Quotes from Laurie Halse Anderson

When life sucks, read. They can't yell at you for that. And if they do, then you can ignore them.

Censorship is the child of fear the father of ignorance and the desperate weapon of fascists everywhere.

My head is killing me, my throat is killing me, my stomach bubbles with toxic waste. I just want to sleep. A coma would be nice. Or amnesia. Anything, just to get rid if this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind.

I open a paperclip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this. A whimper, a peep? I draw little window cracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting.

I scared myself, because once you've thought long and hard enough about doing something that is colossally stupid, you feel like you've actually done it, and then you're never quite sure what your limits are.

Note: 'family' does NOT only mean a biological unit composed of people who share genetic markers or legal bonds, headed by a heterosexual-mated pair. Family is much, much more than that.

They tied me back together, but they didn't use double knots. My insides are draining out of the fault lines in my skin, I can feel it, but every time I check the bandages, they're dry.

And then a new screen, one I had never seen before, never even heard of popped up. It gave me a choice. I could become the new Lord of Darkness myself, or I could take a gamble and be reincarnated. I chose wisely.

When you're alive, people can hurt you. It's easier to crawl into a bone cage or a snowdrift of confusion. It's easier to lock everybody out. But it's a lie.

I swallowed the fear. It's always there– fear– and if you don't stay on top of it, you'll drown. I swallowed again and stood tall, shoulders broad, arms loose. I was balanced, ready to move. My body said, "Yeah, you're bigger and stronger, but if you touch this, I will hurt you.

wats yr typ? people who can spell

Make it bend — trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch — perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.

I flip ahead in the textbook. There's an interesting chapter about acid rain. Nothing about sex. We aren't scheduled to learn about that until eleventh grade.

I pushed my ragged mouth against the mirror. A thousand crushed bleeding lips pushed back at me...

Melancholy held me hostage, and the bees built a hive of sadness in my soul.

The dead do walk and haunt and crawl into your bed at night. Ghosts sneak into your head when you're not looking. Stars line up and volcanoes birth out bits of glass that foretell the future. Poison berries make girls stronger, but sometimes kill them. If you howl at the moon and swear on your blood, anything you desire will be yours. Be careful what you wish for. There's always a catch.

This is not our fight', the old man said. 'British or American, that is not the choice. You must choose your own side, find your road through the valley of darkness that will lead you to the river Jordan. . . Look hard for your river Jordan, my child. You'll find it.

I keep thinking that if I could just unzip my skin, step out of this body, then I would see who I really am." She nods her head slowly. "What do you think you'd look like?" "Smaller, for a start.

Can't escape pain, kiddo. Battle through it and you get stronger.

The school board banned one of Maya Angelou's books, so the librarian had to take down her poster. I fished it out of the trash. She must be a great writer if the school board is scared of her.

Can the plural possessive express the feelings in your heart? If you don't learn art now, you will never learn to breathe!

I look at my homely sketch. It doesn't need anything. Even through the river in my eyes I can see that. It isn't perfect and that makes it just right.

I kissed him until everything that hurt inside me melted into a pool of black water so deep I couldn't touch the bottom. As long as I was touching him, I wouldn't drown.

Shame, turned inside out, is rage.