Top 250 Stephanie Perkins Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “Zeke doesn’t talk,” said Lena. “Why not?” asked Arlo. Lena shrugged. “He never said.” She pointed to the front of the crowd. “Brice is about to start.”

— Stephanie Perkins

202. “I don’t know what I believe. I guess that makes me a Christmas Tree Agnostic.”

— Stephanie Perkins

203. “When it’s right, it’s simple,” he says to my unasked question. “Unlike your hair.”

— Stephanie Perkins

204. “Los ojos marrones son alucinantes en algunas personas y, en otras, terriblemente vulgares.”

— Stephanie Perkins

205. “And it didn’t matter how many songs or poems had already been written about them, because whenever he thought about the girl, the stars shone brighter. As if she were the one keeping them illuminated.”

— Stephanie Perkins

206. “Why doesn’t he have the same effect on them that he has on me? Don’t they see him?”

— Stephanie Perkins

207. “Andy once clipped a magazine article about how black dogs are always the last to be adopted at shelters and, therefore, more likely to be put down. Which is totally Dog Racism, if you ask me.”

— Stephanie Perkins

208. “Would you rather be great at something you like, or just okay at something you love?”

— Stephanie Perkins

209. “If you like someone, you should have to make an effort.”

— Stephanie Perkins

210. “The way he looked at you? He wasn’t distracted. He was consumed.”

— Stephanie Perkins

211. “A living corpse is better than a dying heart.”

— Stephanie Perkins

212. “Heroism is overrated, and bravery often accompanies stupidity.”

— Stephanie Perkins

213. “But we stayed together, because I don’t know why. Maybe because we though we should be in love. At least I did. I wanted to be in love.”

— Stephanie Perkins

214. “It’s strange. Home. How I could wish for it for so long, only to come back and find it gone. To be here, in my technical house, and discover that home is now someplace different.”

— Stephanie Perkins

215. “You know what’s the strangest thing about tonight? Tonight, being an astoundingly strange night?” “What’s that?” “That you still don’t realize I’m willing to do anything, anything” – he gestured in a full circle around them – “to stay in your company. You don’t need to pay me.”

— Stephanie Perkins

216. “I scan the dark room, through the thrashing bodies of disillusioned Parisian youth, getting their anger out with a healthy dose of French punk rock.”

— Stephanie Perkins

217. “I don’t care about anything. But I care about you.”

— Stephanie Perkins

218. “We just keep each other company. My breath. His breath. My breath. His breath. I could never tell him, but it’s true. This is home. The two of us.”

— Stephanie Perkins

219. “The first thing I notice is his hair – it’s the first thing I notice about anyone. It’s dark brown and messy and somehow both long and short at the same time. I think of the Beatles, since I’ve just seen them in Meredith’s room. It’s artist’s hair. Musician hair. I-pretend-I-don’t-care-but-I-really-do hair.”

— Stephanie Perkins

220. “Josh: St. Clair and Anna are one of those couples that seem like they were made for each other. Instant friendship, instant chemistry. He was obsessed with her from the moment they met. She was the only thing he ever wanted to talk about. Still is, actually.”

— Stephanie Perkins

221. “I’ve taken you this far. I can take you that much farther.”

— Stephanie Perkins

222. “I keep my eyes on his bedspread – blue-and-white plaid, very male – and try to remember how Isla-of-the-past would have fainted if she could see Isla-of-the-present.”

— Stephanie Perkins

223. “Girls were supposed to be happy that someone wanted them, as though they were kittens in a basket, and any left by day’s end would be drowned in the pond.”

— Stephanie Perkins

224. “I’m walking you home. It’s late. And it’s pouring.”

— Stephanie Perkins

225. “I wanted to be your partner the first day.”

— Stephanie Perkins

226. “Thanks. I forgot how to flip off the English. I’ll use the correct hand gesture next time.”

— Stephanie Perkins

227. “Holy crap. I just slept with St. Clair.”

— Stephanie Perkins

228. “Cricket weaves easily around the other customers as if we’re the only two people in the store. The music over the.”

— Stephanie Perkins

229. “Is it weird being in Omaha?” Simini asked her. “Now that everybody’s left?” “It’s like walking through the mall after it closes,” Mags said.”

— Stephanie Perkins

230. “You’ve built up this idea about me, this ideal, but I’m not that person. I’m not perfect. I am far from perfect. I’m not worth such a beautiful story.”

— Stephanie Perkins

231. “At least I’m not the only one who finds change difficult.”

— Stephanie Perkins

232. “It’s the beginning of everything.” I look back up. He’s smiling. “Welcome to Paris, Anna. I’m glad you’ve come.”

— Stephanie Perkins

233. “Here books totter in wobbly stacks, fall from the seats of chairs, and spill from sagging shelves. There are cardboard boxes overflowing with books, and a black cat naps beside a pile on the stairs.”

— Stephanie Perkins

234. “Some things just don’t translate between cultures.”

— Stephanie Perkins

235. “How did anyone know anything before the internet?” “Our parents were idiots.”

— Stephanie Perkins

236. “They had me next to some horrible couple in matching Hawaiian shirts. There’s no reason to suffer this flight alone when we can suffer it together.”

— Stephanie Perkins

237. “I know he is smiling, and my heart races.”

— Stephanie Perkins

238. “It is the mature thing to say, which is something I think about too often at the age of seventeen. I guess that’s what happens when you’re forced to grow up too early.”

— Stephanie Perkins

239. “If I die out there? I’d be honored if you ate my body.” “I would never let a bear get to your body first.”

— Stephanie Perkins

240. “It is this author’s considered opinion that people talk entirely too much. Words, which should be used to communicate, are often used for the exact opposite purpose.”

— Stephanie Perkins

241. “You can tell a lot about a person by looking at the state of their surroundings.”

— Stephanie Perkins

242. “Music is so powerful and mysterious because it can bring up emotions you’ve buried inside of you. Dancing is a way to experience these emotions and release them so they don’t get stuck in your throat or stomach or chest.”

— Stephanie Perkins

243. “Some habits of friendship were like muscle memory, rising up even when everything else had changed. I know our jokes, our rhythms, the choreography of our friendship. But that didn’t take away what we were now.”

— Stephanie Perkins

244. “No one likes being alone.”

— Stephanie Perkins

245. “Maybe it was okay to imagine greater things. Maybe it was all for me, if I wanted it. With dawn of the new year on the horizon, I resolved to exert my will on the world.”

— Stephanie Perkins

246. “Rules make people feel safe. But they can turn into judgments. Condemnation is easy, Vaughn. The harder choice is love, and it’s one my dad makes every day.”

— Stephanie Perkins

247. “I passed worried families, their hands clutched in front of them, sweaters balled up over their fists to cover themselves. We became protective at the fist sign of grief, hunching in, shielding our most vulnerable parts.”

— Stephanie Perkins

248. “I think if you can find the right food to connect yourself to a happier time, or a happier version of yourself, it can help you remember. Help you get back to who you were when you were happy. It can change everything.”

— Stephanie Perkins

249. “Only Darby, who also innately understood the concept of otherness had successfully avoided this pitfall. just as it was rude and invasive to ask him about his genitalia or sexual preference, it was equally rude and invasive to ask her about her ethnicity. It was the sort of information that should be volunteered. Never asked for.”

— Stephanie Perkins

250. “If you like someone, you should have to make an effort. You should have to get to know the person – you should have to work for that first kiss.”

— Stephanie Perkins