Laurie Halse Anderson citations

Page 2

“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.”