“THE FIRST TEN LIES THEY TELL YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL
1. We are here to help you.
2. You will have time to get to your class before the bell rings.
3. The dress code will be enforced.
4. No smoking is allowed on school grounds.
5. Our football team will win the championship this year.
6. We expect more of you here.
7. Guidance counselors are always available to listen.
8. Your schedule was created with you in mind.
9. Your locker combination is private.
10. These will be the years you look back on fondly.
TEN MORE LIES THEY TELL YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL
1. You will use algebra in your adult lives.
2. Driving to school is a privilege that can be taken away.
3. Students must stay on campus during lunch.
4. The new text books will arrive any day now.
5. Colleges care more about you than your SAT scores.
6. We are enforcing the dress code.
7. We will figure out how to turn off the heat soon.
8. Our bus drivers are highly trained professionals.
9. There is nothing wrong with summer school.
10. We want to hear what you have to say.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“Homework is not an option. My bed is sending out serious nap rays. I can't help myself. The fluffy pillows and warm comforter are more powerful than I am. I have no choice but to snuggle under the covers.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“I have survived. I am here. Confused, screwed up, but here. So, how can I find my way? Is there a chain saw of the soul, an ax I can take to my memories or fears?”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“Art without emotion its like chocolate cake without sugar. It makes you gag.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“It's easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“It's easier to floss with barbed wire than admit you like someone in middle school.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid of this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind. Did he rape my head, too?”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“I wonder how long it would take for anyone to notice if I just stopped talking.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“Gym should be illegal. It's humiliating.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“CONJUGATE THIS:
I cut class, you cut class, he, she, it cuts class. We cut class, they cut class. We all cut class. I cannot say this in Spanish because I did not go to Spanish today. Gracias a dios. Hasta luego.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“I am getting better at smiling when people expect it.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“I have never heard a more eloquent silence.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“This is where you can find your soul if you dare. Where you can touch that part of you that you've never dared look at before. Do not come here and ask me to show you how to draw a face. Ask me to help you find the wind.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“I know my head isn't screwed on straight. I want to leave, transfer, warp myself to another galaxy. I want to confess everything, hand over the guilt and mistake and anger to someone else. There is a beast in my gut, I can hear it scraping away at the inside of my ribs. Even if I dump the memory, it will stay with me, staining me. My closest is a good thing, a quiet place that helps me hold these thoughts inside my head where no one can hear them.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“Sometimes I think high school is one long hazy activity: if you are tough enough to survive this, they'll let you become an adult. I hope it's worth it.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“If I ever form a clan, we'll be the anti-cheerleaders and walk under the bleacher forming mild acts of mayhem.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“I need a new friend. I need a friend, period. Not a true friend, nothing close or share clothes or sleepover giggle giggle yak yak. Just a pseudo-friend, disposable friend. Friend as accessory. Just so I don't feel or look so stupid.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time. You'd be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside—walking through their days with no idea who they are, just waiting for a heart attack or cancer or a Mack truck to come along and finish the job. It's the saddest thing I know.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“Why not spend that time on art: painting, sculpting, charcoal, pastel, oils? Are words or numbers more important than images? Who decides this? Does algebra move you to tears? Can plural possessives express the feelings in your heart? If you don't learn art now, you will never learn to breathe!”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“Do they choose to be so dense? Were they born that way? I have no friends. I have nothing. I say nothing. I am nothing. ”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“Mr. Freeman sighs. "No imagination. What are you thirteen? Fourteen? You've already let them beat your creativity out of you!”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“I want to make a memorial for our turkey. Never has a bird been so tortured to provide such a lousy dinner.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“It's Nathaniel Hawthorne Month in English. Poor Nathaniel. Does he know what they've done to him? We're reading The Scarlet Letter one sentence at a time, tearing it up and chewing on its bones.
It's all about SYMBOLISM, says Hairwoman. Every word chosen by Nathaniel, every comma, every paragraph break -- these were all done on purpose. To get a decent grade in her class, we have to figure out what he was really trying to say. Why couldn't he just say what he meant? Would they pin scarlet letters on his chest? B for blunt, S for straightforward?”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“Cold and silence. Nothing quieter than snow. The sky screams to deliver it, a hundred banshees flying on the edge of
the blizzard. But once the snow covers the ground, it hushes as still as my heart.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“There is something about Christmas that requires a rug rat. Little kids make Christmas fun. I wonder if could rent one for the holidays. When I was tiny we would by a real tree and stay up late drinking hot chocolate and finding just the right place for the special decorations. It seems like my parents gave up the magic when I figured out the Santa lie. Maybe I shouldn't have told them I knew where the presents really came from. It broke their hearts.
I bet they'd be divorced by now if I hadn't been born. I'm sure I was a huge disappointment. I'm not pretty or smart or athletic. I'm just like them- an ordinary drone dressed in secrets and lies. I can't believe we have to keep playacting till I graduate. It's a shame we just can't admit that we have failed at family living, sell the house, split up the money, and get on with our lives. Merry Christmas.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
“Who cares what the color means? How do you know what he meant to say? I mean, did he leave another book called "Symbolism in My Books?" If he didn't, then you could just be making all of this up. Does anyone really think this guy sat down and stuck all kinds of hidden meanings into his story? It's just a story.... But I think you are making all of this symbolism stuff up. I don't believe any of it.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson
Born place: in Potsdam, New York, The United States
Born date October 23, 2018
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“I'm going to kiss you now,' I whispered. Rhode lifted his eyes to mine. 'I was hoping you would say that,' he whispered back, and we both cracked a smile. 'Lenah,' he said, and I could feel his body heat humming off him. 'What will I do without you?'
I shivered as one word travelled through me.
'Live.”
― Rebecca Maizel, quote from Stolen Nights
“She had gambled with marriage, just like most people, but she had gambled unluckily and had lost.”
― Buchi Emecheta, quote from Second Class Citizen
“it was like glass sandpaper being rubbed on my skin.”
― Nicci French, quote from Secret Smile
“The power of knowing the future could corrupt even the most noble heart. - Marcus Bennett”
― Richard Doetsch, quote from The 13th Hour
“It was one of those rare times of shared happiness, of perfect contentment. We had a feeling of expectation, that what was already wonderful would only get better and better as time went on. These moments are one of the rarest, most fragile things in the world. You have to seize the day; you have to recall all the rotten, dirty things you endured to earn this peace. You have to remember to enjoy each minute, each hour, because although you may feel like it's going to last forever, the world plans otherwise. You want to be grateful for every precious second, but you simply can't do it. It's not in human nature to live life to the fullest. Haven't your ever noticed that equal amounts of pain and joy are not, in fact, equal in duration? Pain drags on until you wonder if life will ever be bearable again; pleasure, though, once it's reached its peak, fades faster than a trodden gardenia, and your memory searches in vain for the sweet scent.”
― George Alec Effinger, quote from When Gravity Fails
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The Girl in the Stee...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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