rachel Cohn Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “The scene is very Sopranos meets Rent.”

— Rachel Cohn

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

— Rachel Cohn

203. “My family lives in that building now, along with Grandpa in the fourth-floor “penthouse” apartment, as he calls the converted space that was once an attic studio.”

— Rachel Cohn

204. “The world was too full of wastrels and waifs, sycophants and spies – all of whom put words to the wrong use, who made everything that was said or written suspect.”

— Rachel Cohn

205. “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

206. “You don’t know who Nicholas Sparks is?” Dash asked. I shook my head. “Please don’t ever find out,” he said.”

— Rachel Cohn

207. “You were thinking about the things you love, weren’t you?” “Yes.” “Good. The fact that it took so long for you to realize I was gone means you have a pretty solid foundation on which to build character.” “But I also have stress and doubt and fear.” “Most human beings do.” “But it overwhelms me at times.” “Just as it overwhelms most human beings. Life, dear Salinger, isn’t in the vanquishing, it’s in the navigation.”

— Rachel Cohn

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

— Rachel Cohn

209. “I’m not sure I ever even liked Tal, much less loved him, and by the way, Tal, I believe the Palestinians should have their own state.”

— Rachel Cohn

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

— Rachel Cohn

211. “I want to believe that, despite all evidence to the contrary, it is possible for anyone to find that one special person. That person to spend Christmas with or grow old with or just take a nice silly walk in Central Park with.”

— Rachel Cohn

212. “I haven’t been able to reach her. And if I can’t reach her, there’s no way to keep her from being lost.”

— Rachel Cohn

213. “Game over,” you say, and I don’t know which I take more exception to – the fact that you say that it’s over, or the fact that you say it’s a game. It’s only over when one of us keeps the notebook for good. It’s only a game if there is an absence of meaning. And we’ve already gone too far for that.”

— Rachel Cohn

214. “What do I want for Christmas?” He looked thoughtful for a second, then said, “World peace?” “Not helpful!”

— Rachel Cohn

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

— Rachel Cohn

216. “Christmas could begin. Magic could happen.”

— Rachel Cohn

217. “This is why I should consider breaking my straight-edge vow. Beer most certainly would help this situation. It probably couldn’t make it any worse. Basic.”

— Rachel Cohn

218. “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

219. “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

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

— Rachel Cohn

221. “The exhaustion of living was just too much for me.”

— Rachel Cohn

222. “I’m going to miss you, too,” she said. And then she slipped out of the moment, slipped out of the us, by adding, “I’m going to miss everyone.”

— Rachel Cohn

223. “Librarians were like Mary Poppins to me. They always knew how to match a book to my mood or to whatever I was going through at the time. I could always find peace in books.” “And escape?”

— Rachel Cohn

224. “People who want things to be perfect are always impossible to please. But that doesn’t mean we should stop trying. Even if their expectations aren’t correct, their instincts.”

— Rachel Cohn

225. “I know how to handle animals taking unauthorized expeditions.”

— Rachel Cohn

226. “You can tell a lot about a person from the pages he or she chooses to journal on – I was strictly a college-ruled man myself, having no talent for illustration and a microscopic scrawl that made wide-ruled seem roomy.”

— Rachel Cohn

227. “As we walked into the store, we saw that we were catching the evening’s activity in medias res.”

— Rachel Cohn

228. “Even the hard years have some reason for celebration.”

— Rachel Cohn

229. “Langston has been in love. Twice. His first big romance ended so badly that he had to leave.”

— Rachel Cohn

230. “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.”

— Rachel Cohn

231. “Let’s make plans,” I ventured. And Sofia smiled and said, “No, let’s leave it to chance.”

— Rachel Cohn

232. “I think that reality has the distinct potential to completely suck, and the way to get around that is to step out of reality from time to time and find something a little more enjoyable with someone you completely, unadulteratedly.”

— Rachel Cohn

233. “In all honesty, I should admit I have researched much of the scientific evidence refuting G-d’s existence, as a result of which I suspect I am a true believer in him the way I am in Santa. But I will unhesitatingly, and joyfully, O-Holy-Night his name between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, with the mutual understanding that as of Christmas Day, once the presents are opened, my relationship with him goes on hiatus until I camp out for best viewing of the Macy’s parade the following year.”

— Rachel Cohn

234. “So even though it doesn’t seem like anything’s changed – ” “ – things change all the time, mostly in little ways. That’s how it goes, I guess.”

— Rachel Cohn

235. “She told me if I clean all the ashes out of the grate, then I’ll be able to help my sisters get ready for the ball.”

— Rachel Cohn

236. “You have to understand they’re operating from a place of fear, like Fox News viewers.”

— Rachel Cohn

237. “Grandpa has presided over the neighborhood as it went from low-income haven for immigrant families to yuppie enclave.”

— Rachel Cohn

238. “I don’t see what’s so “romantic” about spending a week in a tropical paradise with your spouse whom you’ve already seen almost every day for the past quarter century.”

— Rachel Cohn

239. “Memo to Merle Haggard: Miracles really do happen. I.”

— Rachel Cohn

240. “You are an impossible sausage of adorable,” she pronounced.”

— Rachel Cohn

241. “Anyone who’s lived in Manhattan all his life always feels torn whenever he leaves it. There’s the satisfaction of breaking free, for a time. But that’s balanced heavily by the feeling of leaving your whole life behind, and to see it from a distance.”

— Rachel Cohn

242. “I can’t imagine anyone ever wanting to be alone with me that much.”

— Rachel Cohn

243. “From the time I was a baby, my mom took me to the library at least once a week. Librarians were like Mary Poppins to me. They always knew how to match a book to my mood or to whatever I was going through at the time. I could always find peace in books.”

— Rachel Cohn

244. “But we had never gone out of our way to reveal ourselves, either. Instead, we’d let the facts speak for themselves.”

— Rachel Cohn

245. “Because I don’t want to,” I said. “Not because of the way she is now – I know that’s not what she’s like. There was no way it was going to be as easy as the notebook. I get that now.”

— Rachel Cohn

246. “I had a hard time picturing my father in high school. My father never gave any indication that he’d once been young. Gem, on the other hand, wore all of the ages she’d ever been at the same time. I could trust that.”

— Rachel Cohn

247. “I always hoped that after the prince found Cinderella and they rode away in thier magnificent carriage, after a few miles she turned to him and said “could you drop me off down the road, please? Now that I’ve finally escaped my life of horrific abuse, I’d like to see something of the world, you know? Maybe backpack across Europe or Asia? I’ll catch back up with you later, Prince, once I’ve found my own way.”

— Rachel Cohn

248. “And once I’m pretending that’s the truth, I figure it might as well be the truth.”

— Rachel Cohn

249. “And I honestly like her about twenty times more now than I did when we were dating. But love needs to have a future.”

— Rachel Cohn

250. “I’d never thought a single sentence could turn me off so decisively from both making love and playing the piano, but there it was.”

— Rachel Cohn