Quotes from Ellen Wittlinger

I guess I'd just been thinking about it for so long that I forgot changing your gender was not even a question for most people. They just took for granted being a boy or a girl. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be so sure of yourself.

I was only going to shoot you if he was in one band. And only if it had a name like Uncle Toejam's Acid Crematorium or something. But bluegrass is good, and hey, music is MY life too. Maybe I'll actually like the guy (assuming he's around long enough). Just don't write and tell me you're in the process of stirring up some baby Custard-Mustards.

That's the great thing about movies, Hitch. The end is the end; everything is resolved one way or the other. You feel joyful or peaceful or relieved, or sometimes disturbed or depressed. But if it's a good ending, it satisfies you, even if it's sad. The war is over, the guy gets the girl, whatever. Real life is a whole lot messier. It doesn't end when things are at a good stopping point.

Why does my name sound so pretty when he says it?" -Maisie

I was surprised at how much general fear and anxiety lurked inside me these days. I'd never been a fearful person, never even understood phobias like fear of heights of water or snakes or any of those things. And while I knew that my coming out as a transgender person was going to throw certain people for a loop, I somehow hadn't realized how much it would throw me.

But I am not bitter because that would be a waste of my time, and wasting time is one of the only sins worth worrying about.

As long as you're alive, there's always plenty to do. You know John Berryman, the poet? He says people who are bore have no inner resources. Check it out: "Dream song #14.

That's what I love about writing. Once you get the words down on paper, in print, they start to make sense. It's like you don't know what you think until it dribbles from your brain down your arm and into your hand and out through your fingers and shows up on the computer screen, and you read it and realize: That's really true; I believe that.

If you don't know who you are, how is anybody else supposed to get to know you?

Heck, I didn't even know my mom had dreams. How could I not have known that?

Write it down, Gio. After dinner go to your room and write down what happened and how you feel about it. Your writing is good--it really is. Just don't run away from the feelings.

Of course I knew. It was the reason I was no longer comatose after an entire life of sleepwalking.

He reminds me of Robin Williams at the end of Dead Poets Society - there's a little smile on his face, but you know he's actually as sad as he's ever been in his whole life.

I am not bitter because that would be a waste of my time, and wasting time is one of the only sins worth worrying about.

I push my ice cream dish away. What's left in the bowl isn't cold and delicious anymore. Now it's just lukewarm, melted soup, because obviously nothing good lasts forever.

A deserted beach at dawn was the perfect place to nurse my feelings of desolation, to let them trot out a bit, like a kid plays with the breaking waves, then pull them back inside for another close inspection.

And I wonder why people can't understand each other better. Why do they hurt each other all the time, even when they don't mean to?

The only thing that can never change is death--that you just have to live with.

I like to believe the happy ending lasts forever.

She doesn't like obituaries. She says they're half bragging and half crying, and it's not a good combination" -Maisie

This is why I don't like to argue with people. You say things you don't mean. Or, you kind of mean them, but the way you say it sounds arrogant and hurtful" -Uncle Walt

All I meant was we all make choices in life. I don't think your mom made bad choices. It's just...if you make a left turn, you can't make a right turn at the same time

That's the great thing about movies, Hitch. The end is the end; everything is resolved one way or the other. You feel joyful or peaceful or relieved, or sometimes disturbed or depressed. But if it's a good ending, if satisfies you, even if it's sad. The war is over, the guy gets the girl, whatever. Real life is a whole lot messier. It doesn't end when things are at a good stopping points" -Uncle Walt

How can your worst nightmare also be your wildest dream?" -Maisie