Shine

If everyone started off the day singing, just think how happy they'd be.

Knowledge was more powerful than fear. Love was stronger than hate.

We all mess up. It's what we learn from our mistakes that matters.

It's unfair how the kids who are starving for attention tended to be so annoying that people had no inclination to give it to them.

God loves you even on your blackest days, and He will always, always be there to guide you home. All you have to do is look for the light of His love.

I loved everyone who said yes to the world and tried to make it better instead of worse, because so much in the world was ugly- and just about all the ugly parts were due to humans.

Mama Sweetie said you didn't need a reason to sing. She said if everyone started off the day singing, just think how happy they'd be.

Even so, I was proud of myself for taking action at all. I didn't hide or run away or pretend the ugliness didn't happen. I stood up and said something that was true. I said it out loud, and by doing so, I was standing up for lots of people, not just me.

If you breathed deep and set your mind to it, you could rise above your anger.

I didn't like being alone. Being alone was slightly better than having to deal with people, that's all. Or so I'd convinced myself.

Because it's good for nothing," I said. keeping my eyes on Tommy. "Because one worthless piece of shit deserves another.

I'm sorry," he said again, and this time he took those words and owned them.

My heart, as I closed the cabinet and rose to my feet, was a small dead creature. If I could bury it in the woods, I would.

Yes, that man acted ugly," she told us in plain English. "But throwing more ugliness back at him ain't the answer.

I'm in loooove with this boy, and when you in love with someone, you don't give up on 'em, mo matter what.

The world was out there waiting to be explored—and not just waiting, but wanting to be explored. So why in heaven’s name shouldn’t I investigate every nook and cranny?

I'd heard a saying about meth, that it took you down one of three roads: jail, the psych ward, or death.

So I'd stabbed needles into my eyes and pretended not to see certain things. Bad things. Only by turning my back on certain thing, I ended up turning my back on my dearest friend, a betrayal I never intended. Or so I told myself. That was the problem with lying to yourself. Sometimes you got too good.

I hadn't been "possessed", after all. Not by an angel or a demon. Maybe there were aspects of both inside me, but I was the one who chose which to let out.

Who would want to be poked by some dumb girl with a stick?

It was you,' I said, my words as new and uncertain as a baby's. I was sixteen and in my bedroom, and I shook my head in an attempt to unscramble my thoughts. 'Not the tongue. The fire.' I shut my eyes, then opened them to make sure I hadn't made this thing up. [...] But Christian hadn't taken his eyes off me, and in his expression I saw a slew of emotions: shame, defiance, fury. Fear, but not for himself. For me. I saw my big brother, who carried me off the ledge at Suicide Rock when I froze up. [...] Who thought I was a fool and had no problem telling me so, but who stuck up for me anyway.

I scowled. I could resist it all I wanted, but I did understand what he was trying to explain. How sometimes he pieces of who you thought you were didn't add up to who you really were, like with me not standing up for Patrick when he wore those pants.

... and my brain put them together in that way brains sometimes do: pairing the ideas that shouldn't be paired, yet nonetheless were.

He wouldn't have seen the wolf in redneck clothing.

Wally was worse than any fairy-tale witch, and his trailer wasn't made of candy.

All I heard were the bumps and crunches of my tires on the dirt road, blending with the dark noises of the forest. But it wasnt the forest that scared me. It was the people who lived and prowled within them.

You should be out stirring up trouble with your friends, not bothering with all them books you read. You know it's them books what make you talk funny.

He slung both arms around the back of his chair, and it reminded me how different girls and guys were. Girls kept their bodies tucked in tight, while boys took up every inch of room they could.

He told me about his slow realization that when one person in a family was sick, the whole family was sick. In Jason's case, the sick person was his father, who was nice enough when he was sober, but mean as a snake when he was drunk.