Laurie Halse Anderson · 391 pages
Rating: (23.8K votes)
“I needed to hear the world but didn't want the world to know I was listening.”
“I'd treat myself to a reading marathon all weekend. All the ice cream I could eat, all the pages I could read. Heaven.”
“People who have to announce that they are trustworthy deserve to be lied to.”
“You're the one who doesn't understand, I've been standing on the edge with you for years.”
“Where did you live before you came here?" I asked.
"The moon," he said smoothly. "We left because the place had no atmosphere.”
“Killing people is easier than it should be.” Dad put on his beret. “Staying alive is harder.”
“Having a friend made everything else suck less.”
“wats yr typ?
people who can spell”
“Note: 'family' does NOT only mean a biological unit composed of people who share genetic markers or legal bonds, headed by a heterosexual-mated pair. Family is much, much more than that.”
“The world is crazy. You need a license to drive a car and go fishing. You don't need a license to start a family. Two people have sex and BAM! Perfectly innocent kid is born whose life will be screwed up by her parents forever.”
“I swallowed the fear. It’s always there– fear– and if you don’t stay on top of it, you’ll drown. I swallowed again and stood tall, shoulders broad, arms loose. I was balanced, ready to move. My body said, “Yeah, you’re bigger and stronger, but if you touch this, I will hurt you.”
“Do you know how much women loathe it when guys think every show of negative emotion is tied to our menstrual cycle, like we're sheep or something?”
“I kissed him until everything that hurt inside me melted into a pool of black water so deep I couldn’t touch the bottom. As long as I was touching him, I wouldn’t drown.”
“Can't escape pain, kiddo. Battle through it and you get stronger.”
“My good sense bitch slapped my estrogen and told her to get a grip.”
“Everyone is born a freak," notes Hayley. "Every newborn baby, wet and hungry and screaming, is a fresh-hatched freak who wants to have a good time and make the world a better place. . . . Most teenagers wind up in high school. And high school is where the zombification process becomes deadly.”
“My earbuds were in, but I wasn't playing music. I needed to hear the world but didn't want the world to know I was listening.”
“The laws of the universe dictate that for every positive action, there is an unequal and sucky reaction.”
“Leaning against my father, the sadness finally broke open inside me, hollowing out my heart and leaving me bleeding. My feet felt rooted in the dirt. There were more than two bodies buried here. Pieces of me that I didn’t even know were under the ground. Pieces of dad, too.”
“Until then we're going to keep making memories like this, moments when we're the only two people in the whole world. And when we get scared or lonely or confused, we'll pull out these memories and wrap them around us and they'll make us feel safe. And strong.”
“Apologies mean nothing if you don't mean it.”
“The trick to surviving an interrogation is patience. Don’t offer up anything. Don’t explain. Answer the question and only the question that is asked so you don’t accidentally put your head in a noose.”
“Ouch," he said.
"Move your foot."
"No."
"Go away."
"Glad to see you, too."
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"You missed the bus," he said.
"I'm sick."
"Need chicken soup?"
"Actually, it's my period," I lied. "Killer cramps."
"Chocolate and a heating pad?"
"How do you know that?"
"I have an older sister and my mom is a kick-ass feminist," he said. "I'm probably the only guy in school who can buy tampons without having a seizure. Look, at that, I can even say the word. 'Tampon, tampon, tampon.' If you say it enough, it stops sounding like a word, know what I mean?”
“Yes it is, because you can only be brave if you're scared.”
“The books I'd checked out of the library earlier in the week were still stacked on my bureau, whispering my name and begging to be read.”
“I am an owl, bird of the night. I see everything. I know everything.”
“I turned the page in Slaughterhouse Five, a forbidden book at Belmont because we were too young to read about soldiers swearing and bombs dropping and bodies blowing up and war sucking.”
“The gloaming that closed over us the cemetery had crawled inside his skin.”
“All of my answers were drawings of armored unicorns.”
“We’re having Thanksgiving at our place,” he said. “An old-fashioned Thanksgiving.” “With drag queens and hookers and cranberry sauce?” I asked breathlessly. “Just like at Grandma’s,” he replied.”
“Are you dying?"
Cato lit his cigarette. "It's not acute, perhaps, but we're all dying, Harry.”
“Braxton: Tell me what girls want.
Me: I think that depends on the girl. Also depends what kind of girl you want.
Braxton: Right now, I’d like a trio of slutty girls. All naked together in my room with nothing to do but me.
Me: Let’s try to deal with reality.
Braxton: I was. I originally wanted a harem.
Me: Fine. Three slutty girls it is.”
“I cannot know what the future will bring us," he says in a rapid undertone. "I cannot know where you will be given in marriage, nor what life might hold for me. But I can't let you go without telling you--without telling you at least once--that I love you."
I snatch a breath at the words. "Woodville--"
"I can offer you nothing; I am next to nothing, and you are the greatest lady in France. But I wanted you to know, I love you and I want you, and I have done since the day I first saw you."
"I should--"
"I have to tell you, you have to know. I have loved you honorably as a knight should do his lady, and I have loved you passionately as a man might a woman; and now, before I leave you, I want to tell you that I love you, I love you--" He breaks off and looks at me desperately. "I had to tell you," he repeats.”
“She was a real quiet woman. But maybe we just weren't listening.”
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.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.