- Hannah Baker: It must be possible to swim in the ocean of the one you love without drowning. It must be possible to swim without becoming water yourself. I keep finding stones tied to my feet.
- Tony Padilla: [to Clay] Look, I liked Hannah. She was a friend, but the girl was a lot. She was drama. And I was apparently the only guy at Liberty who didn't grab her ass or stare at her tits. And so I always got to hear about it and on that particular day, I didn't want to deal, so I let her walk away.
- Clay Jensen: Jesus, Tony.
- Tony Padilla: Half hour, forty-five minutes later, I get the box, open 'em and there's these tapes and a letter. "Please take care of these. Listen, and you'll know how." I started listening to the first tape and then I try calling the Bakers. They don't answer. I fucking speed to her house. The ambulance is already there and the cops. And the front door's open. I run inside. Her parents are there. And she's... they've got her in a body bag. I remember thinking, "There's no handles on that bag. How are they gonna pick her up? How are they gonna carry her?" And they just grabbed the bag and threw her in the ambulance.
- Hannah Baker: [while reading her poem] Today, I am wearing lacy black underwear for the sole purpose of knowing I am wearing them. And underneath that, I am absolutely naked. And I've got skin. Miles and miles of skin. I've got skin to cover all my thoughts like Saran Wrap that you can see through to what leftovers are inside from the night before. And despite what you might think My skin is soft and smooth and easily scarred, but that doesn't matter, right? You don't care about how soft my skin is. You just want to hear about what my fingers do in the dark, but what if all they do is crack open windows so I can see lightning through the clouds? What if all they crave is a jungle gym to climb for a taste of fresher air?
- Hannah Baker: [to Mr. Wells] What future are you peddling?
- Robert Wells: I'll let you take the first guess.
- Hannah Baker: Hoarder?
- Robert Wells: Close. Librarian.
- Hannah Baker: No way you're a librarian.
- Robert Wells: I know. When people hear the term "librarian," they think 60-year-old white-haired woman with cankles. We are rebranding.
- Hannah Baker: No offense, but isn't it like a dying industry? You know, like travel agencies and cupcake stores?
- Robert Wells: Let me guess. You own a Kindle.
- Hannah Baker: Not in a million years. No, I'm a paperback, write-in-the-margins kind of girl.
- Hannah Baker: 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.
- Hannah Baker: Some girls know all the lyrics to each other's songs. They find harmonies in their laughter. Their linked elbows echo in tune. What if I can't hum on key? What if my melodies are the ones nobody hears?
- Justin Foley: [about Tony] He's a dick, he's a prick and he's a cock.
- Zach Dempsey: Okay, those are the same things.
- Ryan Shaver: [while reading his poem] The drag of your hand across my chest sparks a blaze my lips cannot extinguish. You stubborn inferno. You drive fast and damn the red lights for slowing you down. You see my veins shake at your first touch. The power to move my blood on your own accord. The definition of heart and after the stick shift jerk, I beg my skin to do tricks. Like forget how good it feels to lose control. Between the burning house of your hands.
- Hannah Baker: What the hell, Ryan?
- Ryan Shaver: Hannah. What's so secret you couldn't speak to me at school?
- Hannah Baker: You know damn well. How could you do that to me?
- Ryan Shaver: The poem? I did you a favor, Hannah. You're a beautiful poet. Your work deserved to be heard.
- Hannah Baker: You're a self-serving, egotistical fuckwad.
- Ryan Shaver: [scoffs] One day, you will look back on this and know that I was right. What you wrote, you can't teach that. You have to live it.
- Hannah Baker: Well, it's my life, Ryan, it's not yours. Get your own.
- Zach Dempsey: One thing. If one thing had gone differently somewhere along the line, maybe none of this would have happened.
- Ryan Shaver: [to Tony] Just take a brochure. They have scholarships.
- Tony Padilla: I don't need a brochure, don't need your scholarship and I don't need four years of wasted time. I have skills.
- Hannah Baker: [as she walks by] And a sweet Mustang.
- Tony Padilla: Thank you.
- Olivia Baker: [to Hannah] You know, before we opened this store, your father, he used to travel all the time for these snooze-fest pharmaceutical conventions, so I would write him love stories.
- Hannah Baker: Mm-hmm.
- Olivia Baker: They were very, very dramatic and sexy.
- Hannah Baker: Fifty shades of my mother?
- Olivia Baker: I thought they were pretty good, you know. I don't know, I might have some of them. I could find them.
- Hannah Baker: Oh, God, Mom. Please, no.
- Ryan Shaver: Hannah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel embarrassed or humiliated. I know what that's like.
- Hannah Baker: You do?
- Ryan Shaver: I'm a skinny faggot who writes poems. I mean, please.
- Hannah Baker: I don't think you're supposed to use that word.
- Ryan Shaver: Mmm. You're not. I'm allowed.
- Hannah Baker: You knew the shit I shared was personal. You knew where it came from, and that it would get people talking. I realize now I was desperate for someone to listen and you listened. And then you made my most private thoughts a public spectacle.
- Hannah Baker: Sometimes the future doesn't unfold the way you think it will. Shit happens and people suck. Maybe that's why I stopped writing and eventually started making tapes.
- Tony Padilla: [When Clay's mother calls his cell phone as Clay and Tony are climbing rocks] You brought your phone on a climb?
- Clay Jensen: No, I brought my phone on a walk. That's my mom's ring.
- Tony Padilla: Be a good son or plunge to the rocks below.
- Clay Jensen: Yeah. Thanks for the perspective.
- Justin Foley: [to Jessica] What the hell, Jess? You coming or not?
- Jessica Davis: In a minute. I'm talking to Alex.
- Justin Foley: Oh, about what?
- Alex Standall: About how much she misses me. About how much better of a boyfriend I am than you. How she wishes she never broke up with me. How you smell bad.
- Jessica Davis: Alex, come on!
- Justin Foley: Fuck you, Alex.
- Alex Standall: What? It's totally true. She was like, "Justin smells bad." I was like, "I know."
- Jessica Davis: I did not say that.
- Justin Foley: You're a funny guy, Standall.
- Kevin Porter: [to Clay] So, what happened out there in the hallway?
- Clay Jensen: [sighs] I don't know. Tired, I guess.
- Kevin Porter: Tired? Tired of what?
- Clay Jensen: Just tired.
- Kevin Porter: Seems like you were angry. At this school. About Hannah.
- Clay Jensen: Aren't you?
- Kevin Porter: Sure. Angry about another needless death. I'm sad for Hannah and for all of us who who cared about her.
- Clay Jensen: So, are you gonna punish me or what?
- Kevin Porter: Is that what you want me to do?
- Clay Jensen: Do you get a lot of kids coming in here asking for punishment?