Quotes from Gennifer Choldenko

I AM SIXTEEN," Nat says, like maybe I've lost my hearing. "I can go in by myself. I am the warden's daughter.

WELKUM HOM NADALEE

Being a girl is complicated. But it isn't all bad, I have to admit.

I'm not the only kid who lives here. There's my sister, Natalie, except she doesn't count.

Courage comes from your heart, not your fist.

You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you're me. I came here because my mother said I had to.

Courage comes from your heart, not your fists.

My dad's an electrician, for Pete's sake.

Now I'm five foot eleven and a half inches—as tall as my mom and a good two inches taller than my dad. My father tells people I've grown so much, he's going to put my supper into pickle jars and sell it under the name Incredible Growth Formula.

Okay, that's it. I'm sleeping with my clothes on. Who wants to face a convicted felon in your pajamas?

Dakota?" Izzy asks. "Am I smart enough to be a nerd?

Nobody knows how things will turn out, that's why they go ahead and play the game...You give it your all and sometimes amazing things happen, but it's hardly ever what you expect.

Now I understand. When you love someone, you have to try things even if they don't make sense to anyone else.

Life is amazing, isn't it? You can't ever tell what will happen. Nobody knows until they go ahead and play the game.

People are responsible for themselves. All you can do is try to inspire each person to be his best self.

Some people's brilliance is in their head. A surgeon's brilliance is in her hands. But there are people who have brilliant hearts. They shine right through them.

Oh, we have everyone who is bad. Except Bonnie and Clyde on account of their being dead," she says.

What they say about females being the weaker sex is the biggest lie in the world.

I'm big as a linebacker, and a seven-year-old girl treats me like her errand boy. Does she smell weakness on me?

Pete were here, he'd whistle.

I haven't seen you for three whole months," I say. "Two months, twenty-two days, twenty-two days," Natalie calls out.

My face turns red just seeing her. She's a looker. If Pete were here, he'd whistle.

It doesn't matter that I weigh more than both of them put together. I know when I'm beat. I let Natalie open the door.

Sure. I've been to hundreds of morgues. Thousands of them, in fact.