Wendelin Van Draanen Quotes

“I realize something. That wasn't a finish line for me… This is my new starting line.”

“Sometimes a little discomfort in the beginning can save a whole lot of pain down the road.”

““Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss….” He turned to me. “But every once in a while you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.””

“It was beyond embarrassing or humiliating or even mortifying. It was ego-slaying!”

“If chaos is a necessary step in the organization of one's universe, then I was well on my way.”

“Somehow the silence seemed to connect us in a way like words never could.”

“I'll ride my bike all the stinkin' way to school for the rest of eternity if it means being with her.

-Bryce”

“By the end of that first day, what I'd made was a big mess. But if chaos is a necessary step in the organization of one's universe, that I was well on my way.”

“I told about the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. “It's that way with people, too,” he said, “only with people it's sometimes that the whole is less than the sum of the parts.””

“I was slipping, man, and it was definetly time to get a grip.”

“… Next time you're faced with a choice, do the right thing. It hurts everyone less in the long run.”

“Maybe my mother's right. Maybe there is more to Bryce Loski than I know.
Maybe it's time to meet him in the proper light.”

“My heart stopped. It just stopped beating. And for the first time in my life, I had that feeling. You know, like the world is moving all around you, all beneath you, all inside you, and you're floating. Floating in midair. And the only thing keeping you from drifting away is the other person's eyes. They're connected to yours by some invisible physical force, and they hold you fast while the rest of the world swirls and twirls and falls completely away.”

“To by held above the earth and be brushed by the wind," she said,"it's like your heart has been kissed by beauty.”

“Get beyond his eyes and his smile and the sheen of his hair -- Look at what's really there.”

“It's easy to look back and see it, and it's easy to give the advice, but the sad fact is, most people don't look beneath the surface until it's too late.”

“You can't dwell on what might have been… and it's not fair to condemn him for something he hasn't done.”

“The room fell quiet. And as I read down the list of over one hundred and fifty eight-grade boys, I realized that to me, there had only ever been one boy.”

“I had Flipped.

-Bryce Loski”

“Sometimes I get so caught up in my own problems that I forget how amazing the world is.”

“What he did to my heart was sheer, inexplicable, magic.”

“What I'm expecting is for you to behave like the gentleman I always thought you were.”

“There's nothing like a head-strong woman to make you happy to be alive.”

“I'd scale that monster sycamore if I could. Right to the top. And I'd yell her name across the rooftops for the whole world to hear.

-Bryce”

“There's no winning arguments with your parents”

“I had liked him for all the wrong reasons.”

“You got nothin' to lose but your self-respect.”

“But in my heart I knew that just like the new grass, I wasn't strong enough yet to be walked on”

“… and I realized that Garrett was right about one thing- I had flipped.
Completely.”

“I wipe away my tears and nod, because the pain in my leg is nothing compare to the one in my heart.”

“You never forget your first love.”

“It's disturbing how fast weeds take root in my garden of worthiness.
They're so hard to pull.
And grow back so easily.”

“I miss school.
What’s wrong with me?”

“The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life.”

“A painting is more than the sum of its parts.”

“Proper lighting is everything, Julianna.”

“It's funny how you can think you know someone pretty well, and then something happens or they do something that makes you understand that you didn't really know them at all.”

“I am a runner. That's what I do. That's who I am. Running is all I know, or want, or care about.”

“What did a kiss feel like, anyway? Somehow I knew it wouldn't be like the one I got from Mom or Dad at bedtime. The same species, maybe, but a radically different beast, to be sure. Like a wolf and a whippet—only science would put them on the same tree.”

“I asked you to conquer your fear, but all you did was give in to it. If you were in love with her, that would be one thing. Love is something to be afraid of, but this, this is embarrassing. So she talks too much, so she's too enthused about every little thing, so what? Get in, get your question answered, and get out. Stand up to her, for cryin' out loud!”

“I'd never looked at our house, or even our side of the street, and said, Oh! I wish we lived in the new development—those houses are so much newer, so much better! This is where I'd grown up. This was my home.”

“"Yeah, right. I know what's really going on: Heather's hired you to kill me, hasn't she?"
"Sammy!"
"Why else would you catapult me through the air and feed me to a man-eating cot?"”

“…something can be so much more than the parts it took to make it, and why people need things around them that lift them above their lives and make them feel the miracle of living.”