Jenny Downham, Before I Die

"He says, 'Anything could be happening down there, but up here you just wouldn't know it.'I know what he means. It could be pandemonium in all those little houses, everyone's dreams in a mess. But up here feels peaceful. Clean."

"We make patterns, we share moments."

"Moments. All gathering towards this one."

"It comes and goes. People think if you're sick you become fearless and brave, but you don't. Most of the time it's like being stalked by a psycho, like I might get shot any second. But sometimes I forget for hours.''What makes you forget''People. Doing stuff. When I was with you in the wood, I forgot for a whole afternoon."

"You want some sweet and lovely things, Tessa, but be careful. Other people can't always give you what you want."

"Death straps me to the hospital bed, claws its way onto my chest and sits there. I didn't know it would hurt this much. I didn't know that everything good that's ever happened in my life would be emptied out by it."

"I don't give a shit, Dad!"Well I do! I absolutely give a shit! This will completely exhaust you."It's my body. I can do what I like!"So you don't care about your body now"No, I'm sick of it! I'm sick of doctors and needles and blood tests and transfusions. I'm sick of being stuck in a bed day after day while the rest of you get on with your lives. I hate it! I hate all of you! Adam's gone for a university interview, did you know that? He's going to be here for years doing whatever he likes and I'm going to be under the ground in a couple of weeks!"

"I sit up in bed and watch her fiddle about in the back of my wardrobe. I think she's got a plan. That's what's good about Zoey. She'd better hurry up though, because I'm starting to think of things like carrots. And air. And ducks. And pear trees. Velvet and silk. Lakes. I'm going to miss ice. And the sofa. And the lounge. And the way Cal loves magic tricks. And white things- milk, snow, swans."

"I lean back on the pillows and look at the corners of the room. When I was a kid, I always wanted to live on the ceiling - it looked so clean and uncluttered, like the top of a cake."

"It's as if a child with a brush and too much enthusiasm has been set free with a tin of black paint inside me."

"But all that is warm will go cold. My ears will fall off and my eyes will melt. My mouth will be clamped shut. My lips will turn to glue... No taste or smell or touch or sound. Nothing to look at. Total emptiness for ever."

"Maybe you should say goodbye, Cal.''No.''It might be important.''It might make her die."

"It's really going to happen. I really won't ever go back to school. Not ever. I'll never be famous or leave anything worthwhile behind. I'll never go to college or have a job. I won't see my brother grow up. I won't travel, never earn money, never drive, never fall in love or leave home or get my own house. It's really, really true. A thought stabs up, growing from my toes and ripping through me, until it stifles everything else and becomes the only thing I'm thinking. It fills me up like a silent scream."

"It's all right, Tessa, you can go. We love you. You can go now.''Why are you saying that''She might need permission to die, Cal.''I don't want her to. She doesn't have my permission."

"I love you. It hurts more than anything ever has, but I do. So don't you dare tell me I don't. Don't you ever say it again!"

"I love you. I love you. I send this message through my fingers and into his, up his arm and into his heart. Hear me. I love you. And I'm sorry to leave you."

"I wish I had a boyfriend. I wish he lived in the wardrobe on a coat hanger. Whenever I wanted, I could get him out and he'd look at me the way boys do in films, as if I'm beautiful."