Quotes from Laurie Halse Anderson

Mr. Freeman says fear is a great place to begin art.

Never underestimate dainty little ladies.

When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time. You'd be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside — walking through their days with no idea who they are.

A mockingbird lands on a low oak branch and scolds me. I rake the leaves out of my throat. Me: Can you buy some seeds? Flower seeds?

Never forget that women are people, not furniture. They aren't sofas to be jumped around on at your leisure.

This is an uglynasty Momside. She bought a book about it. Tough love. Sour sugar. Barbed velvet. Silent talk.

I didn't speak up when that boy raped me, instead I scalded myself in the shower and turned me into the ghost of the girl I once was, my biggest fear being that my father, no stranger to gaming with the devil, would kill that boy and it would be my fault.

Then Ms. Conners blows her whistle to stop and explain the retarded scoring system in tennis where the numbers don't make sense and love doesn't count for anything.

Maybe I'll be an artist if I grow up.

The appearance of the yearbook clears up another high school mystery - why all the popular girls put up with the disgusting habits of Todd Ryder. He is a pig. Greasy, sleazy, foul-mouthed, and unwashed, he'll make a great addition to a state college fraternity. But the popular kissed up to him all year. Why? Todd Ryder is the yearbook photographer.

That's the story I am dying to knit together, if I could only find the pattern.

I want to confess everything, hand over the guilt and mistake and anger to someone else.

My father stood and said, I will not live without my mind, then shook the doctor's hand and told me it was time to go home.

IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding. Andy Evans raped me in August when I was drunk and too young to know what was happening. It wasn't my fault. He hurt me. It wasn't my fault. And I'm not going to let it kill me. I can grow.

The yellow sun rose, a giant balloon filled with prayers and hopes and promise.

He says a million things without saying a word. I make a note to study David Petrakis. I have never heard a more eloquent silence.

I have survived. I am here.

Cutting dead frogs is cool.

The seniors look my way before they leave. One girl, not the cheerleader, nods her head, and says, Way to go. I hope you're OK. With hours left in the school year, I have suddenly become popular. Thanks to the big mouths on the lacrosse team, everybody knew what happened before sundown. Mom took me to the hospital to stitch up the cut on my hand. When we got home, there was a message on the machine from Rachel. She wants me to call her.

A kid asked him what his painting was. "It's Venice at night, an accountant's soul, the blood of imbeciles. Smoker's lung. Tenure. The inside of a lock, the taste of iron. Despair. A city with the streetlights shot out, the heart of a school board director." Some teachers whisper he's having a breakdown. I think he's the sanest person I know(181)".

Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech. —Benjamin Franklin, 1722

Sono lo spazio tra le mie cosce e la luce che ci passa attraverso. Sono il topo di biblioteca che si rifugia nei romanzi fantasy. Sono il freak del circo, intrappolato nella cera d'api. Sono le ossa che vogliono, racchiuse in una cornice di porcellana.

Ci tenevamo per mano mentre percorrevamo il sentiero di pan di zenzero dentro la foresta, col sangue che ci gocciolava dalle dita.

I'm sorry you didn't get the help you needed. You deserved a soft afghan wrapped around you, People to hold your hands while you learned to walk again, So stand with us now.