Paper Towns Quotes

“Each of us starts out as a watertight vessel. And these things happen—these people leave us, or don't love us, or don't get us, or we don't get them, and we lose and fail and hurt one another. And the vessel starts to crack open in places . . . Once the vessel cracks open, the end becomes inevitable . . . But there is all this time between when the cracks start to open up and when we finally fall apart. And it is only in that time that we can see one another, because we see out of ourselves through our cracks and into others through theirs.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“She would stay on the road and in hiding, a balloon floating through the sky, eating up hundreds of miles a day with a help of the perpetual tailwind.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“I'm a big believer in random capitalization. The rules of capitalization are so unfair to the words in the middle. (32)”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“As we walked, I kept taking glances at her through the crowd, quick snapshots: a photographic series entitled Perfection Stands Still While Mortals Walk Past.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“We are now as I wished we could be then.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“To be abandoned like that! Shut out when you most need to be loved.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“Ben, if you get pee in my brand-new car, I am going to cut your balls off."
Still peeing, Ben looks over at me smirking. "You´re gonna need a hell of a big knife, bro.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“A small olive-skinned creature who had hit puberty but never hit it very hard, Ben had been my best friend since fifth grade, when we both finally owned up to the fact that neither of us was likely to attract anyone else as a best friend.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“As I followed Margo's directions through the maze of one-way streets, we saw a few people sleeping on the sidewalk or sitting on benches, but nobody was moving. Margo rolled down the window, and I felt the thick air blow across my face, warmer than night ought to be. I glanced over and saw strands of her hair blowing all around her face. Even though I could see her there, I felt entirely alone among these big and empty buildings, like I'd survived the apocalypse and the world had been given to me, this whole and amazing and endless world, mine for the exploring.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“Margo was so beautiful that even her fake smiles were convincing. (54)”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“Ben's tongue is like sunscreen...It's good for your health and should be applied liberally.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“So maybe we won’t ever win the lottery, or marry royalty, or make that last second shot. That doesn’t mean we won’t have amazing adventures, meet exceptional people, and make indelible memories. The trick is to notice before it’s too late.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“I could stand up and go to her and kiss her. I could. But there is still too much to be ruined.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“My parents always liked it when I cursed in front of them. I could see the pleasure of it in their faces. It signified that I trusted them, that I was myself in front of them.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“I don't believe in prom,' I reminded her as she rounded a corner. I expertly angled my raisin bran to accomodate the g-forces. I'd done this before.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“She spoke quietly then, the tiniest crack in her voice, and all at once Lacey Pemerton was not Lacey Pemberton. She was just—like, a person.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“I left the only way you can leave. You pull your life off all at once - like a Band-Aid.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“La ciudad era papel, pero los recuerdos no”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“I feel like I might start crying and that I'm going to cry pee.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“In the end it reveals a lot more about the person doing the imagining than it does about the person being imagined.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“Before any of it could make sense, it had to be heard.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“I always liked routine. I suppose I never found boredom very boring.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“Such was life that morning: nothing really mattered that much, not the good things and the bad ones. We were in the business of mutual amusement, and we were reasonably prosperous.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“I think maybe I know why,' she finally said.
'Why?'
'Maybe all the strings inside him broke,' she said.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“Because no one thought she was a person, she had no one to really talk to.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“It's so hard to leave-until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world...Leaving feels too good, once you leave.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“It's gas! It's gonna blow!" Ben shouts. He throws open the passenger door and takes off, running in a panic. He hurdles a split-rail fence and tears across a hay field. I get out as well, but not in quite the same hurry. Radar is outside, too, and as Ben hauls ass, Radar is laughing. "It's the beer," he says.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“Well," Ben went on,"someone should just tell her to come on home, because she can find the world's largest balls right here in Orlando, Florida. They're located in a special display case known as 'my scrotum.'" Radar laughed, and Ben continued. "I mean seriously. My balls are so big that when you order french fries from McDonald's, you can choose one of four sizes: small, medium,large, and my balls.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“We are not as frail as the strings would make us believe.”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“I will play out the string. I will not betray your trust. I will find you.”
― John Green, Paper Towns