Seventeen Quotes

• When you are seventeen you aren't really serious.

  Max Lerner

  Teenage, Serious, Adolescence

  23 Copy quote

• I know that I'm inadequate, but I never thought that at seventeen. I thought I was doing the best I could. I thought I was being idealistic.

  Eric Bogosian

  Knows, Idealistic, Inadequate

  6 Copy quote

• It must be wonderful to be seventeen, and to know everything.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Thought Provoking, Youth, Wonderful

  Arthur C. Clarke (2012). “2010: Odyssey Two”, p.181, RosettaBooks

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• I was sixteen then, and I'm seventeen now, and sometimes I act like I'm about thirteen. Sometimes, I act a lot older than I am--I really do. But people never notice it. People never notice anything.

  J. D. Salinger

  People, Sixteen, Sometimes

  J. D. SALINGER (1951). “THE CATCHER IN THE RYE”

  5 Copy quote

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• The beginning of wisdom, as they say. When you're seventeen you know everything. When you're twenty-seven if you still know everything you're still seventeen.

  Ray Bradbury

  Teenager, Twenties, Seven

  "Dandelion Wine". Book by Ray Bradbury, p. 142, 1957.

  4 Copy quote

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• You go to the marketplace and there are seventeen consciousnesses moving in and out. Sometimes you want the same shirt that I want, and our thought bubbles collide a bit and that makes plot.

  George Saunders

  Moving, Plot, Want

  4 Copy quote

• How late is it? How long have we been sitting here? I look at my watch – three thirty and the day is almost ending. It’s October. All those kids recently returned to classrooms with new bags and pencil cases will be looking forward to half term already. How quickly it goes. Halloween soon, then firework night. Christmas. Spring. Easter. Then there’s my birthday in May. I’ll be seventeen. How long can I stave it off? I don’t know. All I know is that I have two choices – stay wrapped in blankets and get on with dying, or get the list back together and get on with living.

  Jenny Downham

  Easter, Halloween, Spring

  11 Copy quote

• At twelve I looked like a girl of seventeen. My body was developed and shapely. I still wore the blue dress and the blouse the orphanage provided. They made me look like an overgrown lummox.

  Marilyn Monroe

  Inspiring, Girl, Blue Dress

  Marilyn Monroe (2006). “My Story”, p.20, Taylor Trade Publishing

  12 Copy quote

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• Then I noticed that my shadow was crying too, shedding clear, sharp shadow tears. Have you ever seen the shadows of tears, Mr. Wind-Up Bird? They’re nothing like ordinary shadows. Nothing at all. They come here from some other, distant world, especially for our hearts. Or maybe not. It struck me then that the tears my shadow was shedding might be the real thing, and the tears that I was shedding were just shadows. You don’t get it, I’m sure, Mr. Wind-Up Bird. When a naked seventeen-year-old girl is shedding tears in the moonlight, anything can happen. It’s true.

  Haruki Murakami

  Girl, Real, Heart

  4 Copy quote

• Who-who are you?" Seth asked, hesitantly."Wh-what do you want?" How else was was I supposed to reply? The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.I mean, I'd only seen the movie like seventeen times. "I'm Luke Skywalker," I said. "I'm here to rescue you.

  Meg Cabot

  Mean, Want, Mouths

  4 Copy quote

• He was the most perfectly formed man she'd ever imagined. He was movie stars, men in underwear commercials, guys at the gym, the construction worker in the red T-shirt who'd whistled at her but she'd pretended she hadn't heard; he was the men in three-piece suits whose brains were as sexy as their bodies; he was lazy, indolent seventeen-year-old boys whose muscles bulged out of their clothes, rodeo stars, and those smooth-cheeked, eyeglassed men who held their children tenderly. He was all of them.

  Jude Deveraux

  Sexy, Stars, Children

  Jude Deveraux (2012). “Sweet Liar”, p.255, Simon and Schuster

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• Perfection I've lived with the pretense of perfection for seventeen years. Give my room a cursory inspection, you'd think I have OCD. But it's only habit and not obsession that keeps it all orderly. Of course, I don't want to give the impression that it's all up to me.

  Ellen Hopkins

  Thinking, Years, Giving

  Ellen Hopkins (2008). “Impulse”, p.675, Simon and Schuster

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• I work a seventeen hour day, and I'm personally responsible for 108 staff members in the embassy.

  Shirley Temple

  Hours, Responsible, Staff

  5 Copy quote

• But she was seventeen now and not actually dumb. She knew that you could love somebody more than anything and still not love the person all that much, if you were busy with other things.

  Jonathan Franzen

  Dumb, Busy, Persons

  Jonathan Franzen (2010). “Freedom: A Novel”, p.42, Macmillan

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• You’re seventeen,” Magnus said. “You can’t have wasted a life you’ve barely lived.

  Cassandra Clare

  Magnus Bane, Said

  19 Copy quote

• Please, please, help me grow to be like them, the ones'll soon be here, who never grow old, can't die, that's what they say, can't die, no matter what, or maybe they died a long time ago but Cecy calls, and Mother and Father call, and Grandmere who only whispers, and now they're coming and I'm nothing, not like them who pass through walls and live in trees or live underneath until seventeen-year rains flood them up and out, and the ones who run in packs, let me be the one! If they live forever, why not me?

  Ray Bradbury

  Mother, Running, Wall

  4 Copy quote

• Only the dead stay seventeen forever.

  Haruki Murakami

  Forever, Norwegian Wood, Toru Watanabe

  "Norwegian Wood". Book by Haruki Murakami, 1987.

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• I try to think of something catchy to say, but there's nothing but irritation that something that was funny yo an eleven-year-old boy is still funny to a seventeen-year-old one.

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Boys, Thinking, Irritation

  Maggie Stiefvater (2011). “The Scorpio Races”, p.62, Scholastic UK

  5 Copy quote

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• A woman’s magazine quiz: Question: You decide to do the dread deed and just as things are starting to get hot he comes, rolls over, and asks, “Was it good for you?” You: a. Say, “God, yes! That was the best seventeen seconds of my life” b. Say, “Sure, as good as it gets for me with a man.” c. Put a Certs in your navel and say, “That’s for you, Mr. Bunnyman. You can have it on your way back up, after the job is finished

  Christopher Moore

  Jobs, Men, Good As It Gets

  7 Copy quote

• There were five others before they got to him. He smiled a little when his turn came. His voice was low, smoky, and dead sexy. “My name is Augustus Waters,” he said. “I’m seventeen. I had a little touch of osteosarcoma a year and a half ago, but I’m just here today at Isaac’s request.” “And how are you feeling?” asked Patrick. “Oh, I’m grand.” Augustus Waters smiled with a corner of his mouth. “I’m on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friend.

  John Green

  Sexy, Names, Voice

  John Green (2008). “Paper Towns”, p.245, Penguin

  9 Copy quote

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• And, like a fool, she kissed him back. Kissed him a way that would leave no doubt about the way she felt about him. Kissed him because she knew the chances were slim she'd have very many kisses like that in her lifetime. Which is a sad thing when you're only seventeen.

  Cinda Williams Chima

  Kissing, Doubt, Slim

  7 Copy quote

• How old are you?” she asked. My answer was automatic and ingrained. “Seventeen.” “And how long have you been seventeen?” I tried not to smile at the patronizing tone. “A while,” I admitted. “Okay,” she said, abruptly enthusiastic. She smiled up at me.

  Stephenie Meyer

  Long, Answers, Tone

  4 Copy quote

• No one in my family or my circle of friends had ever had to confront something like this. Jamie was seventeen, a child on the verge of womanhood, dying and still very much alive at the same time. I was afraid, more afraid than I'd ever been, not only for her, but for me as well. I lived in fear of doing something wrong, of doing something that would offend her. Was it okay to ever get angry in her presence? Was it okay to talk about the future anymore?

  Nicholas Sparks

  Children, Circles, Dying

  FaceBook post by Nicholas Sparks from Jul 20, 2011

  4 Copy quote

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• It's too late. Seventeen-year-olds don't need fathers. Oh god. I'm thirty-four years old and I need a father. I can't even begin to think what my daughter needs.

  Melina Marchetta

  Daughter, Father, Thinking

  Melina Marchetta (2007). “Looking for Alibrandi”, p.66, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  4 Copy quote

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• Which is a sad thing when you're only seventeen.

  Cinda Williams Chima

  Sad Things

  4 Copy quote