Laurie Halse Anderson Quotes

“I want to go to sleep and not wake up, but I don't want to die. I want to eat like a normal person eats, but I need to see my bones or I will hate myself even more and I might cut my heart out or take every pill that was ever made.”

“There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore.”

“Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.”

“The only number that would ever be enough is 0. Zero pounds, zero life, size zero, double-zero, zero point. Zero in tennis is love. I finally get it.”

“I can't do everything for you. You must walk alone to find your soul.”

“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.”

“wats yr typ?
people who can spell”

“When you're alive, people can hurt you. It's easier to crawl into a bone cage or a snowdrift of confusion. It's easier to lock everybody out.

But it's a lie.”

“Emma is a mattress who got thrown off the truck when her parents split up. It's not like you can blame a mattress when people don't tie it down tight enough.”

“The same boys who got detention in elementary school for beating the crap out of people are now rewarded for it. They call it football.”

“Didn't help to ponder things that were forever gone. It only made a body restless and fill up with bees, all wanting to sting something.”

“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.”

“You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against.”

“In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves.”

“We are crayons and lunchboxes and swinging so high our sneakers punch holes in the clouds.”

“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.”

“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?”

“I am beginning to measure myself in strength, not pounds. Sometimes in smiles.”

“Art without emotion its like chocolate cake without sugar. It makes you gag.”

“It's easier to floss with barbed wire than admit you like someone in middle school.”

“I wonder how long it would take for anyone to notice if I just stopped talking.”

“Gym should be illegal. It's humiliating.”

“Do I want to die from the inside out or the outside in?”

“Write about the emotions you fear the most.”

“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.”

“I am getting better at smiling when people expect it.”

“I have never heard a more eloquent silence.”

“I failed eating, failed drinking, failed not cutting myself into shreds. Failed friendship. Failed sisterhood and daughterhood. Failed mirrors and scales and phone calls. Good thing I'm stable.”

“Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest.”

“What do I want?
The answer to that question does not exist.”

“I am angry that I starved my brain and that I sat shivering in my bed at night instead of dancing or reading poetry or eating ice cream or kissing a boy…”

“Who wants to recover? It took me years to get that tiny. I wasn't sick; I was strong.”

“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.”

“I knew how much it hurt to be the daughter of people who can't see you, not even if you are standing in front of them stomping your feet.”

“Be careful what you wish for. There's always a catch.”

“IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding.”

“I believe that you've created a metaphorical universe in which you can express your darkest fears. In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves, and sometimes we do such a good job, we lose track of reality.”

“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.”

“For one moment we are not failed tests and broken condoms and cheating on essays; we are crayons and lunch boxes and swinging so high our sneakers punch holes in the clouds.”

“If I ever form a clan, we'll be the anti-cheerleaders and walk under the bleacher forming mild acts of mayhem.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The stuffing/puking/stuffing/puking/stuffing/puking didn't make her skinny, it made her cry.”

“Everybody told me to be a man. Nobody told me how.”

“Mr. Freeman sighs. "No imagination. What are you thirteen? Fourteen? You've already let them beat your creativity out of you!”

“I want to make a memorial for our turkey. Never has a bird been so tortured to provide such a lousy dinner.”

“Here stands a girl clutching a knife. There is grease on the stove, blood in the air, and angry words piled in the corners. We are trained not to see it, not to see any of it…. Someone just ripped off my eyelids.”

“He doesn't see my breasts or my waist or my hips. He only sees the nightmare.”

“Life is for the living. Don't let the fear of striking out let you from keep you from playing the game.”

“I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.”

“Why are you being so mean?"
"Friends tell friends the truth."
"yeah, but not to hurt, to help.”

“I wish I had cancer. I will burn in hell for that, but it's true.”

“First thought: It was a dream
Second thought: No it wasn't
Third thought: Crap”

“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.”

“I can’t tell anymore when I’m asleep and when I’m awake, or which is worse.”

“She offered herself to the big, bad wolf and didn't scream when he took the first bite.”

“I'm learning how to taste everything.”

“A scar is a sign of strength… the sign of a survivor.”

“You’re not dead, but you’re not alive, either. You’re a wintergirl.”

“I want to be in fifth grade again. Now, that is a deep dark secret, almost as big as the other one. Fifth grade was easy -- old enough to play outside without Mom, too young to go off the block. The perfect leash length.”

“It is my first morning of high school. I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomachache.”