Twilight (novel)

"I'd never given much thought to how I would die — though I'd had reason enough in the last few months — but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this."

"When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end."

"I was wearing my favorite shirt — sleeveless, white eyelet lace. It was a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka."

"When I landed in Port Angeles, it was raining. I didn't see it as an omen — just unavoidable. I'd already said my goodbyes to the sun."

"It was beautiful, of course; I couldn't deny that."

"Good luck tended to avoid me."

"Where was the feel of the institution? ... Where were the chain link fences, the metal detectors?"

"I can do this, I lied to myself feebly. No one was going to bite me."

"I tried to be diplomatic, but mostly I just lied a lot."

"It looked like clouds and a sense of humor didn't mix. A few months of this and I'd forget how to use sarcasm."

"Every one of them was chalky pale, the palest of all the students living in this sunless town. Paler than me, the albino."

"So, did you stab Edward Cullen with a pencil or what?"

"Forks was literally my personal hell on Earth."

"As far as I was aware, he'd never shot the gun on the job. But he kept it ready. When I came here as a child, he would always remove the bullets as soon as he walked in the door. I guess he considered me old enough now not to shoot myself by accident, and not depressed enough to shoot myself on purpose."

"His hair was dripping wet, disheveled — even so, he looked like he'd just finished shooting a commercial for hair gel. His dazzling face was friendly, open, a slight smile on his flawless lips. But his eyes were careful."

""Ladies first, partner?" Edward asked. I looked up to see him smiling a crooked smile so beautiful that I could only stare at him like an idiot. "Or I could start, if you wish." The smile faded; he was obviously wondering if I was mentally competent."

"When he touched me, it stung my hand as if an electric current had passed through us."

""Hasn't anyone ever told you? Life isn't fair." "I believe I have heard that somewhere before," he agreed dryly."

"I felt excited to go to school, and that scared me. I knew it wasn't the stimulating learning environment I was anticipating, or seeing my new set of friends. If I was being honest with myself, I knew I was eager to get to school because I would see Edward Cullen. And that was very, very stupid."

"I distracted myself [...] by thinking about Mike and Eric, and the obvious difference in how teenage boys responded to me here. [...] Perhaps it was because I was a novelty here, where novelties were few and far between. Possibly my crippling clumsiness was seen as endearing rather than pathetic, casting me as a damsel in distress. [...] I wasn't sure if I didn't prefer being ignored."

"I wasn't interesting. And he was. Interesting...and brilliant...and mysterious...and perfect...and beautiful...and possibly able to lift full-sized vans with one hand."

"Only in a town this small would a father know when the high school dances were."

""Do you want a ride to Seattle?" "With who?" I asked, mystified. "Myself, obviously." He enunciated every syllable, as if he were talking to someone mentally handicapped."

"But can your truck make it there on one tank of gas?" [...] "I don't see how that is any of your business." Stupid, shiny Volvo owner. "The wasting of finite resources is everyone's business."

"It would be more...prudent for you not to be my friend," he explained. "But I'm tired of trying to stay away from you, Bella."

"I decided as long as I was going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly."

"What if I'm not a superhero? What if I'm the bad guy?"

"People can't smell blood," he contradicted. "Well, I can — that's what makes me sick. It smells like rust... and salt."

"Don't be offended, but you seem to be one of those people who just attract accidents like a magnet. So... try not to fall into the ocean or get run over or anything, all right?"

""Bella?" I turned and he was leaning toward me, his pale, glorious face just inches from mine. My heart stopped beating. "Sleep well," he said. His breath blew in my face, stunning me."

"About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him — and I didn't know how dominant that part might be — that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him."

"Trust me just this once — you are the opposite of ordinary."

"Of all the things about me that could frighten you, you worry about my driving."

"What kind of car is that?" I asked. "An M3." "I don't speak Car and Driver."

"It's twilight," Edward murmured. [...] "It's the safest time of day for us," he said, answering the unspoken question in my eyes. "The easiest time. But also the saddest, in a way ... the end of another day, the return of the night. Darkness is so predictable, don't you think?" He smiled wistfully. "I like the night. Without the dark, we'd never see the stars."

"Our relationship couldn’t continue to balance, as it did, on the point of a knife. We would fall off one edge or the other, depending entirely on his decision, or his instincts. My decision was made, made before I’d ever consciously chosen, and I was committed to seeing it through. Because there was nothing more terrifying to me, more excruciating, than the thought of turning away from him. It was an impossibility."

"I'm the world's best predator, aren't I? Everything about me invites you in — my voice, my face, even my smell. As if I need any of that!"

"You are exactly my brand of heroin."

"Bella, I don't know if I could live with myself if I ever hurt you. You don't know how it's tortured me. [...] The thought of you still, white, cold ... to never see you blush scarlet again, or see that flash of intuition in your eyes when you see through my pretenses ... it would be unendurable. [...] You are the most important thing to me now. The most important thing to me ever."

"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb..." he murmured. I looked away, hiding my eyes as I thrilled to the word. "What a stupid lamb," I sighed. "What a sick, masochistic lion."

"If I could dream at all, it would be about you. And I'm not ashamed of it."

"Bring on the shackles. I'm your prisoner."

"For almost ninety years I've walked among my kind, and yours ... all the time thinking I was complete in myself, not realizing what I was seeking. And not finding anything, because you weren't alive yet."

"Yeah, it's an off day when I don't get somebody telling me how edible I smell."

""I love you," I whispered. "You are my life now," he answered simply."

""Vampires like baseball?" "It's the American pastime," he said with mock solemnity."

"You're wrong, you know," he said quietly. "What?" I gasped. "I can feel what you're feeling now — and you are worth it."

"It's been almost a century that Edward's been alone. Now he's found you. You can't see the changes that we see, we who have been with him for so long. Do you think any of us want to look into his eyes for the next hundred years if he loses you?"

"Afraid of a needle. Oh, a sadistic vampire, intent on torturing her to death, sure, no problem, she runs off to meet him. An IV, on the other hand..."

"I can't always be Lois Lane," I insisted. "I want to be Superman, too."