SMARTER, SHARPER, BRIGHTER, NEWER!

GUIDE TO SUCCESS :

never say what you really feel

why make a choice when it's safer just to make a deal?

stay away from what causes a stir or offense

keep your heart silent, don't dispute

if it turns violent, make sure you know who to shoot

eventually every relationship ends, so ignore all your feelings and then murder your friends

all the following sentences are taken from the column by topaz winters. you can read all of topaz’s works and buy her books here. feel free to change pronouns, etc as desired !

“ i am not a person who gets angry often. ”

“ no matter which way you looked at him, he always lit up the dark. ”

“ if love is a transformative force, does it matter if destruction comes with the deal? ”

“ i couldn’t help but believe in it while it lasted. ”

“ i lost the love, but not the playlist. ”

“ did I do that right? i’ve never kissed anyone before. ”

“ how easy it is to be deafened by love. ”

“ perhaps we both knew it was going too quickly. ”

“ listen to this, it reminds me of you. ”

“ i knew it was coming before it happened. ”

“ i think we should just be friends. ”

“ sometimes the echoes are so much louder than the memory itself. ”

“ i don’t know how to have the conversation we need to have. ”

“ i understand if you’re still angry with me, and if you wish this had never happened between us. ”

“ we don’t have to do this. and i could back away now. and it could be so easy. ”

“ i resented it until i did not have it, and then i ached for it. ”

“ it’s difficult to fathom all of the methods of falling for a person. ”

“ the dark is only dark if light exists somewhere else. ”

“ they say the silence is part of the music. ”

“ we all settle for something, don’t we? ”

“ in my defense, there were so many gardens in her laugh. ”

“ no matter what happens i’ll be with you in the end. ”

“ i wasn’t looking for a person to call my own. ”

“  today I imagined what it would be like to wake up next to you, and i’m going to let that thought sustain me for the day. ”

“ how long will this go on before we admit we’re in love with each other? ”

“ it wasn’t love at first sight, it wasn’t all okay the moment i saw her face, but in my defense, it was something close. ”

“ love turns us into drunken golden fools. ”

“ i know this. do you think i don’t know this? ”

“ i kissed her and meant it, maybe more than i’d ever meant anything else. ”

“ one of you leaves first, and you both know who it’s going to be. ”

“ is aloneness not its own kind of intimacy? ”

“ do you ever think what might’ve happened if we hadn’t met when we did? ”

“ there’s so much there to want, so much that sometimes it’s easier not to respond. ”

“ sometimes the silence is a truth in itself. ”

“ i tell her i love her, and it is the first truth my mouth has ever tasted. ”

“ i want to spool the words back into my throat as soon as i’ve said them, and this is how i know it is real. ”

“ i’m the one who loves louder, who needs more. “ 

“ i fell hopelessly in love with you and haven’t slept for the past month. ”

“ it wasn’t fair, what you did. it wasn’t fair, how i felt. ”

“ maybe we could start over. ”

“ you had a good thing and now look what you’ve done to it. look what you’ve turned it into. ”

“ i’m quieter than most but never as quiet as i should be. ”

“ the universe and the human body are mostly made up of empty space. ”

“ this is something you learn early on if you wish to stay alive, so naturally, it’s something i was never particularly interested in learning. ”

“ can’t it end there? do we have to include the next part? ”

“ love is the only way i know how to turn waiting into something noble. ”

“ i want every day to be easy as the start. ”

“ i would’ve loved to hate her, but mostly i just missed her. ”

“ maybe it shouldn’t matter, but it does. it does. ”

“ there are places on the earth the sun never touches, but the deepest, tenderest part of me wants to believe they find other sources of light. ”

“  you know I still think about that summer. ”