Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend

You have to be the bravest person in the world to go out every day, being yourself when no one likes who you are.

Monsters are bad things, but monsters that do not walk and talk like monsters are the worst.

It's strange how teachers can go off to college for all those years to learn to become teachers, but some of them never learn the easy stuff. Like making kids laugh. And making sure they know that you love them.

No matter what happens, I don’t think that anyone will remember me when I disappear. It will be like I was never here. There will be no proof that I ever existed … you can’t be sad if you disappear, because disappeared people can’t feel sad. They can only be remembered or forgotten.

I step through the door anyway, knowing that the hard thing and the right thing are usually the same thing.

Now I think these are the three worst things in the world: 1. Waiting 2. Not Knowing 3. Not existing

It's very strange to be an imaginary friend. You can't be suffocated and you can't get sick and you can't fall and break your head and you can't catch pneumonia. The only thing that can kill you is a person not believing in you.

I hated Pinocchio. I think I was the only one in the class who hated him. Pinocchio was alive, but that was not enough for him. He could walk and talk and touch things in the real world, but he spent the whole book wanting more. Pinocchio didn’t know how lucky he was.

There are two types of teachers in the world: there are those who play school and teachers that teach school

Maybe we are all somebody's devil.

It's hard to not worry, because trying not to worry reminds me that I should be worried

Maybe they hurt so much that the only way they can say it, is to say nothing

—¿Y qué ocurre cuando uno muere? —Tampoco yo lo sé. —Entonces, ¿por qué tener miedo? —dice Oswald—. Yo creo que no ocurre nada. Y si ocurre algo que es mejor que nada, pues mejor que mejor. —¿Y si lo que ocurre es peor que nada? —le digo. —No existe nada peor que nada. Pero si no es nada, no podré saberlo porque yo no seré nada. Oyéndolo hablar así, siento que Oswald es un genio. —Pero, y si no existes, ¿qué? —le pregunto—. El mundo entero seguirá viviendo sin ti. Como si nunca hubieras pasado por aquí. Y el día en que todas las personas que has conocido también hayan muerto, será como si nunca, nunca hubieras existido. ¿No te parece una pena que pase eso? —Si salvo a Max, no. Si lo salvo, existiré para siempre.

The world can be so complicated for Max. Even when he gets something right, it can still go wrong.

I love you, Max,' I whisper as his face and everything else in the world fades to white

Everyone gets so worried about the people who are still living when the people who are really hurting are the dead ones. People like Grandma and Graham.They don’t exist anymore. There is nothing worse than that

he has a lot going on inside of him all the time so he doesn't worry so much about what is going on outside him. That's what people don't understand

He's dancing with the devil in pale moonlight

I was right. Mrs. Patterson is neat and organized. She cannot be trusted.

I step through the door anyway, knowing that the hard thing and the right thing are usually the same thing

The thing I like best about Max is that he is brave.” “What did he do that was brave?” “It’s not one thing,” I say. “It’s everything. Max is not like any other person in the whole world. Kids make fun of him because he is different. His mom tries to change him into a different boy and his dad tries to treat him like he is someone else. Even his teachers treat him differently, and not always nicely. Even Mrs. Gosk. She is perfect but she still treats Max differently. No one treats him like a regular boy, but everyone wants him to be regular instead of himself. With all that, Max still gets out of bed every morning and goes to school and the park and the bus stop and even the kitchen table.

Max lives on the inside and the other kids live onthe outside. That's what makes him so different. Max doesn't have an outside. Max is all inside

No soy su madre ni su padre, pero sí su amigo, y me siento orgullosísimo de él.

Lions eat giraffes so they can survive even though the giraffes didn’t do anything to the lions, and nobody thinks that the lions are wrong.

Maybe we are all somebody’s devil,” Oswald says. “Maybe even me and you.

Monsters are bad things, but monsters that do not walk and talk like monsters are the worst