Made You Up Quotes

“Sometimes I think people take reality for granted.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“People say teenagers think they're immortal, and I agree with that. But I think there's a difference between thinking you're immortal and knowing you can survive. Thinking you're immortal leads to arrogance, thinking you deserve the best. Surviving means having the worst thrown at you and being able to continue on despite that. It means striving for what you want most, even when it seems our of your reach, even when everything is working against you.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Believing something existed and then finding out it didn't was like reaching the top of the stairs and thinking there was one more step.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Intelligence is not measured by how much you know, but by how much you have the capacity to learn.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Everyone's interesting if you stare at them long enough.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“I didn't have the luxury of taking reality for granted. And I wouldn't say I hated people who did, because that's just about everyone. I didn't hate them. They didn't live in my world.

But that never stopped me from wishing I lived in theirs.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“What you loved as a child, you will love forever.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“No, you're not a bad person," he said. "And Richter isn't a bad person, and I'm not a bad person. We're just people, and people sometimes do stupid things.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“I am real. This”–he put his other hand over the first-“is real. You see me interacting with other people all day long, don’t you? I talk to people; I affect things in the world. I cause things to happen. I am real.”

“But-but what if this whole place”-I had to suck in air again-“what if everything is inside my head? East Shoal and Scarlet and this bridge and you-what if you’re not real because nothing is real?”

“If nothing’s real, then what does it matter?” he said. “You live here. Doesn’t that make it real enough?”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Dear Asshole: Thank you for keeping your word and believing me. It was more than I expected. Also, I'm sorry you were inconvenienced by my gluing your locker shut at the beginning of this year. However, I am not sorry that I did it, because it was a lot of fun. Love, Alex.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Did you meet your soul mate? That always happens on the first day of school, right?'

'Oh God, Charlie, she's letting you read again! You went straight to the paranormal section, didn't you?”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“In a weird way, it felt like he belonged here. He belonged in the land of phoenixes and witches, the place where things were too fantastic to be real.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Was there some kind of law about drop-kicking assholes in the face? Probably. They always had laws against things that needed to be done.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Was everything made up? Was this whole world inside my head? If I ever woke up from it, would I be inside a padded room somewhere, drooling all over myself?

Would I even be myself?”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Mile's fingers pressed into the small of my back. "Basorexia," he mumbled.
"Gesundheit."
He laughed. "It's an overwhelming desire to kiss."
"I thought you weren't good at figuring out what you felt."
"I'm probably using the word in the wrong context. But I'm pretty sure that's what this is.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Our neighbors turned to stare at us, because Miles Richter laughing was one of those things that the Mayans had predicted would signal the end of the world. He wasn't particularly loud about it, but it was Miles laughing, a sound no mortal had ever heard before.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“If nothing’s real, then what does it matter?” he said. “You live here. Doesn’t that make it real enough?”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“The only thing missing was Miles. But he was probably circling somewhere, destroying villages and hoarding gold in his mountain lair.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“He had to be real. Out of everything, he had to be real.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“I think you're an improvement on my imagination," I said, flipping back through the pages.
"You, too," he said. "My imagination—well, what little imagination I have—doesn't quite live up to the real thing."
"Agreed," I said. "The real thing is much better.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“I pushed myself back up. He kept staring at me. I realized I wanted to kiss him.

I didn't know why. Maybe it was the way he looked at me like I was the only thing he wanted to look at.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“My parents didn't grow up here or anything. They chose to live in this nowhere town. Why? Because it was named after Hannibal of Carthage. Their basic train of thought was this: Hannibal's Rest? And we're naming our child after Alexander the Great? MARVELOUS. Ah, the history, it tickles.

Sometimes I wanted to beat my parents over the head with a frying pan.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“The rest of the year, I wondered if the point of Christmas was just spending money and getting fat and opening gifts. Indulging.
But when Christmas finally comes, and that warm, tingly, mints-and-sweaters-and-fireplace-fires feeling gathers in the bottom of your stomach, and you're lying on the floor with all the lights off but the ones on the Christmas tree, and listening to the silence of the snow falling outside, you see the point. For that one instance in time, everything is good in the world. It doesn't matter if everything isn't actually good. It's the one time of the year when pretending is enough.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“I grabbed his hand. He jumped and stared at the connection like something both magical and dangerous had happened.

"Do you wanna be friends?" I asked.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“He remembers you," said June, and my stomach gave an odd stunted flop.
"Remembers me?"
"The girl who wanted to set the lobsters free. That was the day we left for Germany. I was shopping for a few last-minute things, and he wanted to talk to you. He liked your hair.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“There is no force in high school more powerful than one person's blunt disagreement.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Over time, the real remained in the photo while the hallucinations faded away. I discovered what sorts of things my mind liked to make up.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“I realized everyone around me was wearing a uniform. Black pants, white button-down shirts, green ties. Gotta love the smell of institutional equality in the morning.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“Yeah. I told you he was crazy, right? I heard he does some weird stuff at home, too.' He said it with a conspiratorial stage whisper. 'Like mowing his lawn, and trimming his peonies.'

'Peonies?' I balked. 'God, he really is a freak.”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up

“I wished I had put more cherries on that slice. The whole jar of cherries. I could watch him eat a whole jar of cherries.
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, what was happening to me?”
― Francesca Zappia, Made You Up