Quotes from Laurie Halse Anderson

If you touch me, I'll cram your nose into your brain with the heel of my hand.

The American Revolution was the last war in which black and white Americans served in integrated units until the Korean War in 1950.

You might not hear back from your mother for a while, though. The post has become most unreliable.

Rich people scorn the way the poor buy lottery tickets, but what would you pay for an hour of untainted hope, of happiness unfettered? If the ticket had my mother's name on it I'd dance across minefields for the chance.

Some people grow up knowing what they want to do; they color inside the lines, study at the right school, check off the boxes, and in the end they are handed the grown-up life they've dreamed of. That's mostly bullshit, for the record. Trying to figure out what you want to do, who you want to be, is messy as hell; the best anyone can hope for is to figure out the next step.

Most relationships come with expiration dates just like milk and bread. Some go sour before you can taste them.

too many grown-ups tell kids to follow their dreams like that's going to get them somewhere Auntie Laurie says to follow your nightmares instead cuz when you figure out what's eating you alive you can slay it

She got too tired and went to sleep. Somehow, I dragged myself out of the dark and asked for help.

Our army was ready to go to war. When the Continental army marched out of Valley Forge, we would be hidden in the middle of it.

my first day of ninth grade had no assembly no First Ten Lies They Tell You in High School no showdown with Mr. Neck Speak is a novel rooted in facts, to be sure, but a story bred with its own DNA an invasive species growing out of a stump of a tree hit by lightning growing from the girl who survived

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. For one breath everything feels better. Then

The shape of my life had altered when Bellingham enlisted me. It changed again when I escaped the prison. It shattered when Isabel left.

But anyways, you let me down, Ken, but I've made my peace with it. With you. With the confused girl-child who used to be me. And Barbie? I've got nothing to say to that bitch. Not till she learns to walk flat-footed, like a real woman.

Mom, picking out bits of grain from roll: You're alive because of Dr. Parker. Lia, bleeding where they can't see: Stop exaggerating.

You been too strong," she said firmly. "I know about that. Strong starts out being the right thing. Your hands grow strong enough for your work. Your back strengthens under your burdens. Soon your mind becomes strongest of all; has to be to get through the hard days. " - Serafina Ashes: Seeds of America - Laurie Halse Anderson

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

We have to acknowledge that adolescence is that time of transition where we begin to introduce to children that life isn't pretty, that there are difficult things, there are hard situations, it's not fair. Bad things happen to good people.

That can be the most painstaking aspect of being a teen, figuring out what the world really looks like. If you find someone in a book, you know you're not alone and that's what's so comforting about books.

I've dealt with depression my entire life, on and off, which makes me the perfect author for teenage readers.

I wish America would stop judging and criticizing teens and instead, try to understand the battles they have to fight every day.

I breathe in slowly. Food is life. I exhale, take another breath. Food is life.

The feedback I get is that my books are honest. I don't sugar-coat anything. Life is really hard.

A scar is a sign of strength. . .the sign of a survivor.

I don't reread my books after they're published, because it's agony.