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Thanks, Mom. Thanks for making me try out for this play.' I think I might have just made being a mother totally worthwhile for her. I will try to never forget her face...Mom's got tears in her eyes and she's smiling. It's an amazing look. I have to remember how powerful it can be to say thank you. Especially to the people you live with.

Maybe the key is that Big Ideas are Little Ideas but told in Big Ways?

I don't eat the sandwich that Mom made for me, but luckily Randy finishes his and is happy to take mine, too, so I won't get yelled at for wasting food. There is nothing worse in my mom's eyes. I guess murder would be worse, but I think she believes the first step toward a violent life is being a food-waster.

My dad takes most of the pictures in our family, and he makes scrapbooks. This means he gets to figure out what's important for us to remember... I guess my mom could make a scrapbook, but she doesn't. And I could do it and so could my brothers, but then we would need extra pictures. Plus we're just kids and we don't have time for that. I know the scrapbooks we'd make would be different from Dad's. But the person who does the work gets to write the history.

It would be sad to be hired as a caregiver and then die before the person you were looking after. You wouldn't be able to let people know you did a good job.

(Fishing) is as boring as boring gets. And then when it's finally not boring and you have a fish on the line it turns into a crime scene with a wooden club and a crazy amount of hitting.

Maybe you don't need to speak to be heard. Because I don't remember silence being so loud before.

My goals for this summer, if I had goals, would be to not worry about my height and also to find new ways to be happy now that Ramon is gone.

Nothing makes an adult happier than knowing a kid is looking up something without being told.

I can’t believe this is good for me if she has to go out of the room to make it happen.

I know that the Beatles were a big-deal music group that changed the way people thought about getting haircuts. They sang songs that were pretty good because you can still listen to the today and not get angry.

Shawn Barr's last instruction to us is: "Until I see you next, Look at the world and turn off the sound. Focus on just one of your senses and find new ways to see.

Randy has a good voice and he’s always singing. He can hear a song twice on the radio and it just sticks in his head. In a good way.

It's a big dream, but who has the energy for a lot of small ones?

There’s not a short end and a long end. There could be a pointy end and a dull end, and that might mean that there was a good end and a bad end, especially if you wanted to toast marshmallows or poke an enemy.

Shawn Barr takes only a few steps onto the stage, and all of us are clapping for him. He bends at the waist in a bow, and I'm not sure if it's the loud applause or my heart beating so hard, but it feels like an explosion inside me. He is the one whogot us to this place tonight.

I want to take these shoes and not just wear them: I want to hug them.