01c. 1961 ADThe trick to surviving an interrogation is patience. Don’t offer up anything. Don’t explain. Answer the question and only the question that is asked so you don’t accidentally put your head in a noose.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
02c. 1961 ADThe night sky stretched on forever above me, the stars flung like glass beads and pearls on a black velvet cloak.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
03c. 1961 ADI won't take a real nap. I have this halfway place, a rest stop on the road to sleep, where I can stay for hours. I don't even need to close my eyes, just stay safe under the covers and breathe.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
04c. 1961 ADI drift into the armpits of strangers, tasting their manic salt, and sleep to forget everything.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
05c. 1961 ADI can see us, living in the woods, her wearing that A, me with a S maybe, S for silent, S for stupid, for scared. S for silly. For shame.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
06c. 1961 ADI can't do everything for you. You must walk alone to find your soul.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
07c. 1961 ADIt's easier to floss with barbed wire than admit you like someone in middle school.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
08c. 1961 ADMy English teacher has no face. She has uncombed stringy hair that droops on her shoulders. The hair is black from her part to her ears and then neon orange to the frizzy ends. I can't decide if she had pissed off her hairdresser or is morphing into a monarch butterfly. I call her Hairwoman.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
09c. 1961 ADWhere did you live before you came here?" I asked. "The moon," he said smoothly. "We left because the place had no atmosphere.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
10c. 1961 ADMe: "All right, but you said we had to put emotion into our art. I don't know what that means. I don't know what I'm supposed to feel.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
11c. 1961 ADNo. Absolutely not. I forbid it. You'll have nightmares." "She was my friend! You must allow me. Why are you so horrid?" As soon as the angry words were out of my mouth, I knew I had gone too far. "Matilda!" Mother rose from her chair. "You are forbidden to pseak to me in that tone! Apologize at once.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
12c. 1961 ADThat's such bullshit, Mythology repeated by parents because it lets them force their kids into sports and push them too hard by pretending that in the end it will pay off with the holy scholarship. You know how many kids get a free ride? Hardly any. Like, maybe fourteen.' -Finn (165)Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
13c. 1961 ADGracie's father was an engineer, her mother an accountant. I couldn't picture either one of them yelling or throwing things or having affairs. I could see my dad doing stuff like that. Trish sure did. But Dad carried a war in his skull, and Trish was a drunk. Gracie's parents didn't have anything like that to deal with, but their daughter was falling apart on the bathroom floor.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
14c. 1961 ADThere was a loud shuffling above. A line of redcoats took their position at the edge of the ravine and aimed down at the rebels. "Present!" the British officer screamed to his men. "Present!" yelled the American officer. His men brought the butts of their muskets up to their shoulders and sighted down the long barrels, ready to shoot and kill. I pressed my face into the earth, unable to plan a course of escape. My mind would not be mastered and thought only of the wretched, lying, foul, silly girl who was the cause of everything. I thought of Isabel and I missed her. "FIRE!Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
15c. 1961 ADThere is something about Christmas that requires a rug rat. Little kids make Christmas fun. I wonder if could rent one for the holidays. When I was tiny we would by a real tree and stay up late drinking hot chocolate and finding just the right place for the special decorations. It seems like my parents gave up the magic when I figured out the Santa lie. Maybe I shouldn't have told them I knew where the presents really came from. It broke their hearts.I bet they'd be divorced by now if I hadn't been born. I'm sure I was a huge disappointment. I'm not pretty or smart or athletic. I'm just like them- an ordinary drone dressed in secrets and lies. I can't believe we have to keep playacting till I graduate. It's a shame we just can't admit that we have failed at family living, sell the house, split up the money, and get on with our lives. Merry Christmas.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
16c. 1961 ADThey mean hot like 'I'm too good for you I got my own money don't be frontin' me.' You're more like 'Be my boyfriend I'll make you cookies come meet my dad ' know what I meanLaurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
17c. 1961 ADI want to eat like a normal person eats, but I needto see my bones or I will hate myself even more and Imight cut out my heart or take every pill that was evermade.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
18c. 1961 ADMr. Freeman: You are getting better at this, but it's not good enough. This looks like a tree,but it is an average, ordinary, everyday, boring tree. Breathe life into it. Make it bend - trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch - perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
19c. 1961 ADEmma is a mattress who got thrown off the truck when her parents split up. It's not like you can blame a mattress when people don't tie it down tight enough.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
20c. 1961 ADYou're the one who doesn't understand, I've been standing on the edge with you for years.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
21c. 1961 ADToo much sun after a Syracuse winter does strange things to your head, makes you feel strong, even if you aren't.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
22c. 1961 ADIn one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
23c. 1961 ADThe best time to talk to ghosts is just before the sun comes up. That's when they can hear us true.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
24c. 1961 ADAnother page turns on the calendar, April now, not March..........I am spinning the silk threads of my story, weaving the fabric of my world...I spun out of control. Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest.I wanted to swallow the bitter seeds of forgetfulness...Somehow, I dragged myself out of the dark and asked for help.I spin and weave and knit my words and visions until a life starts to take shape.There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore.I am thawing.Laurie Halse Anderson / quote ↗
