Ellen Hopkins
Christmas is far and away my favorite holiday. I love everything about it, from the event that inspired it, hoping for a white one, to wrapping presents. But mostly I love having family and friends gathered, and sharing traditions.Collection: Christmas
And at some point I would like to talk my publisher into doing an anthology of my poetry alongside some teen readers' poetry. It would be fun, and really wonderful to get their stuff out there.Collection: Teen
Nonfiction speaks to the head. Fiction speaks to the heart. Poetry speaks to the soul. It's the essence of beauty. The essence of pain. It pleases the eye and the ear.Collection: Poetry
For short term relaxation, I take a hot tub. It's my best way to unblock writers' block, too. For a bit longer relaxation, I enjoy camping. Just being in the wilderness, with no phones or computers or anything I have to do really refreshes my spirit.Collection: Computers
Believe it or not, I sold my first novel, 'Crank,' with only seventy-five pages complete. It was in verse then, and it was hard-hitting then.
People inspire me. Everyone is such an individual and has unique stories. I'm a voyeur. I eavesdrop. Sometimes I ask questions. And sometimes people just want to tell me their stories.
Without poetry, stories would be told in sepia.
I write books for young adults because I truly connect with them on some very deep level. They are our hope, our future, and inspiring them to be the best they can be is very important to me.
I couldn't have known 'Crank' was going to be published, let alone become a big hit. That book was very personal for me: I had to tell the story for myself.
There are people who think it's easier to write books in verse, and it's definitely not.
I write poetry anyway and have for years and years. For me, putting fiction and poetry together is like the best of both worlds.
I never actually plan sequels. They demand to be done.
Love means holding on to someone just as hard as you can because if you don't, one blink and they might disappear...forever.Collection: Mean
Life is all about change. If it were static, think about how boring it would be. You can't be afraid of it, and you can't worry that you'll mess things up. You deserve good things, and I want to be one of them.Collection: Life
Now that I have opened that bottle of memories they're pouring out like wine, crimson and bittersweet.Collection: Memories
HAPPY EVER AFTER is a concept I'll never believe in. I would be content to sample some little taste of happiness today, tonight, right now. Though I know without a doubt that tomorrow will come saturated with pain. Life is like that. At least my life. And honestly, I cant think of anyone whose life is any different. The price tag for joy is misery. [...]Collection: Pain
Living means taking chances. Risks. Playing safe all the time is being dead inside, even if you happen to still be breathing.Collection: Mean
In control. Out of control. Sometimes they're the same thing. The trick is knowing that, realizing it's okay to feel out of control once in a while, as long as you're sure you can regain the upper hand when you absolutely need to.Collection: Hands
You have to realize there is nothing more you can do to convince someone you love to turn their life around. You simply have to say, "Look. I love you, but I cannot stand by and watch you kill yourself slowly. When you want help I'm here. Until then, goodbye." That may sound cruel, but self-preservation is paramount to helping someone else. If you're a wreck, you're useless to them, anyway. And if they refuse help, despite knowing the likely outcome, they will head down that path anyway.Collection: Goodbye
Sometimes the little things in life mean the most.Collection: Thankful
The first time I kissed you. One kiss, and I was totally hooked. Addicted to you. I could never love anyone the way I love you. I'd follow you across the universe.Collection: Love You
Anger is a valid emotion. It's only bad when it takes control and makes you do things you don't want to do.Collection: Anger
It's probably weird to think about an addiction like it's a sentient being, but that's how it feels. Like it's something living inside you. Something you can't get rid of because killing it means killing you.Collection: Mean
Anger is easier than forgiveness.Collection: Perfect
I wanted to meet the monster. Why go down if you can go up?Collection: Monsters
You were a summer gift, one I'll always treasure. You were a dream I never wanted to wake up from. You opened my eyes to things I'll never really see. You're the best thing that will ever happen to me.Collection: Summer
Wish you could turn off the questions, turn off the voices, turn off all sound. Yearn to close out the ugliness, close out the filthiness, close out all light. Long to cast away yesterday, cast away memory, cast away all jeapordy. Pray you could somehow stop uncertainty, somehow stop the loathing, somehow stop the pain. Act on your impulse, swallow the bottle, cut a little deeper, put the gun to your chest.Collection: Pain
I don't need more pain in my life. Why did I invite it in? Do I have to feel pain to believe I feel anything at all?Collection: Pain
I hate this feeling. Like I'm here, but I'm not. Like someone cares. But they don't. Like I belong somewhere else, anywhere but here, and escape lies just past that snowy window, cool and crisp as the February air.Collection: Lying
Her smile is like summer moonlight-beautiful and magical, with a fire that could melt the night.Collection: Beautiful
Taking no chances means wasting your dreams.Collection: Dream
Imperfections create character.Collection: Character
The problem with resolutions is they're only as solid as the person making them.Collection: Problem
Some people never find the right kind of love. You know, the kind that steals your breath away, like diving into snowmelt. The kind that jolts your heart, sets it beating apace, an anxious hiccuping of hummingbird wingsCollection: Love You
Eventually, it becomes a matter of scale. When the good outweighs the bad, you stay. When the bad is the only thing you notice anymore, you think about your future, or what's left of it, consider options.Collection: Life
Me? Beautiful? I'm plain as cardboard. That may be how you see yourself, but the rest of the world would be hard to agree. You shine brighter than the Milky Way. Now there are those who might try to take that from you, but you don't have to give it away. Keep on shining Pattyn. And when the right young man comes along, he'll love you all the more for giftin' this sad planet with your light.Collection: Beautiful
This time when we kiss, I feel it in the pit of my stomach, I feel it in my heart. And I realize love isn't about sex. It's about connection.Collection: Sweet
That's what I'll be. A silhouette, rarely seen, and yet believed in.Collection: Silhouettes
Commitment means losing yourself to gain something temporary. Nothing lasts. Not looks. Not love.Collection: Mean
As the old saying goes, "sometimes loving someone means letting them go.Collection: Mean
Don't you know? We're connected by an invisible chain. It's very long, very light. But also very strong. It can't rust. Can't break. And the only thing that can sever it is if you ever stop loving me.Collection: Strong
Sometimes you're traveling a highway, the only road you've ever known and wham! A semi comes from nowhere and rolls right over you. Sometimes you dont wake up. But if you happen to you know things will never be the same. Sometimes that's not so bad. Sometimes lives instersect, no rhyme, no reason, except, perhaps, for a passing semi.Collection: Over You
...what good would it do to shutter your windows, never dream of rainbows or find hope in promises? Why choose to walk away rather than hold your ground and fight for love?Collection: Dream
One foot in front of the other, counting tiles on the floor so I don't have to focus the blur of painted smiles, fake faces.Collection: Feet
Think long and hard before offering your heart to someone who can only accept it part-timeCollection: Heart
Or might the soul clone itself, create a perfect imitation of something yet to be defined? In this way, can a reflection be altered?Collection: Reflection
So you try to think of someone else you're mad at, and the unavoidable answer pops into your little warped brain: everyone.Collection: Depression
I want the part of you that you refuse to give.Collection: Giving
That's what I'll be. A silhouette, rarely seen, and yet believed in. Kaeleigh wants to believe in me. I am her twin, forever alive inside her. And when she needs me, I am always here.Collection: Believe
When the door to love opens, The window to control closes.Collection: Love