Young women dream of romance and passion as men dream of conquest because those dreams are necessary goads to leaving home and growing up.

Maybe I can learn to live in a way that makes it worth writing about, and maybe I can actually become something more than this empty shell.

…girls were like poems: weird, incomprehensible and boring, but those “in the know” assured me that they were beautiful.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

But I love you and I want you and I need you. Can’t you see that? This world has nothing to offer me if it doesn’t include you.

That last time you kissed me my heart slid past your teeth down into the center of your chest… trapping us both in a stainless cage.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I reasoned as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

We're about to hit that age when we'll be too exhausted to maintain friendships, and the days of hanging out will be long behind us.

To become a man is to carry out your word because you gave your word. And your word is you as a man." - The Legacy Letters, by Carew Papritz

Growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I'm glad for that.

He nods, as if to acknowledge that endings are almost always a little sad, even when there is something to look forward to on the other side.

Part of growing up was learning not to be quite that honest - learning when it was better to lie, rather than to hurt someone with the truth.

We can't go back, Alexa", he said. " We can't go back once we've started growing up, and the world can't be made simple again.

She didn't like being twelve. It felt like someplace between who she'd been and who she was about to be. It felt like no place at all.