02c. 1954 AD..they were always asking me lots of questions. Questions I didn't want to answer. They wanted to get to know me. Yeah, well, I wasn't interested in being known. I wanted to buy a t-shirt that read: I AM UNKNOWNABLE.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
03c. 1954 ADI live in an ecotone. Employment must coexist with goofing off. Responsibility must coexist with irresponsibility.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
04c. 1954 ADI didn’t think it was my job to accept what everyone said I was and who I should be.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
05c. 1954 ADI couldn't exactly storm away in anger. I'd just have to close my eyes and shut out the universe.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
06c. 1954 ADSee, this is the way I see it. Not all anger is the same. Because there are different kids of anger. And you know what else - sometimes, anger is a virtue. As long as you're not making someone bleed.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
07c. 1954 ADI wanted to tell him not to cry anymore, tell him that what those boys did to that bird didn’t matter. But I knew it did matter. It mattered to Dante. And, anyway, it didn’t do any good to tell him not to cry because he needed to cry. That’s the way he was.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
08c. 1954 ADI thought of what my mom had said. "You talk like a man." It was easier to talk like a man than to be one.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
09c. 1954 ADThe problem with trying hard not to think about something was that you thought about it even more.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
10c. 1954 ADI wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
11c. 1954 ADSome boys... Are perfect shits. & other boys are very, very beautiful.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
12c. 1954 ADI’d rather have a cup of coffee and a cigarette than live in all that honesty.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
13c. 1954 ADI wanted to close my eyes and let the silence swallow me whole.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
14c. 1954 ADI have this idea that the reason we have dreams is that we're thinking about things that we don't know we're thinking about-and those things, well, they sneak out of us in our dreams. Maybe we're like tires with too much air in them. The air has to leak out. That's what dreams are.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
15c. 1954 ADI guess I did miss Dante-even though I tried hard to not think about him. The problem with trying hard not to think about something was that you thought about it even more.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
16c. 1954 ADI guess I didn't have it so bad.Maybe everybody didn't love me,but i wasn't one of those kids that everyone hated,either.I was good in a fight.So people left me alone.i was almost invisible.i think i liked it that way.And then Dante came along.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
17c. 1954 ADI also knew I had inherited the name of the world's most famous philosopher. I hated that. Everyone expected something from me. Something I just couldn't give.So I renamed myself Ari.If I switched the letter, my name was Air.I thought it might be a great thing to be the air.I could be something and nothing at the same time. I could be necessary and also invisible. Everyone would need me and no one would be able to see me.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
18c. 1954 ADBreakfast seemed to be a good time for throwing your emotions around. Jodie said that at this place emotions were like Frisbees – people just tossed them around all day long like they were at a park.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
19c. 1954 ADNo wonder I stopped keeping a journal. It was like keeping a record of my own stupidity. Why would I want to do that? Why would I want to remind myself what an asshole I was?Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
20c. 1954 ADWe think there's a reason for everything, as if life was supposed to make sense. It's not exactly math. People aren't numbers. Everybody knows life doesn't make any sense at all, so we just better deal with the whole mess. Have a beer. Have a cup of coffee. Have a piece of cake. Go out to a movie. Enjoy the Popcorn.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
22c. 1954 ADI wished it was raining," he said."I don't need the rain," I said. "I need you.Benjamin Alire Sáenz / quote ↗
