Quotes from Jerry Spinelli

You're cheating yourself out of today. Today is calling to you, trying to get your attention, but you're stuck on tomorrow, and today trickles away like water down a drain. You wake up the next morning and that today that you wasted is gone forever. It's now yesterday. Some of those moments may have had wonderful things in store for you, but now you'll never know.

They shoot them." For a long time Dorothy Gruzik did not move. It looked as if she were waiting for rain to fall into her mouth. When she finally turned her eyes back to Palmer, he wished he wasn't there. "What?" she said. "They shoot them," he repeated, and the words were dusty and bitter on his tongue. There seemed only one way to get rid of the bad taste, and that was to flush out his mouth with more and more words.

You were smitten with me. You were speechless to behold my beauty. You had never met anyone so fascinating. You thought of me every waking minute. You dreamed about me. You couldn't stand it. You couldn't let such wonderfulness out of your sight. You had to follow me.

Still he had not cracked a smile, but his eyes were different now, they were here.

Palmer did not know what to say. He looked at Dorothy. She was staring at him. Somehow her face gave him the answer. He shook his head no.

So,' I said, 'when does the enchantment start?' 'It started when the earth was born.'...'It never stops. It is, always. It's just here.' 'So what do we do?' She smiled. 'That's the secret.'...'We do nothing. Or as close to nothing as we can.

You remember everything people say to you?' I locked into his eyes. 'Everything /some/ people say to me.

I'm erased. I'm gone. I'm nothing. And then the world is free to flow into me like water into an empty bowl'...'I'm not outside my world anymore, and I'm not really inside it either. The thing is, there's no difference anymore between me and the universe. The boundary is gone. I am it and it is me. I am a stone, a cactus thorn. I am rain...I like that most of all, being rain.

Just cause it doesn't look like you thought it would, doesn't mean that you're not living your dream. from Stargirl

We fell silent. We just looked at each other, sitting cross-legged on the picnic table. As in my meditations, I had no awareness of time passing, only a sense of the air between us electrified with eyes.

Thanks," she said, and went back to the coffee urn. Not exactly chummy. Suddenly grumpy Alvina

He wonders if Claudia is making snow angels. He wonders if angles are invisible in the snow. He wonders if angels make people in the snow. He wonders of Claudia is an angel…" (p. 191)

In their beaks they pinched the edges of the town, plucked it up and flew away with it

As I said last week, I wash my mind all over the place. Since the idea—and ideal—is to erase myself from wherever and whenever I am, I think I should not allow myself to become too attached to any one location, not even Enchanted Hill, as I call it now, or to any particular time of day or night.

On the contrary, she is one of us. Most decidedly. She is us more than we are us. She is, I think, who we really are. Or were.

It's really hard to do nothing totally.

Next thing he knew he was yanked out of bed and onto his feet. "Come on," whispered Beans, "we got somewhere to go." It did not occur to Palmer not to go along. Once the shock wore off, he realized what an honor had been granted him. Imagine: A month ago these guys ignored him except to tease him; now they snuck into his house and climbed into bed with him. Palmer LaRue. Amazing!

She taught me to revel.

Their mooncast shadows snagged on potholes in the old parking lot and pulled like black taffy.

The empty look on Beans's face indicated that the answer had reached his ears, but no farther.

At the same time, we held back. Because she was Different. Different. We had no one to compare her to, no one to measure her against. She was unknown territory. Unsafe. We were afraid to get too close.

He loved to see them playing with his birthday present. Each thud of a foot said: We're kicking your soccer ball. We like you. You're one of us.

Henry. Whose streak, unlike Beans's, was meek, not mean. Who ran with Beans and Mutto. Who did what they did. But was different.

On the contrary, she is one of us. Most decidedly. She is more than we are us. She is, I think, who we really are. Or were...she's an earthling if there ever was one.' 'So it's not just an act?' said Kevin. 'An act? No. If anybody is acting, it's us.