Laurie Halse Anderson Quotes

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“I just thought of a great theory that explains everything. When I went to that party, I was abducted by aliens. They have created a fake Earth and fake high school to study me and my reactions. This certainly explains cafeteria food.”

“Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.”

“Rumors are spread by jealous people”

“This is wonderful, wonderful! Be the bird. You are the bird. Sacrifice yourself to abandoned family values….”

“I would never be popular. I didn't want to be; I liked being shy. I'd never be the smartest or the hottest or the happiest. By eighth grade you start to figure out your limits.”

“I was good at digging holes. It was the rest of life I sucked at.”

“Cutting pain was a different flavor of hurt. It made it easier not to think about having my body and my family and my life stolen, made it easier not to care… -Wintergirls”

“I knit the afternoon away. I knit reasons for Elijah to come back. I knit apologies for Emma. I knit angry knots and slipped stitches for every mistake I ever made, and I knit wet, swollen stitches that look awful. I knit the sun down.”

“I see IT in the hallway. IT goes to Merryweather. IT is walking with Aubrey cheerleader. IT is my nightmare and I can't wake up. IT sees me. IT smiles and winks. Good thing my lips are stitched together or I'd throw up.”

“I'd treat myself to a reading marathon all weekend. All the ice cream I could eat, all the pages I could read..”

“It doesn't hurt. Nothing hurts except the small smiles and blushes that flash across the room like tiny sparrows.”

“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.”

“I watch the Eruptions. Mount Dad, long dormant, now considered armed and dangerous. Mount Saint Mom, oozing lava, spitting flame. Warn the villagers to run into the sea.”

“To keep up appearances, I stomp my room and slam the door.”

“Dead girl walking” the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secrets” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
"I am that girl. I am the spaces between my thighs, daylight shinning through. I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.”

“I am learning how to be angry and sad and lonely and joyful and excited and afraid and happy.”

“I cry to let everything out”

“They yell at me because I can’t see what they see. Nobody can explain to me why my eyes work different than theirs. Nobody can make it stop.”

“There's no point in asking why, even though everybody will. I know why. The harder question is "why not?" I can't believe she ran out of answers before I did.”

“We swore sacred oaths to be strong and to save the planet and to be friends forever.”

“I want to go to sleep and not wake up, but I don’t want to die.”

“People who have to announce that they are trustworthy deserve to be lied to.”

“None of [the books are] worth reading. There are no fairy tales, no faerie tails, no sword-swinging princesses or lightning-throwing gods.”

“Sometimes being an adult means doing the right thing, even if it's not what you want.”

“She cannot chain my soul. Yes, she could hurt me. She'd already done so… I would bleed, or not. Scar, or not. Live, or not. But she could not hurt my soul, not unless I gave it to her.”

“They say they have noticed me drawing. I almost tell them right then and there. They noticed.”

“The one good thing about being kind of shy is that nobody bugs you when you want to be left alone.”

“I am locked into the mirror and there is no door out.”

“No, I am never setting foot in this house again it scares me and makes me sad and I wish you could be a mom whose eyes worked but I don't think you can.”

“I am not going to think about it. It was ugly, but it’s over, and I’m not going to think about it.”

“You're the one who doesn't understand, I've been standing on the edge with you for years.”

“I am so sorry. I wish you knew even one tenth of one percent of how sorry I am…. It was my fault. Can I kill myself here, or should I do it outside, so the mess on your carpet doesn't upset your mother?”

“Too much sun after a Syracuse winter does strange things to your head, makes you feel strong, even if you aren't.”

“Don't expect to make a difference unless you speak up for yourself.”

“Because I am still a little girl who believes in Santa and the tooth fairy and you.”

“I pull my lower lip all the way in between my teeth. If I try hard enough, maybe I can gobble my whole self this way…. I didn't try hard enough to swallow myself.”

“I won the wintergirl trip over the border into dangerland.”

“I don't just use yarn from a store. I buy old sweaters from consignment shops. The older the better, and unravel them. There are countries of women in this scarf/shawl/blanket. Soon it will be big enough to keep me warm.”

“When life sucks, read. They can't yell at you for that. And if they do, then you can ignore them.”

“I wanted to pull down a book, open it proper, and gobble up page after page”

“Where did you live before you came here?" I asked.
"The moon," he said smoothly. "We left because the place had no atmosphere.”

“If I run or breathe too deep, the cheap stitches holding me together will snap, and all the stickiness inside will pour out and burn through the concrete.”

“My first class is biology. I can't find it and get my first demerit for wandering the hall. It is 8:50 in the morning. Only 699 days and 7 class periods until graduation.”

“Having a friend made everything else suck less.”

“Killing people is easier than it should be.” Dad put on his beret. “Staying alive is harder.”

“There is no safer. There’s not even safe, never has been.”

“I can see us, living in the woods, her wearing that A, me with a S maybe, S for silent, S for stupid, for scared. S for silly. For shame.”

“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.”

“I pushed my ragged mouth against the mirror. A thousand crushed bleeding lips pushed back at me…”