“Sometimes I get so caught up in my own problems that I forget how amazing the world is.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“I miss school.
What’s wrong with me?”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“You told us over and over that you don’t think you could live without books, but the ironic thing is, you’d probably die before you’d think to rip pages out of one to start a fire. Am I right?
Well, get over it already. Better to be warm then well-read.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“I operate under the assumption that people don't notice the good in me. That's just how things always seem to play out. I get blamed, while con-artist kids like Venus, and Camille, and Gemma get believed. But the rescue lady noticed. In the background, just observing, she noticed.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“(Actually now I’m remembering that the goodbye chow isn’t spelled that way. It’s ciao or something weird like that. It’s Italian, right? But I’m not an Italian gypsy, I’m a hungry gypsy. So spelling it chow makes total sense.)”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“I don’t think you’re aloud to be homeschooled if you don’t have a home.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“Okay that’s it. Now I’m torching this.
I just need to score a match.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“Blue Face
Disgusting taste
Flush it
Shush it
Cold disgrace”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“Holly, I understand that you are upset because Gemma pulled down your ants, but why did you think pouring motor oil inside her backpack is the way to solve the problem?”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“Street people use cardboard all the time, and bum alleys are just shanties or lean-tos, though. They’re nothing like my house! Mine is deluxe! It’s a big, thick, super sturdy refrigerator box that I found at an appliance store!”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“It’s funny to hear priests and nuns argue with each other.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“She was married to my dad, and everything was fine until he got killed in some freak tractor accident.
Yeah, that’s what I said, a freak tractor accident.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“Thank you for helping me turn the page.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“Food in the trash is like the tossed-and-found.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“I’m not going to be able to sleep a wink tonight.
I hate shelters.
People coughing and snoring and hacking up who-knows-what.
It’s a nightmare.
But I do have clean teeth.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“Summers there are awful! Winters there are awful! Why do you stay? You ought to run away! Hop a train! Stow away on a bus!
What am I saying? You could just buy yourself a ticket.
It would be interesting to talk to you if you did it the other way, though.
We could compare scars and bruises.
It might be fun.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“Words can't fix my life.
Words can't give me a family.
Words can't do jack.
You may be a teacher, Ms. Leone, but face it: You don't know squat.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“scraps of love
torn and tattered
faded, scattered
trashed
threads of hope
frayed and tangled
broken, mangled
dashed
backing, buttons
yarn and batting
quilted tenderly
wrapped up in
this warm repair
my patchwork family”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“I've decided this is all your fault, Ms. Leone. I've run away before, you know, but stowed away or jumped trains or broke into buildings, I just ran away and got caught. But I think all that stuff you told us about the Underground Railroad got lodged in my subconscious, and somewhere inside it gave me the strength or courage or insanity to really get away. So see? This is all your fault.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
“I’d way rather defend myself against a man with a stick than a social worker with good intentions.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, quote from Runaway
Wendelin Van Draanen
Born place: Chicago, Illinois, The United States
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“Women were fucking complicated, but the right one turned the shit in life to gold with a simple smile.”
― Abbi Glines, quote from Hold on Tight
“It is amazing how the world can change, he thought, during the life span of a fruitcake.”
― Robert M. Edsel, quote from The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
“One day you’ll say to yourself, I’m tired, I’ll sit down, and you’ll go and sit down. Then you’ll say, I’m hungry, I’ll get up and get something to eat. But you won’t get up. You’ll say, I shouldn’t have sat down, but since I have I’ll sit on a little longer, then I’ll get up and get something to eat. But you won’t get up and you won’t get anything to eat. [Pause.] You’ll look at the wall a while, then you’ll say, I’ll close my eyes, perhaps have a little sleep, after that I’ll feel better, and you’ll close them. And when you open them again there’ll be no wall any more. [Pause.] Infinite emptiness will be all around you, all the resurrected dead of all the ages wouldn’t fill it, and there you’ll be like a little bit of grit in the middle of the steppe. [Pause.]”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Endgame & Act Without Words
“What they signified was precious, but what they were was not.”
― Victoria Finlay, quote from Color: A Natural History of the Palette
“Perhaps we all give the best of our hearts uncritically--to those who hardly think about us in return.”
― T.H. White, quote from The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-5)
Bound
The Father
The Beautiful Americ...
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Nor Iron Bars a Cage
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