“You get use to someone—start to like them, even—and they leave. In the end, everyone leaves.”
“Life's not that simple. Not so easy to move on when the anger you've got is what keeps you going.”
“Nothing makes any sense. Nothing means anything. You're born, you live, you die. That's it.”
“Part of me wanted this more than anything else in the world—to have someone to hang out with, be like everyone else for a while. The rest of me screamed to get the hell out of there, not to get sucked in.”
“And just when I though things were starting to get better, everything had gone wrong again.”
“And then, a strangely comforting thought trickled through me—I had nothing, so I could do anything now. Anything I wanted. I had nothing left to lose.”
“People just don't seem to get me. Don't understand that I need my space. Always telling me what to do. They think rules and routines and clean hands and your p's and q's will make everything all right. They haven't got a clue.”
“I don't understand, Jem. I don't understand why you'd leave me. Why would you that?”
“You're mental. I always knew you were.”
“Do you know what it's like to hear those words? To hear the person you love telling you they love you, too? If you don't now, I hope you do one day.”
“If you’ve found someone who loves you – that’s the most important thing of all. If you’ve got that, then you should appreciate every damn second with them.”
“Are you the same? Is it only afterward that you think of what you should have said, the killer response,the put-down that would make them stay put down?”
“Todos sabemos que todo tendrá fin algún día, pero no podemos dejar que eso nos frene. No debemos dejar que nos impida vivir.”
“We know it, but chose forget it. Is too much hard to bear. Yesterday, you made me realize that: we chose forget.”
“Spider?” I’d said, with a question mark in my voice.
“Yeah.”
“You know at school . . . what did you do that for? Wade in like that?”
Spider frowned. “He was disrespectful, Jem. What you said—I could tell it was real. It was what you were really feeling. He had no right to make a joke of it.”
“Yeah, I know, he’s a tosser, but it’s nothing to do with you. You made a right show of yourself. You made a show of me.”
“I didn’t want him to get away with it.”
“Yeah, but I don’t need a knight in shining armor. I can look after myself.” He was smiling a bit now. I paused. “It’s not funny, man. It’s made everything worse,” I said quietly. “I’ve got comments all the time now, ‘bout you and me. Sly comments.”
He looked away, studied his hands. The knuckles on the right one were nearly healed up now.
My mouth had gone dry, but I had to get this clear with him. “You do know there’s no ‘you and me,’ don’t you, Spider?”
He looked up. “What?”
“We’re not like . . . together. Just mates.”
There was something about his sullenness when he said, “Yeah, ‘course. Just mates. Mates is good,” that made me think he felt the exact opposite. I was churning inside, cursing that day under the bridge. People were so bloody difficult. Why had I ever got involved?
He stood up, came toward me, putting an arm out. I thought, Shit, he’s going to hug me. Hasn’t he listened to anything? But his hand formed a fist, and he lightly punched my arm. “Listen, man, I know what you’re like. I’ve told you I’ll never say nothing nice to you. And now you’ve put my straight, I’ll never do nothing nice for you, either. OK? If someone disrespects you, I’ll let them. If you’re being mugged on the street, I’ll walk on by. If I see you on fire, I won’t even piss on you. OK?”
“Sometimes, when things are confusing, we try and make sense of it our own way; we find ways of coping up.”
“ " But we are starting again, Jem. If I hadn't met you, it probably would have been dope and pills and smoking crack and shooting up junk. Prison. Hospitalization. That's how it would have been for me, but you saved me from that. It's going to be different for us now." ”
“ "Are you awake?" I whispered, my voice nearly disappearing in the darkness of the huge barn.
"Yeah."
"I'm freezing."
"I know. Me, too" A pause. A long, long pause. "Come here, then." ”
“No se puede escapar a la muerte: al final siempre te alcanza.”
“ I reached up and cupped the back of his neck and drew him down to me, and we kissed again. ”
“Bloody Mike Tyson'd have trouble with you.”
“ Lovers, yes, we're lovers now.”
“Allí de rodillas lo abracé, le acaricié la espalda y el pelo y ambos lloramos juntos. No había palabras para expresar lo que sentíamos; las lágrimas lo decían por nosotros: el terror, el alivio, el amor y la pena todo mezclado en la sal.”
“Some people have a gift for making you feel okay, just by the fact of their presence.”
“It's hard to watch. Can't stand the pressure of that much hope.”
“The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.”
“Buddhism teaches us to be tolerant and accepting, but tolerance does NOT mean accepting what is harmful.”
“Maybe this is how it always is. Maybe someone always wants more. Maybe everyone has a time when they realise that they've been accidentally lying when they say I love you, I miss you, you're pretty, you're the prettiest one, I never want you to leave. Maybe this time ends and it all becomes true again, as true as you ever thought it was. Maybe this time does not end. If this time ends, it would be a smart decision to wait it out. If it does not end, then perhaps you should not wait, and you should find another person to whom you can say these things without lying. But perhaps it always happens, no matter which girl or boy you are trying to love, in which case you might as well stay where you are because you would repeat the same process with anyone else.”
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