I was created a copy. I want more than anything to be an original.

You catch more flies with honey, ever heard of that?” He shrugged. “I don’t like flies. They’re annoying.” He grinned “I’d rather catch hell.

Look, you’re cute, but you’re not cute enough to keep me from going off on you for being an idiot. – Cold Blood.

She is shallow and easy and meaningless. I am deep and complicated and appreciative of the simple experience of joy.

Imitations don’t have mothers and fathers. We don’t have family. We just are. Until we’re not.

The rough fabric of my cotton nightgown chafes so I lie very still. Once, during a training exercise, they gave me a satin blouse in place of my coarse uniform. For a few moments, I was completely her – eighteen-year-old Raven Rogen, my Authentic – down to the fabric. The slippery material felt like cool fingertips on a hot day. All I could think was: She wears clothes like this every single day. I.

In this moment, with the wind whipping my hair, the view endless and open, I experience joyful abandon for the first time in my existence. It is sweet and sharp. I want to memorize it, store it up, so that when I need it most, I can recall that this feeling does actually exist – and it is entirely worth living for.

Just like any other high school dance, the theme was "crepe paper in the gym

I cranked the volume on the stereo and sang at the top of my lungs to an old Britney Spears song, my possession and enjoyment of which, I hoped, would remain a secret between me and my car.

You’d kiss me back right now if I kissed you,” he said, and I tried to decide whether to even attempt denial. “But then you’d remember him and you’d feel bad for it.