Coming Of Age Quotes

“On this day the girl feels so much love pouring out of her mother that she is certain her mother has the power to save her. Soon she will come to understand she can't be saved.”
― Claire Oshetsky, Poor Deer

“If she never had any lovers, she kicks herself around when the change comes, thinking of all the fun she could have had, didn't have, and now can't have. If she had a lot of lovers, she argues herself into believing that she did wrong and she's sorry now. She carries on that way because she knows that soon all her woman-ness will be lost...lost. And if she makes believe being with a man was never any good in the first place, she can get comfort out of her change.”
― Betty Smith

“If I had been more independent in my thinking then, I would have thought the matter through to a conclusion. But in those days it was easy for me to leave tangled thoughts knotted, their loose ends hanging. I didn't want to explore the treacherous mazes that such thoughts led into. I didn't want to reach the end of those mazes, because there, I knew, I would find myself and I was afraid I would not recognize myself after having taken so many confusing directions. I was beginning to suspect that I was not the person I was expected to be, and took it as evidence that somewhere I had taken a wrong turning.”
― Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions

“Oh scattered band, once my playmates, you few
Who were amidst the gardens here and there in the city,
How hesitantly we located one another, took fancies and
Like the tapestry lamb whose mute words are on a scroll,

Spoke through silence. Our little joys were
Never communicated, - Whose indeed were they?
And among all the passers-by, those hurriers, how it all
Evanesced quite away, weighed down by the torment of the endless year.

Past us were drawn the carriages, wholly indifferent,
Round us the houses stood strong but not real, - and none
Of these were aware of us. What was truly real in it all?

Nothing. Only the balls we tossed, their magnificent arcs,
But certainly not the children. ... Though sometimes one would step
- Alas, one who would soon be lost, - beneath a falling ball.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus

“Self-discovery journeys are always risky, but this one leads to reconciliation between mother and son.
A Hitchhiker's Big Adventure”
― Jeff Rasley, Jeffrey Rasley

“I envy her ability to tell the entire world what she feels. One day, I'll find a way, too.”
― Penelope Przekop, Please Love Me

“He loved me. He loved me not. Perhaps we'll never know; life is like that. All I know is that once upon a time I saw a powerful glimpse of truth that set me on a new path.”
― Penelope Przekop, Please Love Me

“As children, almost every summer my brother and I found at least one dusty Christmas ball in the corner of the living room or beneath the couch. I always wondered how something so fragile could fall so far and not break.”
― Penelope Przekop, Please Love Me

“Everywhere we looked, we saw the people trying to dream themselves out. As though there was someplace other than this place. As though there was another Brooklyn.”
― Jacqueline Woodson

“Watch the water as it flows. Even when something attempts to block its path, the water still finds a way around- smoothly, devoid of thought or hesitation. When you leave here, many men will try to stand in your way. It is up to you to move like water, free and without hesitation.”
― Virginia Mary, Across the Great Ocean: Desolation

“A volte il dolore era come una tempesta che arrivava all’improvviso. La mattina d’estate più serena poteva finire con un diluvio. Poteva finire con lampi e tuoni.”
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

“L’attenzione alle persone e alle parole era una cosa rara e bellissima.”
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

“He descubierto de lo que uno puede ser capaz, que equivale a decir ser capaz de todo. De deseos sublimes o letales, de falta de dignidad, creencias y comportamientos que tildaba de insensatos en los demás, hasta que yo misma recurrí a ellos. Sin que él lo sospeche, me ha ligado más al mundo.”
― Annie Ernaux, Simple Passion

“I'm simply lost in that deep walled-off hole some of us go when searching for a savior.”
― Penelope Przekop, Please Love Me

“Ognuno di noi è come un Paese. Per proteggerci, possiamo costruire muri intorno a noi, proibire l’ingresso a chiunque, bloccare tutte le visite, non accogliere nessuno, nascondere la bellezza dei tesori che sono in noi. Costruire solo muri ci porta a essere tristi e soli. Ma possiamo anche decidere di concedere dei visti e lasciare che le persone vedano tutte le ricchezze che possiamo offrire. Possiamo decidere che chi ci visita veda il nostro dolore e il coraggio che ci ha permesso di sopravvivere. Accogliere altre persone, lasciare che vedano il nostro Paese, è la chiave della felicità.”
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World

“Sweet would be the last adjective I’d use to describe him. Arrogant. Despicable. Passive-aggressive. But no, sweet didn’t even cross my mind.”
― Emmanuelle Snow, Cast Away

“I looked out the window at midnight and watched the snow drop slowly to the ground. It was 2004 at last and new beginnings were about to be discovered. All I can wish is that they can be created on the spot, but it'll have to wait. I have some time to make my wishes come true.”
― Sara Ellie MacKenzie, A World So Bright and Dark: The Journal of Lizzie Colleen MacDougal

“I couldn't see it then, but I could see it now. I opened my eyes, releasing another stream of tears. I had been trying so hard to run from my past. But the past was like mottlefish ink. Even if it fades, it's still there, and not even the ocean can wash it out. I couldn't change what had come before. But I could change what I did next.”
― Christina Soontornvat, The Last Mapmaker

“”
― C.L. Lauder, The Quelling

“She was not as carefree and gay as before, but she was at peace.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Somehow it's easier to talk up here, because I feel like a kid again. And when you're a kid, you still have so many chances to get your life right.”
― Tim Federle, Nate Expectations

“What is it about phone calls in the middle of the night that always make people nervous?”
― J.A. Browne, Hannah and the Hollow Tree

“I thought you said silver foxes were, like, a good-looking old bloke?
They're rare. Not endangered. Yet.
Blokes or foxes?”
― J.A. Browne, Hannah and the Hollow Tree

“Hannah's mouth falls open. She looks across to where my resting body lies, then back at me. Her eyes never meet mine. She thinks I'm dead.”
― J.A. Browne, Hannah and the Hollow Tree

“Gran, seriously, you are one scary old bird.
Er, firebird. Not old bird, if you please.”
― J.A. Browne, Hannah and the Hollow Tree

“Hollow Tree, I am here to ask for your help.”
― J.A. Browne, Hannah and the Hollow Tree

“I do want to be told exactly what to do, I just don't want them to act like I don't know what I'm doing”
― Katie Heaney, The Year I Stopped Trying

“She was so sick of it— sick and tired of being told to sit down and shut up, that she couldn't fight or sail or wear pants or study the seas and skies because she was a girl. To hell with it, she thought. No one could stop her anymore.”
― Ellie Dow

“She wished she could answer all of her fifteen year-old self's doubts about what was going to happen to her. She wished she could say, "Hey, you made it! Look at everything you've become!" But she couldn't, and maybe that was okay. She was stronger, more sure of herself, and more ready than she was before. She knew now, and that was what mattered.”
― Ellie Dow

“Se conocieron como lo hacían los niños con intereses muy de nicho en los dos mil: en el chat de videojuegos que quemaban el ordenador y con la constante advertencia de sus padres de que no hablasen con extraños en internet.”
― Eli Macías, Entre amigos no se juega así