The Outsiders

I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.

It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset.

They grew up on the outside of society. They weren't looking for a fight. They were looking to belong.

You get tough like me and you don't get hurt. You look out for yourself and nothin' can touch you...

Sixteen years on the streets and you can learn a lot. But all the wrong things, not the things you want to learn. Sixteen years on the streets and you see a lot. But all the wrong sights, not the things you want to see.

Can you see the sunset real good on the West side? You can see it on the East side too.

It's okay. We aren't in the same class. Just don't forget that some of us watch the sunset too.

I've been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep that way, it's a good way to be.

Get smart and nothing can touch you.

I am a greaser. I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city. I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society. Man do I have fun!

Dally was so real he scared me.

Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.

He died violent and young and desperate, just like we all knew he'd die someday.

Ponyboy, listen, don't get tough. You're not like the rest of us and don't try to be..." What was the matter with Two-Bit? I knew as well as he did that if you got tough you didn't get hurt. Get smart and nothing can touch you... "What in the world are you doing?" Two-Bit's voice broke into my thoughts. I looked up at him. "Picking up the glass." He stared at me for a second, then grinned. "You little sonofagun," he said in a relieved voice. I didn't know what he was talking about, so I just went on picking up the glass from the bottle end and put it in a trash can. I didn't want anyone to get a flat tire.

Asleep, he looked a lot younger than going-on-seventeen, but I had noticed that Johnny looked younger when he was asleep too, so I figured everyone did. Maybe people are younger when they are asleep.

Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset.

Johnny almost grinned as he nodded. "Tuff enough," he managed, and by the way his eyes were glowing, I figured Southern gentlemen had nothing on Johnny Cade.

...I knew he would be dead, because Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted.

You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you're a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don't stick up for them, stick together, make like brothers, it isn't a gang anymore. It's a pack. A snarling, distrustful, bickering park like the Socs in their social clubs or the street gangs in New York or the wolves in the timber.

why do you like fights Darry~Ponyboy He just likes to show off his muscles~Sodapop

That's why people don't ever think to blame the Socs and are always ready to jump on us. We look hoody and they look decent. It could be just the other way around - half of the hoods I know are pretty decent guys underneath all that grease, and from what I've heard, a lot of Socs are just cold-blooded mean - but people usually go by looks.

You know a guy a longtime, and I mean really know him, you don't get used to the idea that he's dead just overnight.

the person in this picture is really me.

They shouldn't hate each other . . . I don't hate the Socs any more . . . they shouldn't hate . . .

I liked my books and clouds and sunsets.