David Levithan - The Lover's Dictionary (2010)

60 Sourced Quotes

View all David Levithan Quotes
The way you argued with me, you would have thought that we were debating the existence of God or whether or not we should move in together. These kinds of fights can never be won – even if you're the victor, you've hurt the other person, and there has to be some loss associated with that.

David Levithan
Even when I detach, I care. You can be separate from a thing and still care about it. If I wanted to detach completely, I would move my body away. I would stop the conversation midsentence. I would leave the bed. Instead, I hover over it for a second. I glance off in another direction. But I always glance back at you.

David Levithan
If there wasn't a word for it, would we realize our masochism as much?

David Levithan
You went and broke our lives. You are so much worse than a cheater. You killed something. And you killed it when its back was turned.

David Levithan
Aloof, adj. It has always been my habit, ever since junior high school, to ask that question: What are you thinking? It is always an act of desperation, and I keep on asking, even though I know it will never work the way I want it to.

David Levithan
Fraught, adj. Does every I love you deserve an I love you too ? Does every kiss deserve a kiss back? Does every night deserve to be spent on a lover? If the answer to any of these is No, what do we do?

David Levithan
You leave the phone on beside you as you fall asleep. I sit in my bed and listen to your breathing, until I know you are safe, until I know you no longer need me for the night.

David Levithan
Elliptical, adj. The kiss I like the most is one of the slow ones. It's as much breath as touch, as much no as yes. You lean in from the side, and I have to turn a little to make it happen.

David Levithan
What did it matter to me? Did I think that by making you rational about one thing, I could make you rational about everything? Maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to save you from your fears

David Levithan
There is no word for the recipient of the love. There is only a word for the giver. There is the assumption that lovers come in pairs.

David Levithan
Arrears, n. My faithfulness was as unthinking as your lapse. Of all the things I though would go wrong, I never thought it would be that. "It was a mistake," you said. But the cruel thing was, it felt like the mistake was mine, for trusting you.

David Levithan
For I have never wanted a lover, but I have always wanted to love, and to be loved.

David Levithan
But we comforted ourselves with what we really meant to say, which was: "I don't normally feel this good about what I'm doing." Measure the hope of that moment, that feeling. Everything else will be measured against it.

David Levithan
And suddenly you started singing out your love for me. My name and everything, loud enough to reach the top floors of all the buildings. I should have told you to stop, but I didn't want you to stop. I didn't mind if your love for me woke people up. I didn't mind if it somehow sneaked into their sleep.

David Levithan
I have already spent roughly five thousand hours asleep next to you. This has to mean something.

David Levithan
I'm swimming in your cadences that you permeate my very language.

David Levithan
If this continues, if this goes on, then when I die, your memories of me will be my greatest accomplishment. You memories will be my most lasting impressions.

David Levithan
You know, I'd get a tattoo with your name on it. Only, I want you to have the freedom to change your name if you want to.

David Levithan
Even if neither of us got what we wanted, we found freedom in the third choices.

David Levithan
If I lose it now, I will lose you, too. I know that. I hate it.

David Levithan
I want to take back at least half of the I love you s, because I didn't mean them as much as the other ones.

David Levithan
I don't like it when you use my shampoo, because then your hair smells like me, not you.

David Levithan
There was a pause. I was still scared by every gap in our conversation, fearing that this was it, the point where we had nothing left to say. I was still trying to impress you, and I still wanted to be impressed by you, so I could pass along pieces of your impressiveness to my friends, convincing myself this was possible.

David Levithan
By the time I got there, you'd already decided. And I quickly decided to let you decide. You were already seeing the rooms as ours, and that was enough for me.

David Levithan
So I said I wanted you to stay, even though nothing could stay the same.

David Levithan
We walk into a bar, and you're aware of all the eyes on you. We walk into a bar, and I'm aware of all the eyes on you, too. For you, this translate into confidence. But me? All I can feel is doubt.

David Levithan
What a strange phrase — –not seeing other people. As if it's been constructed to be a lie. We see other people all the time. The question is what we do about it.

David Levithan
Sometimes desire is air, sometimes desire is liquid. And every now and then, when everything else is air and liquid, desire solidifies, and the body is the magnet that draws its weight.

David Levithan
Which is more stubborn, the love or the two arguing people caught within it?

David Levithan
Neophyte, n. There are millions upon millions of people who have been through this before— why is it that no one can give my good advice?

David Levithan