Quotes from Laurie Halse Anderson

Oppressive bastards, think they own the place. I told them that karma's going to kick their asses....

Emma is a mattress who got thrown off the truck when her parents split up. It's not like you can blame a mattress when people don't tie it down tight enough.

Puke and starve and cut and drink because you don't want to feel any of this. Puke and starve and cut and drink because you need an anesthetic and it works. For awhile. But then the anesthetic turns into poison and by then it's to late because you are maintaining it now,straight into your soul. It is rotting you and you can't stop.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I want to go to sleep and not wake up, but I don't want to die.

What do you miss about being alive? The sound of my mom singing, a little off-key. The way my dad went to all my swim meets and I could hear his whistle when my head was underwater, even if he did yell at me afterward for not trying harder. I miss going to the library. I miss the smell of clothes fresh out of the dryer. I miss diving off the highest board and nailing the landing. I miss waffles - p. 272.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

He says a million things without saying a word. I have never heard a more eloquent silence.