Quotes from Brutal Youth

“The things we surrender to when we're young, we keep surrendering to the rest of our lives.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“But sometimes we crave the love of those we’re afraid to hate.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Your problem is that you don’t know how to be happy with unhappiness.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“It's not enough to step in front of people's bullets; you have to be bulletproof too. You have to be harder than anything anyone else can throw at you, and sometimes you risk losing yourself just trying to save yourself.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“They hate what’s different because they’re all so fucking alike.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Surprise, surprise—the good guys don’t always win. Sometimes, they’re lucky if they just get to keep on being the good guys.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“So now she was trying her best to make conversation, but a parent can't leave a child alone for so long and expect the occasional nicety to count for much. Those bonds break away much more quickly and permanently than most people would like to believe.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Maybe it’s the way you talk, or the color of your skin, or the color of your underwear, or whether you’ve got a clip-on around your neck. Assholes will find a reason to fuck with you.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Those who grow up being told they’re worthless start to believe it. When someone thinks they don’t deserve happiness, it becomes easier to sabotage it than to live with it. They never admit this, especially to themselves. But they always shoot the albatross.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“If you start letting people push you around, you’ll always be at the mercy of losers like that.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“She deserves heaven, I think. Silly as that sounds. I hope she got there. She never hurt anybody.…” His voice drifted so low he was hard to hear. “But I’ve hurt people.… I’d have hurt those guys today. All for a girl.” He snorted a laugh, but it could have been a cough. “One I couldn’t even … tell the truth to.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“My mom, she … I guess she worried a lot. We learned a lot about a lot of religions, I guess as a kind of insurance policy.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Your problem is you don't know how to be happy with your unhappiness.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“So don’t forget.” “Forget what?” he said, scowling. She smiled. That little half smile. Her true smile. “Now you do have a secret.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“She’s the devil,” he grumbled softly. “Yeah…,” Davidek said, wiping his mouth as his eyes still followed her. “But the devil sure tempts.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Yeah, kids who trash bathrooms. Maybe those kids are matter more than even the good little ones who sit in the front row and try to answer every question.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Stein stepped in front of other people’s bullets. He let himself absorb the worst the world threw at the people he cared about. Maybe that did make him strange or crazy; Davidek didn’t know anyone else like that.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Things had changed. A boy learns a lot in his first year of high school. One was a simple lesson that a lot of people figure out around his age: Surprise, surprise—the good guys don’t always win. Sometimes, they’re lucky if they just get to keep on being good guys.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Maybe you can’t blame people for the pain that makes them who they are. Maybe that was just one more bullet you had to step in front of for someone you were supposed to love—even if you didn’t want to. Even if it hurt. Maybe that was love.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Maybe you can't blame people for the pain that makes them who they are. Maybe that was just one more bullet you had to step in front of for someone you were supposed to love - even if you didn't want to. Even if it hurt. Maybe that was love.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“This is your school, Davidek. Your life, your place in the world—a bunch of blank pages. You got to fill it up with what you want.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“The Big Tell-Off, when even Lorelei Paskal, once one of the most helpless of all St. Mike’s students, would instruct them to go and eat shit.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Zimmer had gotten used to solitude, what Stein might have called being happy with his unhappiness.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“His father, a failed cop who found sporadic work as a security guard after alcoholism cost him that job, just assumed his son was queer, and after he died, Zimmer’s mother decided to finally ask him directly, which he knew was very painful for her. It was painful for him, too, so he hoped a blunt answer would make her never ask again: “No, Mama,” he said. “I’m just ugly.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“I’m sorry, Mom … Dad…,” he said to the emptiness around him. “From now on, your grass is gonna grow wild.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“June Davidek’s son glared hard into her eyes. “Do I have to repeat it for you?” he asked.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“His Friday-night poker buddies would tease the priest, “Ah, better go to confession, Father!” And he would close his eyes and say: “I forgive myself.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“The kids called him Father Pimp.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“Tough times,” she repeated. “Actually, it’s because the church is putting pressure on Father Mercedes, he’s kicking Sister Maria’s ass, she’s beating up on the teachers, and the teachers are coming down as hard as they can on the students, who are shoving it back on each other. Everybody’s pissed off and wants to fucking hit somebody, but this whole system has only one rule: You can’t hurt anyone who can hurt you back. So Sister Maria can’t clock Father Mercedes, the teachers can’t tell Sister Maria to fuck off, and the students can’t punch out the teachers. They have to take it out on someone else. That’s you and me. We’re at the bottom of the pyramid—or, at least, we used to be.”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

“His footsteps caught the worried attention of the old couple. There was another door”
― Anthony Breznican, quote from Brutal Youth

About the author

Popular quotes

“Even in those earlier times, finding the really outstanding companies and staying with them through all the fluctuations of a gyrating market proved far more profitable to far more people than did the more colorful practice of trying to buy them cheap and sell them dear.”
― quote from Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings

“Jessie reached for 'Ten Bright Ideas to Light Up Your Sales'. It was on her bedside table, right next to 'Charlotte's Web'. Jessie's hand hovered. She looked longingly at Wilbur and Fern watching Charlotte hanging b a thread.
But this was war, and she couldn't stop to read for fun.”
― Jacqueline Davies, quote from The Lemonade War

“He had been fourteen when the planes hit.”
― Hugh Howey, quote from I, Zombie

“position for his colleague in Secret Intelligence would be just the reverse. Sir Mark was having”
― Frederick Forsyth, quote from The Deceiver

“I got kicked out of my first home for poking a wire hanger into an electrical outlet. My foster mom caught me, shrieked, and called the DCFS to come cart me away, because I was clearly suicidal and no one had told her that I was a child with ‘special needs.’”
“Were you? Suicidal?”
“I was five.”
“Still.”
“No, I wasn’t trying to off myself. I was curious. Little kids spend half their waking hours being warned not to do things. Don’t run with scissors. Don’t lick a flagpole in winter. Don’t stick anything into electrical outlets. Those three little holes looked so mysterious. I had to know if they were as dangerous as everyone said.”
“What happened?” A smile curled the corner of Conn’s mouth, indicating he’d already guessed the answer—which wasn’t exactly hard, given that I was standing right there in front of him, and not buried in an early grave with the tombstone Here Lies Darcy Jones, electrocuted orphan.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Shadow Society

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.