Mcmanus Quotes

Things'll get worse before they get better.

I know what it's like to tell yourself a lie so often that it becomes the truth.

I don't know why it's so hard for people to admit that sometimes they're just assholes who screw up because they don't expect to get caught.

I want to kiss her more than I want air.

I guess we're almost friends now, or as friendly as you can get when you're not one hundred percent sure the other person isn't framing you for murder.

I stand and hold out my hand. She gives me a skeptical look, but takes it and lets me pull her to her feet. I put my other hand in the air. 'Bronwyn Rojas, I solemnly swear not to murder you today or at any point in the future. Deal?' 'You're ridiculous,' she mutters, going even redder. 'It concerns me you're avoiding a promise not to murder me.

Unless one of us is lying. Which is always a possibility.

She's a princess and you're a jock," he says. He thrusts his chin toward Bronwyn, then at Nate. "And you're a brain. And you're a criminal. You're all walking teen-movie stereotypes.

You find out who your real friends are when stuff like this happens. Turns out I didn’t have any…

I don’t understand why the world insists on stuffing kids into boxes we never asked for, and then gets mad when we won’t stay there.

Some people are too toxic to live. They just are.

Holding on to resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.

That's the kind of person you can get away with killing: someone everybody else wants dead.

But you can’t change the past, you know? All you can do is try harder next time. So don’t give up on yourself just yet.

If I'm not thinking about one shit storm, I have to think about another.

I have to figure out a way to live with that, and it won't be by not forgiving other people's mistakes.

Everybody has secrets,' she says, taking a sip of her drink. 'That's nondebatable. The only question is whether you're keeping your own, or someone else's.

These murder club meetings are becoming a regular thing. We need a new name, though.

We’re endgame.” I wipe a stray tear from the corner of my eye. “What does that mean?” “It means that we’ll wind up together eventually. It might take a year for us to sort everything out, or two, or ten. Whatever. But it’ll happen.

We could be surrounded by walking dead in the zombie apocalypse and she’d look for the bright side.

Ezra watches them leave with a bemused expression, then turns to me. “I have a really strong feeling that on Wednesdays, they wear pink.

Are we friends, or just a couple of people without better options?

Good thing life is long and high school is short

There are some things you can't undo no matter how good your intentions are.

Who do you want to be? The guy who goes along or the guy who stands up? This is the time to decide.

People who never get told no are so bad at hearing it.

Like we're some kind of hip high school murder club without a care in the world.

Sometimes, you don't know what you want until you see it.

It concerns me you’re avoiding a promise not to murder me.

How do you make that choice?" I ask almost to myself. "Between what you need and what you want?" I feel like my sister's going through her own version of that. Kris's eyes are on Cooper, too. "You hope they become the same thing, I guess.

Honestly, I don’t care what we do. I just want to stay wrapped around him for as long as possible, fighting sleep and forgetting about the rest of the world.

No matter how awful the rest of my life is, my hair still manages to look good.

You're not going to wither up and die from this, Addy," Ashton lectures me as she shoves me toward the shower. "He doesn't get to erase you from the world.

No matter how much you care about someone, things change when they used to be around all the time an then suddenly, they're not.

We’re like the Kardashians, except without any money.

Whoever tells the best story shapes the culture.

Bronwyn: Well, I'd like to try. I f you want to. Not because we're thrown together in this weird situation and I think you're hot, altough I do. But because you're smart, and funny, and you do the right thing more often than you give youerself credit for. I like your horrible taste in movies and the way you never sugarcoat anything and the fact that you have an actual lizard. I'd be proud to be your girlfriend, even in a nonoffical capacity while we're, you know, being investigated for murder. Plus, I can't go more than a few minutes without wanting to kis you, so - there's that. Nate: You're doing better than me. I never stop thinking about kissing you.

love and hope and beauty still exist, even when things seem impossibly dark.

For in today’s generation of teenagers finding acceptance is hard, especially for those who dare to be different-then it’s impossible.

My dad’s contentment is all that matters to me. When he’s laughing, I’m laughing. When he’s happy, I’m happy. I would give up my soul for him. To me, nothing else but his happiness matters.

When you come into the world with another person, they’re as much a part of you as your heartbeat.

You don’t think about what’s outside. Or who. Especially if she’s better off forgetting you exist.

Welcome to life in a small town. You’re only as good as the best thing your family’s done. Or the worst.

I’m kidding, but Bronwyn goes rigid. “How can you say that?” Her cheeks get red, giving her that flushed look that always unsettles me. She’ll surprise you one day with how pretty she is. My mother used to say that about Bronwyn. My mother was wrong, though. There’s nothing surprising about it.

There is no greater fan of fly fishing then the worm.

You can be right in principle and still wrong in approach.

I’m going to marry you, Bronwyn Rojas. Just so you know.” She puts her hands on either side of my face and pulls me close enough to kiss. But first, she says, “Oh, I know.

To create is to reflect the image of God. To create is an act of worship.

Sure, sure. No rush, no pressure. It’s entirely up to you, Cooper.” People always say that but it doesn’t feel true.

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

Love never comes without wounds; faith never comes without failure.

What is Bayview best known for? Revenge.

All of Fright Farm's success is based on how much people love to be scared in a controlled environment. There's something deeply satisfying about confronting a monster and escaping unscathed. Real monsters aren't anything like that. They don't let go

Love, no matter how you come at it, is a huge risk. It makes it easier for me to remember that God will never reject me because I am not good enough and that any community that has His heart will embrace me as I am. Jesus invites us into a community where imperfect people can find acceptance, love, forgiveness, and a new beginning.

It sucks when the person who ruined your life gets to walk around like always. As if what they did doesn’t matter. I beg to disagree with your conclusion, though. There’s always something you can do.—Darkestmind

At this moment, I’ve never wanted to do anything as much as I want to grab his face and kiss every inch of it.

I thought she was your mother.

In life we don't always get what we want; hopes and dreams get washed away so easily, hearts are broken, chances are missed, and we always seem to end up right back where we started.

The very first thing I saw was his eyes, bluer and brighter than the sea itself. They gazed at me, so dazzling, and for an instant I couldn't even feel the pain. I was too overcome by the handsomeness of this sandy haired boy

I just want to stay wrapped around him for as long as possible, fighting sleep and forgetting about the rest of the world.

A couple of words is all it'll take to make everything in my life Before and After.

Whether we realize it or not, everything we do is an expression of either how alive our souls are or how much we have allowed ourselves to be deadened over time.

It's not nerdy to care about fonts!

The more isolated and disconnected we are, the more shattered and distorted our self-identity. We are not healthy when we are alone. We find ourselves when we connect to others. Without community we don't know who we are... When we live outside of healthy community, we not only lose others. We lose ourselves...Who we understand ourselves to be is dramatically affected for better or worse by those we hold closest to us.

How is it, that for many of us, being a good Christian is nothing more than being a good person? The entire focus of our faith has been the elimination of sin, which is important but inadequate; rather than the unleashing of a unique, original, extraordinary, wonderfully untamed, faith.

Plenty of people get cheated on and don’t lose their minds. Take me, for example. I threw a vase at Charlie’s head and moved on. That’s a normal reaction.

Addy gives me hope, because even though her life fell apart when Simon’s blog revealed her worst mistake, she put things back together–better than before. She’s stronger, happier, and much closer to her sister. Addy is the queen of second chances, and right now I really need the reminder that those exist.

The first seven years of the Joshua tree's life, it's just a vertical stem. No branches," she told me while we were hiking. "It takes years before it blossoms. And every branching stem stops growing after it blossoms, so you've got this complex system of dead areas and new growth." I used to think about that, sometimes, when I wondered what parts of her might still be alive.

I thought you’d look how you talk.” I’m not going to rise to the bait and ask her what she means, but she keeps going without prompting. “Like a constipated gnome.

It doesn’t matter how many times she smiles at me like that; I still forget how to breathe for at least a few seconds.

She cocks her head at me and adds, "I don't need your commentary if you disagree, by the way." I hold up my hands. "Wasn't going to say a word, Addy." "When did you even start knowing my name," she deadpans. I grin at her. "You've gotten kinda feisty since you lost all the hair. And the boyfriend.

We are not defined by our mistakes, but how we react to them and the life journey we create despite of them.

I can’t stop thinking about how rare it is to have someone you can be completely real with, even when things get raw and uncomfortable and a little scary. Especially then.

To be apathetic is literally to be without passion.

You find out who your real friends are when stuff like this happens. Turns out I didn’t have any, but I’m glad Cooper does.

Leave the past where it is

Would you be willing to give your life to save the world if no one ever knew your name? If anonymity was the price you would have to pay for significance, would it be too great a price? To live a life of courage is not a guarantee of prestige or adulation. It only matters if you live and die fulfilling the mission you were born for.

True creativity does not come easily; creativity is born of risk and refined from failure.

I know that you can have the best intentions and still get the worst results.

So our crew is back to being all girls, and stays that way for the rest of lunch. The only other guy who’d sit with us never bothers making an appearance in the cafeteria. But I pass Nate in the hallway afterward, and all the questions bubbling in my brain about Simon, Leah, and Janae disappear when he gives me a fleeting grin. Because God, it’s beautiful when that boy smiles.

The world around me was oblivious, but for once, I felt absolute

The loneliness of that settles over my shoulders like a heavy blanket.

or maybe we’re finally figuring out that we haven’t been normal for years and it’s time to redefine the word.

Everyone got secrets right? What really matters is how far you’ll go to protect them

Nobody should be that good at so many different things. It doesn’t build character.

I wish he'd listen, because if anyone knows how badly you can screw up your life when you decide you're not good enough, it's me.

My sisters treated me like a living doll for years, carrying me around so much that I didn’t bother learning to walk until I was almost two.

Silence falls as we get lost in our own regrets.

Family first, always.

I’m the omniscient narrator

Addy, that airhead homecoming princess turned badass ninja investigator,

Home is ultimately not about a place to live but about the people with whom you are most fully alive. Home is about love, relationship, community, and belonging, and we are all searching for home.

I"m often accused of being irreligious, and I suppose it's for this very reason. Whether it's Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Judaism, or any other ism, when a religioin is created on the subtle premise that God withholds his love and you must submit to the system to earn that love, I consider it the worst of corruptions... For centuries, the church has been telling us that if we want God to love us, we need to follow the rules. It's been far more important to focus on the sin problem than the love problem.

I let myself out and climb onto my bike, putting on my helmet. As soon as it’s clipped tight I push up the kickstand and I’m pedaling hard down Jake’s driveway. Once my heart finds a comfortable pounding rhythm, I remember how it almost beat out of my chest when I confessed to cheating on Jake. I’d never felt so trapped in my life. I thought I’d feel the same way in his living room today, waiting for him to tell me again I’m not good enough. But I didn’t, and I don’t. For the first time in a long time, I feel free.

There is nothing better than to be headed into the mountains on a clean fresh day with the sun rising through the trees and good company and good talk and the sense of ease that comes from the knowledge that you are in somebody else's car and it is not your transmission that is going to get torn out on a big rock.

Well.” I’m quiet for a few seconds, weighing whether I’m about to make a giant mistake. Probably, but I plow ahead anyway. “I’d like to try. If you want to. Not because we’re thrown together in this weird situation and I think you’re hot, although I do. But because you’re smart, and funny, and you do the right thing more often than you give yourself credit for. I like your horrible taste in movies and the way you never sugarcoat anything and the fact that you have an actual lizard. I’d be proud to be your girlfriend, even in a nonofficial capacity while we’re, you know, being investigated for murder. Plus, I can’t go more than a few minutes without wanting to kiss you, so—there’s that.

That’s hot.” I mean it as a joke, but my voice comes out like a growl and when her lips part I kiss her before she can laugh. A shock of energy shoots through me as I cup her face in my hands, my fingers grasping her cheeks and the line of her jaw. It must be the adrenaline that’s making my heart pound so fast. The whole nobody-else-could-possibly-understand-this bond. Or maybe it’s her soft lips and green apple–scented hair, and the way she winds her arms around my neck like she can’t stand to let go. Either way I keep kissing her as long as she lets me, and when she steps away I try to pull her back because it wasn’t enough.

Another long silence descends while I try to gather my thoughts. I should be angrier, probably. I should demand proof of his trustworthiness, even though I have no idea what that would look like. I should ask lots of pointed questions designed to ferret out whatever other lies he’s told me. But the thing is, I do believe him. I won’t pretend I know Nate inside and out after a few weeks, but I know what it’s like to tell yourself a lie so often that it becomes the truth. I did it, and I haven’t had to muddle through life almost completely on my own.

While religions have historically tried to make us the same, Jesus calls us to be different. If you have ever experienced this, you know your soul bristled at the demand to quietly get in line and conform. But something in your gut told you this was wrong. If there was a God, his value would not be uniformity, but uniqueness. And you were right. Imprinted on your soul is the fingerprint of God. There is something inside you that resists surrendering your soul to legalism. The good news is that all that time it wasn't you fighting against God; you were fighting for what God has created you to become.

Writers live with fear. Some writers cannot deal with the fear, and so they quit or refuse to publish. In order to write, you must either ignore the fear or trick it into leaving you alone. The fear is very sly, though and hard to trick. The fear in writing comes from exposing your thoughts, your emotions, your experiences, your ideas, your talent, your intelligence and ultimately your self to public scrutiny and possible scorn. The fear is by no means groundless. You have opened yourself up to the possibility of public humiliations...I sometimes wonder if perhaps the greatest novel ever written isn't gathering dust in some filing cabinet somewhere, simply because its author could not overcome the fear of having it published.