Quotes from Rumble Fish

S.E. Hinton ·  144 pages

Rating: (15.9K votes)


“Even the most primite societies have an innate resepect for the insane.”
― S.E. Hinton, quote from Rumble Fish


“I made up my mind that I'd get out of that place and I did...I learned that if you want to get somewhere, you just make up your mind and work like hell til you get there. If you want to go somewhere in life, you just have to work till you make it.”
― S.E. Hinton, quote from Rumble Fish


“Your mother is not crazy. Neither, contrary to popular belief, is your brother. He is merely miscast in a play. He would have made the perfect knight in a different century, or a very good pagan prince in a time of heroes. He was born in the wrong era, on the wrong side of the river, with the ability to do anything and finding nothing he wants to do.”
― S.E. Hinton, quote from Rumble Fish


“California is like a beautiful wild kid on heroin, high as a kite and thinking she's on top of the world, not knowing she's dying, not believing it even if you show her the marks.”
― S.E. Hinton, quote from Rumble Fish


“Yeah," I said. "And I'm gonna look just like him."
The black cat paused and looked me over.
"No you ain't baby. That cat is a prince, man. He is royalty in exile. You ain't never gonna look like that.”
― S.E. Hinton, quote from Rumble Fish



“He had strange eyes-they make me think of a two-way mirror. Like you could feel somebody on the other side watching you, but the only reflections you saw was your own.”
― S.E. Hinton, quote from Rumble Fish


“I could never understand people being scared of things they didn't know nothing about.”
― S.E. Hinton, quote from Rumble Fish


“If you're going to lead people, you have to have somewhere to go.”
― S.E. Hinton, quote from Rumble Fish


About the author

S.E. Hinton
Born place: in Tulsa, Oklahoma, The United States
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Popular quotes

“Before September 11, the skinny, jittery black guy made security think one thing: drug mule. But after the attacks, security only cared about bombs. So it was the Arab guys, the Puerto Ricans and Indians, even white men, that got searched. I was too dark to make people worry on a plane. Still caused fear in elevators.”
― Victor LaValle, quote from Big Machine


“You are a universe, Kacey. I kept waiting to find the end of your love and beauty, the end of your generous heart. I never did. I never will.”
― Emma Scott, quote from Full Tilt


“The Monster’s crimes were so horrific that a mere man could not possibly have committed them. Satan, in the end, had to be invoked.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from The Monster of Florence


“Not much time will be gained, O Athenians, in return for the evil name which you will get from the detractors of the city, who will say that you killed Socrates, a wise man; for they will call me wise even although I am not wise when they want to reproach you. If you had waited a little while, your desire would have been fulfilled in the course of nature. For I am far advanced in years, as you may perceive, and not far from death. I am speaking now only to those of you who have condemned me to death. And I have another thing to say to them: You think that I was convicted through deficiency of words - I mean, that if I had thought fit to leave nothing undone, nothing unsaid, I might have gained an acquittal. Not so; the deficiency which led to my conviction was not of words - certainly not. But I had not the boldness or impudence or inclination to address you as you would have liked me to address you, weeping and wailing and lamenting, and saying and doing many things which you have been accustomed to hear from others, and which, as I say, are unworthy of me. But I thought that I ought not to do anything common or mean in the hour of danger: nor do I now repent of the manner of my defence, and I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live. For neither in war nor yet at law ought any man to use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death. I am old and move slowly, and the slower runner has overtaken me, and my accusers are keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness, has overtaken them. And now I depart hence condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death, and they, too, go their ways condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong; and I must abide by my award - let them abide by theirs. I suppose that these things may be regarded as fated, - and I think that they are well.”
― Plato, quote from Apology


“The phantom pains of the wolf attack still plagued him somewhat, but they had lost much of their power. They were only illusions. They would not deter him. What was real was the air in his lungs, the power in his limbs and the strength of his will. Backlit by the sun shining down into the glade, Richter took a step forward to go and finish what he had started. It was in that moment of true purpose that he looked down and realized he was completely naked. “Universe, you’re a dick.”
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