Quotes from Matt de la Pena

The ocean talks to you. Especially at night. Whispering voices that never let up, not even when you sleep.

Some people watch the world with their ears.

It's not stuff you leave with. It's love.

He'd give anything to be out there playing instead of standing here watching. Trying to maintain this smile out of respect. He digs into his wrists some more with his nails. Breaks previously broken skin and pulls away. A smear of blood he wipes away with his other hand, rubs off across his dark jeans. Back home his mom is always on him to stop digging, but that only makes him want to dig more." -exerpt from "Mexican White Boy

He wondered how his nana always found beautiful where he never even thought to look.

But not just alive like I was yesterday and the day before. Alive like I knew I was alive. Like I could feel the breaths coming into my chest. And I knew I was the person inside my own body.

Truth is not a fixed thing. It evolves and morphs and inverts. What is true today may not be true tomorrow.

Stars shine long after they've flamed out and the shine they shine with is love.

That's the weirdest thing, by the way. That every person you come across lays down in a bed, under the covers, and closes their eyes at night. Cops, teachers, parents, hot girls, pro ballers, everybody. For some reason it makes people seem so much less real when I look at them.

And sometimes when her light brown eyes locked on to my dark brown ones, it was like she was reaching a hand all the way into my chest, like she was digging around in there for the most honest thing she could find.

We can't be spectators our whole lives, right? At some point we have to take a risk. Step into the action.

Nana, how come we don't got a car?' 'Boy, what do we need a car for? We got a bus that breathes fire, and old Mr. Daniels, who always has a trick for you.

The fact that everyone's days were numbered, and it didn't matter if you were in premier class or worked in housekeeping. Those were only costumes people wore. And once you stripped them away you saw the truth. This giant ocean and this dark pressing sky. We only have a few minutes, but the unexplainable world is constant and forever marching forward.

People always think there's this huge hundred-foot-high barrier that separates doing good from doing bad. But there's not. There's nothing. There's not even a little anthill. You just take one baby step in any direction and you're already there. You've done something awful. And your life is changed forever.

So, he was breathing ice now? Great. He couldn't even have dinner with friends without some random new power messing everything up.

My stain will never get fixed 'cause it's on the inside. And lasers can't reach there.

Unfortunately, her mother and her tutors were more focused on what Diana referred to as the Dire Warnings: War. Torture. Genocide. Pollution. Bad Grammar.

When it comes to attractive females my policy has always been to nod first and ask questions later.

And a thought occurs to him: Maybe you can't really know anyone just by looking at their face.

There are two kinds of people in this world, young fella. Those who can sit in the loneliness of existence and those who turn away.

How overwhelming the world could seem when you were thrust into the guts of it. How little power you realized human beings actually had compared with the earth.

A snake charmer and a clown A treasure that never was A gift from the deity Itzamna: from 9.10.5.10.7 to 11.17.2.13.10

Would you rather be great at something you like, or just okay at something you love?

Shoeshine looked disappointed. "Don't do that, young fella." "Do what?" "Try and label everyone you meet." The man coughed again. "It's lazy.