Quotes from Jordan Sonnenblick

Me: Well, you see, I, uh, I'm a cancer survivor. Person #1: And how's that working out for you? Me: Well, you see, I, uh, used to have leukemia. Person #2: Dude, how come you're not, like, BALD? Me: Well, you see, I, uh, I had acute lymphocytic lymphoma when I was five. Person #3: Whoa. THAT must'a sucked. I once had my tonsils out...

You are a wonderful son, and a wonderful man. Yet another parent busting forth with the "man" thing! I'd have to check my chest for signs of hair when I got home.

Rehearsals and practice times by myself are like these little islands of 'Okay' in a vast sea of 'Holy Crap!

Finally the kitchen clock said 5:17. It was time to roll out. I shouted for my mom, woke Jeffrey up, ran upstairs, changed into my concert clothes, put on my shoes, and was standing by the door to the garage by 5:19—chanting "Let's go! Come on!" (Feel free to try that at home, by the way; moms love it!)

There are really no guidelines whatsoever, because this is the kind of thing that only happens to ME.

Well your mom was right, in a way. What do you mean? He DID fall, right? So he wasn't safe on the stool. Thanks, Annette. Thanks a lot. That's exactly what I needed to hear right now. You're a very inspiring person, you know that?

Yes teenage boys who are fine always cry on their mothers' shoulders until they leave a snot trail.)

You can be our critic. Would you dig that? (Yes, he was the last Man in America who could say "dig" with a straight face without referring to the process of using a tool to remove dirt from the ground.)

I'll probably just stand in a corner, trying not to be noticed, until the decoration committee accidentally packs me into a box at the end of the night. There I will lie, crammed in between rolls of crepe paper, until the New Year's dance two months from now. Jeffrey thought about this for a moment and said, Won't they notice the box is too heavy when they go to put it away?

Annette had kissed me. Who would'a thunk it?

He also said that if anyone did anything to mess up the rest of the testing, he was going to call 911 personally. Yeah, like that wouldn't make it into the nightly news again: WHEELCHAIR-BOUND CANCER PATIENT ARRESTED FOR FREE SPEECH.

GET ON THE TREADMILL!

Mr. Watras asked me whether I was practicing, and I told him I was practicing my tissue basketball skills.

The only time I can ever remember Steven crying over any of it was after my treatment, when I tried to use my foot on his bass drum pedal, and we realized I could never play a drum set.

He said he "admired our courage" but didn't want to see us do anything to "damage our promising futures." He felt "proud as an American" that we had "exercised our right to peaceful free expression." But if we did it again, he didn't "know what action the state board of education might take against individual students." Translation: You've had your fun. Now sit down, shut up, and take the freakin' test. Or else.

Or maybe...their biggest fear is that they will get close to you again, and you'll go and drop dead.

But nobody ever tells you in advance when you should concentrate on the good times-that's why you're supposed to do it every day.

Not, like, that, boychik, you sound like a herd of elephants charging through a music store.

We're all free to chose some people to love, and then do it.

If you could pick one word in the English language to describe the universe, what would it be? Why?" Here's my response: Unfair.

Instead of agonizing about the things you can't change, why don't you try working on the things you CAN change?

It was a cheesy cheeseball, covered with Cheez Whiz and served on a bed of Cheez-Its. With a side of queso.

All right, Jeffy. Here are some big-boy pants. Put 'em on and crank out fifty miles for me. By the way, the iPod only has one playlist on it. Press play when you leave the starting line, okay?

And that's how we live: wandering endlessly, concentrically outward, seeking in others a kindling spark of the love which has long lain, dormant, dark, unstoked in our own deepest souls.