Francesca Zappia Quotes & Sayings

But I think there's a difference between thinking you're immortal and knowing you can survive. Thinking you're immortal leads to arrogance, thinking you deserve the best. Surviving means having the worst thrown at you and being able to continue on despite that. It means striving for what you want most, even when it seems out of your reach, even when everything is working against you. "And then, after you've survived, you get over it. And you live. — Francesca Zappia

There are monsters in the sea. — Francesca Zappia

Intelligence is not measured by how much you know, but by how much you have the capacity to learn. — Francesca Zappia

Also,' McCoy continued, 'this is the yearly reminder that our beloved scoreboard's birthday, the anniversary of its donation to the school, is coming up in just a few short weeks. So everyone get ready, prepare your offerings, and be ready to celebrate this great occasion!'

The PA system went quiet. I stared at the ceiling. Did he just say 'offerings?'

For a scoreboard? — Francesca Zappia

You smell like lemons. — Francesca Zappia

No, you're not a bad person," he said. "And Richter isn't a bad person, and I'm not a bad person. We're just people, and people sometimes do stupid things. — Francesca Zappia

Here.' Miles unzipped the backpack and pulled out the container of IcyHot. 'Go to the dresser. Should be one of the top drawers--smear this in the crotch of every pair of underwear you find.'

'I--what?' I took the container. 'That's disgusting.'

'I'm paying you fifty dollars for this,' Miles hissed, turning toward the bed.

I went to the dresser and yanked open the top drawer on the left. Empty. Crisp white underwear and boxers filled the one on the right.

Well... at least they were clean. — Francesca Zappia

You are never as great or as pitiful as you think you are. — Francesca Zappia

Our neighbors turned to stare at us, because Miles Richter laughing was one of those things that the Mayans had predicted would signal the end of the world. He wasn't particularly loud about it, but it was Miles laughing, a sound no mortal had ever heard before. — Francesca Zappia

Believing something existed and then finding out it didn't was like reaching the top of the stairs and thinking there was one more step. — Francesca Zappia

I couldn't think of anyone else. — Francesca Zappia

I wished I had put more cherries on that slice. The whole jar of cherries. I could watch him eat a whole jar of cherries.
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, what was happening to me? — Francesca Zappia

Are you French?' I asked instead.

'Oui!'

Foreign. Foreign spy. French Communist Party acted on Stalin's instructions during part of World War II. French Communist spy.

Stop it stop it stop it

I turned to Art, a black kid who was a foot and a half taller than me and whose pecs were about to burst of his shirt and eat someone. I gave him a two on the delusion detector. I didn't trust those pecs.

'Hi,' he rumbled.

I waved weakly. — Francesca Zappia

I was diagnosed a thirteen. Paranoid got tacked on about a year later, after I verbally attacked a librarian for trying to hand me propaganda pamphlets for an underground communist force operating out of the basement of the public library. (She'd always been a very suspect type of librarian--I refuse to believe donning rubber gloves to handle books is a normal and accepted practice, and I don't care what anyone says.) — Francesca Zappia

My first-ever friend was a hallucination: a sparkling entry on my new resume as a crazy person. — Francesca Zappia

I work at the deli counter. Have to give people their succulent, chemical-ridden salami and whatnot.'

I pictured Miles in a dark room, standing at a butcher's block with a large knife in one hand, a blood cow's leg steadied under the other, a huge Cheshire grin spreading over his face--

'I bet the customers love you,' I said. — Francesca Zappia

It looked like the kind of dog that ate babies for breakfast, old men for lunch, and virgin sacrifices for dinner. — Francesca Zappia

Stop calling me a Nazi." "Why should I?" Miles's hand came down on the desk. "Because the systematic slaughter of millions of people isn't funny! — Francesca Zappia

I was a schizophrenic, not a damn invalid. — Francesca Zappia

Maybe that's normal. The things you care most about are the ones that leave the biggest holes. — Francesca Zappia

Mile's fingers pressed into the small of my back. "Basorexia," he mumbled.
"Gesundheit."
He laughed. "It's an overwhelming desire to kiss."
"I thought you weren't good at figuring out what you felt."
"I'm probably using the word in the wrong context. But I'm pretty sure that's what this is. — Francesca Zappia

You know a school is run by stuck-up sons of bitches when it doesn't even have a bike rack. — Francesca Zappia

A feeling erupted in my stomach, like nothing would ever be the same again. Like good karma was catching up with me. Like someone had opened up the lid to my lobster tank and I was finally breathing in the shockingly fresh air. — Francesca Zappia

What you loved as a child, you will love forever. — Francesca Zappia

The first thing I noticed about East Shoal High School was that it didn't have a bike rack. You know a school is run by stuck-up sons of bitches when it doesn't even have a bike rack.

I shoved Erwin behind the blocky green shrubs lining the school's front walk and stepped back to make sure the tires and handlebars were hidden. I didn't expect anyone to steal, touch, or notice him, since his rusty diarrhea color made people subconsciously avert their eyes, but I felt better knowing he was out of harm's way. — Francesca Zappia

Sure, I hung out around Red Witch Bridge in the middle of the night, but that was in the cover of the trees with an urban legend and a baseball bat as weapons. — Francesca Zappia

I was the big sister. I was supposed to set and example and lead the way so people would say, 'Hey, you're Alex's sister, aren't you? You two look exactly alike!' instead of 'Hey, you're Alex's sister, aren't you? Are you crazy, too?'

The only example I was ever going to set for her was to always check her food before she ate it. — Francesca Zappia

Six: everyone - and when I say everyone, I mean absolutely,positively everyone, from the librarians to the students to the staff to the oldest, cruiser janitor - was piss-down-their-legs scared of Miles Richter.
Of all the crazy things I heard about East Shoal, that was the only thing I couldn't believe. — Francesca Zappia

Did you meet your soul mate? That always happens on the first day of school, right?'

'Oh God, Charlie, she's letting you read again! You went straight to the paranormal section, didn't you? — Francesca Zappia

Dear Asshole: Thank you for keeping your word and believing me. It was more than I expected. Also, I'm sorry you were inconvenienced by my gluing your locker shut at the beginning of this year. However, I am not sorry that I did it, because it was a lot of fun. Love, Alex. — Francesca Zappia

In a weird way, it felt like he belonged here. He belonged in the land of phoenixes and witches, the place where things were too fantastic to be real. — Francesca Zappia

I'm not saying you can't do writing, just do some writing that you can build a career on. Creative writing isn't going to get you anywhere. — Francesca Zappia

Yeah, we never said we liked you," said Ian, smiling. "We just prefer that you don't die. — Francesca Zappia

People say teenagers think they're immortal, and I agree with that. But I think there's a difference between thinking you're immortal and knowing you can survive. Thinking you're immortal leads to arrogance, thinking you deserve the best. Surviving means having the worst thrown at you and being able to continue on despite that. It means striving for what you want most, even when it seems our of your reach, even when everything is working against you. — Francesca Zappia

The only thing missing was Miles. But he was probably circling somewhere, destroying villages and hoarding gold in his mountain lair. — Francesca Zappia

My body gets excited without my permission, and it's not okay. It's out of control. I don't like out of control, but I like Wallace. — Francesca Zappia

Over time, the real remained in the photo while the hallucinations faded away. I discovered what sorts of things my mind liked to make up. — Francesca Zappia

Was everything made up? Was this whole world inside my head? If I ever woke up from it, would I be inside a padded room somewhere, drooling all over myself?

Would I even be myself? — Francesca Zappia

You found me in a constellation. — Francesca Zappia

Sometimes I think people take reality for granted. — Francesca Zappia

Yeah. I told you he was crazy, right? I heard he does some weird stuff at home, too.' He said it with a conspiratorial stage whisper. 'Like mowing his lawn, and trimming his peonies.'

'Peonies?' I balked. 'God, he really is a freak. — Francesca Zappia

Do you think the lobsters in the tank try to help the other lobsters? Is that why they pile up like that? Or is it just for company, because they know they're all doomed? Better — Francesca Zappia

He had to be real. Out of everything, he had to be real. — Francesca Zappia

Do you do this all the time?' he asked.

'No,' I said. 'Just today.'

He smiled. — Francesca Zappia

He remembers you," said June, and my stomach gave an odd stunted flop.
"Remembers me?"
"The girl who wanted to set the lobsters free. That was the day we left for Germany. I was shopping for a few last-minute things, and he wanted to talk to you. He liked your hair. — Francesca Zappia

I realized everyone around me was wearing a uniform. Black pants, white button-down shirts, green ties. Gotta love the smell of institutional equality in the morning. — Francesca Zappia

I grabbed his hand. He jumped and stared at the connection like something both magical and dangerous had happened.

"Do you wanna be friends?" I asked. — Francesca Zappia

Broken people don't hide from their monsters. Broken people let themselves be eaten. — Francesca Zappia

How could anyone go this far down the rabbit hole without realizing they needed help? — Francesca Zappia

Made you breakfast. Are you feeling okay? You look a little gray." I grunt. Morning is the devil's time. — Francesca Zappia

I stood there looking stupid, because that's what I do when I'm accused of something I didn't do. Forget making a case or, you know, denying that I'd done it.

Denying hadn't helped me in the past. — Francesca Zappia

It's not that I think I'm ugly, I just don't think about what I look like. I don't live out there. If I had my way, I wouldn't blook like anything at all. I would be a free-floating consciousness that can also somehow draw. I don't care how I look. I don't want to care. — Francesca Zappia

I'm so tired. I'm tired of anxiety that twists my stomach so hard I can't move the rest of my body. Tired of constant vigilance. Tired of wanting to do something about myself, but always taking easy way out. — Francesca Zappia

I didn't have the luxury of taking reality for granted. And I wouldn't say I hated people who did, because that's just about everyone. I didn't hate them. They didn't live in my world.

But that never stopped me from wishing I lived in theirs. — Francesca Zappia

There is a small monster in my brain that controls my doubt.
The doubt itself is a stupid thing, without sense or feeling, blind and straining at the end of a long chain. The monster though, is smart. It's always watching, and when I am cmpletely sure of myself, it unchains the doubt and lets it run wild. even when I know it's coming, I can't stop it. — Francesca Zappia

rainmaker: Weird, I didn't know you had such a thing for timid guys.

MirkerLurker: Really does it for me when a guy is paralyzed with fear on a regular basis
.
rainmaker: Aw. Sad.

MirkerLurker: What's sad?

rainmaker: That it would never work between us. I'm too courageous. — Francesca Zappia

My parents didn't grow up here or anything. They chose to live in this nowhere town. Why? Because it was named after Hannibal of Carthage. Their basic train of thought was this: Hannibal's Rest? And we're naming our child after Alexander the Great? MARVELOUS. Ah, the history, it tickles.

Sometimes I wanted to beat my parents over the head with a frying pan. — Francesca Zappia

Was there some kind of law about drop-kicking assholes in the face? Probably. They always had laws against things that needed to be done. — Francesca Zappia

MirkerLurker: I thought the characters were the reason anyone read Monstrous Sea.

rainmaker: You mean like, shipping?

MirkerLurker: No, not shipping - shipping's great, and I do it all the time, but I mean... the characters themselves. The struggles they have to go through, and when you really love them, how much they affect you. When the characters are good, they make you care about everything else. That's why I draw them. It probably sounds dumb, but they're like real people to me. And this will probably sound worse, but sometimes I like them better than real people. I can empathize with characters. Real people are harder. — Francesca Zappia

The rest of the year, I wondered if the point of Christmas was just spending money and getting fat and opening gifts. Indulging.
But when Christmas finally comes, and that warm, tingly, mints-and-sweaters-and-fireplace-fires feeling gathers in the bottom of your stomach, and you're lying on the floor with all the lights off but the ones on the Christmas tree, and listening to the silence of the snow falling outside, you see the point. For that one instance in time, everything is good in the world. It doesn't matter if everything isn't actually good. It's the one time of the year when pretending is enough. — Francesca Zappia

I think you're an improvement on my imagination," I said, flipping back through the pages.
"You, too," he said. "My imagination - well, what little imagination I have - doesn't quite live up to the real thing."
"Agreed," I said. "The real thing is much better. — Francesca Zappia

There is no force in high school more powerful than one person's blunt disagreement. — Francesca Zappia

I pushed myself back up. He kept staring at me. I realized I wanted to kiss him.

I didn't know why. Maybe it was the way he looked at me like I was the only thing he wanted to look at. — Francesca Zappia

Survivors. What better word for people who made it out of this place alive?" -Alex — Francesca Zappia

Creators shouldn't feel this way about their fans. I shouldn't want them to disappear. They're the reason I have . . . the reason I have anything. — Francesca Zappia

Everyone's interesting if you stare at them long enough. — Francesca Zappia

It kind of felt like she was kicking me in the gut, and every kick said
I don't want you.
I don't need you.
I don't love you. — Francesca Zappia