Hannah Baker Quotes

″So who were you? I saw your height and your hair, but I couldn’t see your face clearly enough. Still, you gave yourself up, Tyler. And for some reason, telling me you were nowhere made your eyes twitch and your forehead break into a sweat.”

“But eventually, as they always will, the rumors reached me. And everybody knows you can’t disprove a rumor.”

″And she was new to the school, so the rumors overshadowed everything else I knew about her.”

“I’ve heard so many stories I don’t know which one is the most popular. But I do know which is the least popular. The truth.”

″For Jessica, it was easier to think of me as Bad Hannah than as the Hannah she got to know at Monet’s. It was easier to accept. Easier to understand. For her, the rumors needed to be true.”

″Clay, your reputation was deserved. But mine… mine was not. And there I was with you. Adding to my reputation.”

“With every side of every tape, an old memory gets turned upside down. A reputation twists into something I don’t recognize.”

″So thank you, Justin. Sincerely. My very first kiss was wonderful. And for the month or so that we lasted, and everywhere that we went, the kisses were wonderful. You were wonderful.”

“Hello boys and girls. Hannah Baker here. Live and in stereo. No return engagements, no encore, and this time absolutely no requests. I hope you’re ready, because I’m about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why it ended. And if you’re listening to these tapes, you’re one of the reasons why.”

“Dream big, they say. Shoot for the stars. Then they lock us away for 12 years and tell us where to sit, when to pee, and what to think. […] Then we turn 18 and even though we’ve never had an original thought, we have to make the most important decision of our lives. […] And if you don’t have the money and don’t really have the grades, a lot of the decision gets made for you.”

“For just a buck, you get the name and number of your one true soul mate. For five bucks, you get your top five.”

“That truth first came to light a few weeks ago, at a party, with Hannah directly in front of me. An amazing moment when everything seemed to be falling into place.”

“Why would you want to mail out a bunch of tapes blaming you in a suicide? You wouldn’t. But Hannah wants us, those of us on the list, to hear what she has to say. And we’ll do what she says if only to keep them away from the people not on the list.”

“This is not obsession. It’s respect. I’m living out her last requests.”

″You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life. Everything...affects everything.”

“But now it’s too late. And that’s why at this moment I feel so much hate. Toward myself. I deserve to be on this list. Because if I hadn’t been so afraid of everyone else, I might have told Hannah that someone cared.”

“I hardly knew Hannah Baker. I mean, I wanted to. I wanted to know her more than I had the chance. […] [W]e never had the chance to get closer. And not once did I take her for granted. Not once.”