Dont think or judge, just listen.

Of course I read this book in less than a a day. It goes without saying, sometimes you really can't judge a book by its cover. In the past I've been turned off by Sarah Dessen novels because, like with movies? Chick Flicks don't do it for me. Having read a few books she's written in the past, my speculation was the same going into this. I had no expectations other than my own.

Kind of glad I didn't pass this one up. The story itself is very immature to me, but what I loved the most? Like with my 'not' husband Christopher Rice? You can relate to alot of the story and not just through the main characters eyes. From Annabel to Owen, Whitney to Clarke and even Emily to Sophie. There was|is something in it for every type of audience.

I have a strong appreciation for music and going into this, that appreciation and passion really stood tall. Music heals and all that stuff.

What can I say? It left me inspired, which as a writer is great!

Of course I had a field day with all the quotes I connected to, and thought I'd share!



Because this is what happens when you try to run from the past. It just doesn’t catch up, it overtakes … blotting out the future.

--

If you could just be nice, then you wouldn't have to worry about arguments at all. but being nice wasn't as easy as it seemed, especially when the rest of the world could be so mean

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I wondered which was harder, in the end. The act of telling, or who you told it to. Or maybe if, when you finally got it out, the story was really all that mattered

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There comes a time in every life when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you'd better learn to know the sound of it. Otherwise you'll never understand what it's saying.

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There has to be a middle. Without it, nothing can ever truly be whole. Because it is not just the space between, but also what holds everything together

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I was beginning to see, though, that the unknown wasn't always the greatest thing to fear. The people who know you best can be risker, because the words they say and things they think have the potential to be not only scary but true, as well

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Silence is so freaking loud!!

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So many versions of just one memory, and yet none of them were right or wrong. Instead, they were all pieces. Only when fitted together, edge to edge, could they even begin to tell the whole story."

--

It was like when you're a little kid and you run into your teacher or librarian at the grocery store or Wal-mart and it's just so startling, because it never occurred to you they existed outside of school

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All I'd ever wanted was to forget. but even when I thought I had, pieces had kept emerging, like bits of wood floating up to the surface that only hint at the shipwreck below.

--

No matter how much time has passed, these things still affect us and the world we live in. If you don't pay attention to the past, you'll never understand the future. It's all linked together.
--

Harder to get in than out, like so little else

--

The past did affect the present and the future, in ways you could see and a million ones you couldn't. Time wasn't a thing you could divide easily; there was no defined middle or beginning or end. I could pretend to leave the past behind, but it would not leave me

--

I thought again how you could never really know what you were seeing with just a glance, in motion, passing by. Good or bad, right or wrong. There was always so much more

--

"This is the problem with dealing with someone who is actually a good listener. They don’t jump in on your sentences, saving you from actually finishing them, or talk over you, allowing what you do manage to get out to be lost or altered in transit. Instead, they wait, so you have to keep going."

--

Pieces and parts were always easier to process. The full picture, the entire story, was another thing entirely. But you just never knew. Sometimes, people could surprise you."
--

So while it seemed like you were seeing everything, you really weren't. Just bits and pieces that looked like a whole."

--

Like a word on a page that you’ve printed and read a million times, that suddenly looks strange or wrong, foreign. And you feel scared for a second, like you’ve lost something, even if you’re not sure what it is

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I'd been convinced I was on the outside, but really, I'd always been within arm's reach. All I had to do was ask, and I, too, would be easily brought back, surrounded and immersed, finding myself safe, somewhere in between

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music is the great uniter. An incredible force. Something that people who differ on everything and anything else can have in common.

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The thing is, it's a big deal when you finally get the chance to do the one thing you want to do-need to do-more than anything. It can kind of scare the crap out of you.

--

I understood now. This voice, the one that had been trying to get my attention all this time, calling out to me, begging me to hear it -- it wan't Will's. It was mine
--

All you could do was take on as much weight as you can bear. And if you're lucky, there's someone close enough by to shoulder the rest.
--

instead, we just sat there, together but really apart, watching a show about a stranger and all her secrets, while keeping our own to ourselves, as always.

--

"Because the truth sometimes hurts," I said.
Yeah," he said. "So do lies, though."

--

She knew I could tell with one glance, one look, one simple instant. It was her eyes. Despite the thick makeup, they were still dark-rimmed., haunted, and sad. Most of all though, they were familiar. The fact that we were in front of hundreds of strangers changed nothing at all. I'd spent a summer with those same eyes-scared, lost, confused-staring back at me. I would have known them anywhere

--
All Quotes From:
Just Listen - [a Novel by Sarah Dessen]