Quotes from Wake

Lisa McMann ·  210 pages

Rating: (73.5K votes)


“That was the goth stage, where I decided I'd never get the girl of my dreams because of my scars. Not to mention my hairstyle. (pause) But then she slammed a door handle into my gut. And when a girl does that to a boy, it means she likes him.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“Cabel: Um, Janie?
Janie: Yesss, Cabel?
Cabel: I have another lie to confess.
Janie: Oh, dear. What is it?
Cabel: I do, actually, know what my GPA is.
Janie: And?
Cabel: And. I have a full-ride scholarship.
Cabel is pushed violently from the beanbag chair. And pounced upon. And told, repeatedly, what a bastard he is.
Janie is told that she will most certainly get a scholarship too, with her grades. Unless she plays hooky with drug dealers.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“Once you read something, you can't erase it from your brain.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“Come on, Cabel," Carrie says. "Let me give you a ride, at least. Unless you want Shay to- hey, here she comes now." Carrie titters, her eyes dancing.
Cabel's eyes grow wide. He slips into the backseat of Carrie's car without a word. "Get me outta here. Fuckin' creepy cheerleaders.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“Get me outa here. F*ckin' creepy cheerleaders.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake



“Carrie doesn't seem to talk about anything with sharp edges. Maybe she's afraid they might poke her and then she'd burst.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“Captain looks at Janie closely. "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," she says. "You're gonna have a heck of a shiner by the time the day's over. Did you black our?"
"I...uh..." Janie shrugs. "I really have no idea."
"Yes, I think she did." Cabel cuts in. "I'm going to need to watch her all day. And probably all night, too," he adds. Very, very seriously.
The captain throws a rubber eraser at him and sends him out for coffee.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“If you don't want me to see, I guess, don't sleep in the same room as me."
He looks at her with a sly smile. "But I'm known for sleeping in school. It's my shtick.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“The phone rings.
“Asshole,” she mutters. She picks it up.
“Will you let me explain?”
“No.” She hangs up.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“...she's leaving now.
...
Janis attacks the back door of the school gym and finds herself in a heavy cloud of smoke. She realizes she's found the Goths' hangout. Who knew?
"Oof," someone says. She keeps walking, muttering, "sorry" to whomever it was she hit with the flying door.

***

Cabel: ... That was the Goth stage where I decided I'd never get the girl of my dreams because of my scars. Not to mention the hairstyle.
(pause)
But then she slammed a door handle into my gut. And, when a girl does that to a boy, it means she likes him.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake



“Janie: Did you ever sell drugs?
Cabel: Yes. Pot. Ninth and tenth grade. I was, uh...rather troubled back then.
Janie: Why did you stop?
Cabel: Got busted, and Captain made me a better deal. Janie: So you've been a narc since then? Cabel: I cringe at your terminology.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“Because there's no way on earth she's going to make it through college unless she grows some serious ovaries and turns this train wreck around”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“Janie: So you're a double agent?

Cabel: Sure.That sounds sexy.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“But then you slammed a door handle into my gut. And when a girl does that to a guy; it means she likes him.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“Hippie said he couldn't stay. Be back tomorrow
-Love,Mom”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake



“When would you like to go out with me so we can talk about it?" A grin flirts with his lips.
He's got her cornered.
And he knows it.
Janie chuckles, defeated. "You are such a bastard."
"When," he demands. "I promise, all my heart, I'll be your house elf for the rest of my life if I fail to meet you at the appointed date and time." He leans forward. "Promise," he says again. He holds up two fingers.
The bell rings.
They stand up.
She's not answering.
He comes around the table toward her and pushes her gently against the wall. Sinks his lips into hers.
He tastes like spearmint. She can't stop the flipping in her stomach.
He pulls back and touches her cheek, her hair. "When," he whispers. Urgently
She clears her throat and blinks. "A-a-after school works for me," she says.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“Time to stop crying, time to get her act together and do something. Time to move beyond the pity party.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“And he's pressing into her and she into him, bodies shivering, like they are two scared, lost children, starving, starving to be touched, to be held, by someone, anyone, the first one they can find who seems familiar enough, safe enough, strong enough to rescue them. They breathe, heavy. Hard. Their fingers strain at cotton. And then they slow down. Stop. Hold. Rest. Before one of them, or both, begins to sob. Before they break another piece that needs to be fixed.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“She sits in the driveway, freezing, for thirty-six minutes. Arguing with herself. Because she thinks she's in love with him too. And there are two ways she can be a fool in love right now. She chooses the harder one. And knocks on the door.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“Whatever I want,' he says.
'Yes.'
'I'm afraid you haven't been privy to that dream yet.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake



“She finds Snickers bars in the strangest places.
(She knows it's from him.)
(She wonders if they're laced with pot.)”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


“10:31pm
Janie drives home slowly, windows rolled down, hand ready on the parking brake. She takes Waverly. Past Cabel's house.
Nothing.
She falls into bed when she gets home.
There are no notes, no phone calls, no visits. Not that she was hoping for anything of course. That bastard.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Wake


Video

About the author

Lisa McMann
Born place: in Holland, Michigan, The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“I can hear myself whining again 'Why does God torture me?' - But anybody who's never had a delirium tremens even in their early stages may not understand that it's not so much a physical pain but a mental anguish indescribable to those ignorant people who don't drink and accuse drinkers of irresponsibility - The mental anguish is so intense that you feel you have betrayed your very birth, the efforts nay the birth pangs of your mother when she bore you and delivered you to the world, you've betrayed every effort your father ever made to feed you and raise you and make you strong and my God even 'educate' you for life, you feel a guilt so deep you identify yourself with the devil and God seems far away abandoning you to your sick silliness - You feel sick in the greatest sense of the world, breathing without believing it, sicksicksick, your soul groans, you look at your helpless hands as tho they were on fire and you can't move to help, you look at the world with dead eyes, there's on your face an expression of incalculable repining like a constipated angel on a cloud - In fact it's actually a cancerous look you throw on the world, through browngray wool fuds over your eyes - Your tongue is white and disgusting, your teeth are stained, your hair seems to have dried out overnight, there are huge mucks in the corners of your eyes, greases on your nose, froth at the sides of your moth: in short that very disgusting and well-known hideousness everybody knows who's walked past a city street drunk in the Boweries of the world”
― Jack Kerouac, quote from Big Sur


“Dear Julie:
If I didn't feel that there is some good in your story, I wouldn't take the time to write a criticism of it. But there is some good in it, some points that make me feel that if you expend the effort(Look who's talking about expending the effort, I couldn't help thinking) you may well achieve your very worthy ambition.
First of all, you have an ear for cadence. Your sentences flow rather smoothly, and the continuity of your paragraphs is quite good.
Secondly, your imagery is sharp and clear-cut. I could smell that dank, rat-infested attic and I was more than a little in love with your pretty heroine by the time she emerged from her third paragraph. Furthermore, you occasionally achieve poetic effects which are pleasing.
But, my darling niece, your villains have nothing but venom in their souls, and your sympathetic characters are ready to step right off into Paradise without one spot to tarnish their purity. People aren't like that, Julie. Take a look around you.
Again, all your colors, your moods, your nusances, are essentially feminine, and it just doesn't ring true to be told that a man is responsible for them. No, Julie, it will be a long time before you speak and think and feel like an anguished old German musician of eighty! And, after all, what do you know about the problems of musical composition, or the life of an impoverised German laborer such as the landlord in his nineteenth-century environment? And how much do you know about sadism and brutality?
I must talk to you about any number of points. When you get home from school tomorrow, I shall have some recommendations to make; also some assignments. I am quite excited. It well may be that I have the making of a future writer in my hands.
Uncle Haskell”
― Irene Hunt, quote from Up a Road Slowly


“Jeff shook his head, the lines between his brows drawing together. “Ask yourself this, Connor— what is it that’s got your manties in such a twist? I mean, really... what is it about Megan you don’t want to lose?”
― Mira Lyn Kelly, quote from Waking Up Married


“(Carter): "I've been protecting you since I joined the Mauricio family. You were why I joined them in the first place."

(Emma): "You did all that for me?"

(Carter): "I would declare war for you.”
― Tijan, quote from Carter Reed


“Prayer is a discipline in truthfulness, in honesty.”
― Marilynne Robinson, quote from Home


Interesting books

To Command and Collar
(12.2K)
To Command and Colla...
by Cherise Sinclair
Flight Behavior
(69.2K)
Flight Behavior
by Barbara Kingsolver
Shades of Blood
(3.4K)
Shades of Blood
by Samantha Young
Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
(24.5K)
Twenty-Eight and a H...
by Denise Grover Swank
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
(240.8K)
Fantastic Beasts and...
by J.K. Rowling
Couples
(4.1K)
Couples
by John Updike

About BookQuoters

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.