Gennifer Choldenko · 225 pages
Rating: (35.9K votes)
“Nobody knows how things will turn out, that's why they go ahead and play the game...You give it your all and sometimes amazing things happen, but it's hardly ever what you expect.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“Now I understand. When you love someone, you have to try things even if they don't make sense to anyone else.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“Life is amazing, isn't it? You can't ever tell what will happen. Nobody knows until they go ahead and play the game.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you're me. I came here because my mother said I had to.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“I haven’t seen you for three whole months,” I say. “Two months, twenty-two days, twenty-two days,” Natalie calls out.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“What they say about females being the weaker sex is the biggest lie in the world.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“It doesn’t matter that I weigh more than both of them put together. I know when I’m beat. I let Natalie open the door.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“I’m big as a linebacker, and a seven-year-old girl treats me like her errand boy. Does she smell weakness on me?”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“Sure. I’ve been to hundreds of morgues. Thousands of them, in fact.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“She ignores me. Clearly there’s no stopping her until she’s read every last word.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“Oh, we have everyone who is bad. Except Bonnie and Clyde on account of their being dead,” she says.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“What is this guy . . . nuts?”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“My face turns red just seeing her. She’s a looker. If Pete were here, he’d whistle.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“What else can she do?” she asks. “She’s not a trick monkey.” “She’d never make it as a trick monkey. She only has one trick,” Piper says. “487 times 6,421 is 3,127,027,” Nat says.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“When’s your birthday, Piper?” I ask. “November sixteenth.” “1922?” “Yep.” “Natalie, what day of the week was Piper born?” “Thursday,” Nat says without looking up. “That right?” I ask Piper. Piper doesn’t answer, but her eyes open wider.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“He’s the one ought to have his head examined.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“We are all born with the ability to make our own choices. But once you make the wrong choice, other people make your decisions for you. 18.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“This is the right thing to do, I tell myself. But I don’t believe it. This is another one of my mother’s crazy ideas. I feel sick to my stomach. I want to pull my hand away, but I don’t. I keep walking. Good Moose. Obedient Moose. I always do what I’m supposed to do.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“I feel like marching into my parents’ room and shaking my mom. How could you send her to that place without her blanket?”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“Change is hard. It’s hard for you, it’s hard for me, it’s murder on your sister.” His voice breaks.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“The convicts wash my shirts, as in murderer convicts and kidnapper convicts, and then I’m supposed to wear them?”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“They darn socks too?” “Yes, as a matter of fact. Do a better job than your mom too. Though don’t you dare tell her I said that.” “Murderers outsew my mother?” “Apparently so.” My dad laughs.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“Sometimes it seems easier to be Natalie. People force her to do stuff. I have to force myself.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“It’s like a prison. Okay, it is a prison. There’s the problem right there.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“voice comes out high like a girl’s. I never know whether I’m going to sound like Mickey Mouse or the giant on top of the beanstalk.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“I’m not the only kid who lives here. There’s my sister, Natalie, except she doesn’t count.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you’re me. I came here because my mother said I had to.”
― Gennifer Choldenko, quote from Al Capone Does My Shirts
“When his father asked why A wasn't apple or B wasn't bird or C wasn't cat, young Ambrose explained that things didn't always have to be the way you'd expect. Everybody does apples and birds and cats, he said, and it's boring to do what everybody else does.”
― C.S. Richardson, quote from The End of the Alphabet
“I carry the landscape inside me like an ache. The story of who I am cannot be severed from the story of the flatwoods.”
― Janisse Ray, quote from Ecology of a Cracker Childhood
“In seinem Verhalten schien eine kryptische, sardonische Arroganz zu lauern, als ödeten ihn alle menschlichen Wesen nur noch an.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, quote from Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
“I was quite a looker in my time," she said. Was she reading his mind, or only being smart, to know she must be hideous?
"Oh, had they invented time as long ago as that?”
― Gregory Maguire, quote from A Lion Among Men
“Look, Aerin, preparation is only half the challenge of winning a debate.”
“And the other half?”
He had her now. “You have to choose the right side.”
“Your side, you mean.” She bristled.
“No, the losing side.”
“What?”
“Always choose the weaker side.”
“Why would I do that?” Doubt edged her voice, but now she was sitting erect, her feet flat on the floor.
“Because then you have further to go to prove your case.” He eased the feet of his chair down. “In a debate, there are two sides. If both make a good argument, then the less popular side wins because that side had further to go to prove its point. Simple logistics.”
“If you don’t care which side wins.” She frowned.
“It’s a debate. It doesn’t matter which side wins.”
“You mean it doesn’t matter to you.” The tone in her voice unsettled him. Or maybe it was the fact that that her criticism disturbed him at all.
“It’s a class,” he said. “The point is to flesh out the different sides of an argument.”
“And you don’t care if the truth gets lost in the shuffle. Don’t you believe in anything?!”
― Anne Osterlund, quote from Academy 7
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