Laurie Halse Anderson Quotes & Sayings

Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I just thought of a great theory that explains everything. When I went to that party, I was abducted by aliens. They have created a fake Earth and fake high school to study me and my reactions. This certainly explains cafeteria food. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Odysseus had twenty years to shed his battle skin. My grandfather left the battlefield in France and rode home in a ship that crawled across the ocean slowly so he could catch his breath. I get on a plane in hell and get off, hours later, at home. — Laurie Halse Anderson

There 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

How plants grow: Quickly. Most plants grow fast and die young. People get seventy years, a bean plant gets four months, maybe five. Once the itty-bitty baby plant peeks out of the ground, it sprouts leaves, so it can absorb more sun. Then it sleeps, eats, and sunbathes until it's ready to flower - a teenage plant. This is a bad time to be a rose or a zinnia or a marigold, because people attack with scissors and cut off what's pretty. But plants are cool. If the rose is picked, the plant grows another one. It needs to bloom to produce more seeds. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Memory cuts both ways; it can either provide you with tremendous strength and a foundation to carry you through your life, or it can be a demon that just ruins your present and your future because you can't let go of the past. — Laurie Halse Anderson

IT WOULD BE USELESS FOR US TO DENOUNCE THE SERVITUDE TO WHICH THE PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN WISHES TO REDUCE US, WHILE WE CONTINUE TO KEEP OUR FELLOW CREATURES IN SLAVERY JUST BECAUSE THEIR COLOR IS DIFFERENT FROM OURS. - SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE DR. BENJAMIN RUSH, WHO PURCHASED WILLIAM GRUBBER IN 1776 AND DID NOT FREE HIM UNTIL 1794 O — Laurie Halse Anderson

The cops say that thing:'anything you say will be used against you.' Self-incrimination. I looked it up. Three-point vocab word. So why does everyone make such a hairy deal about me not talking? Maybe I don't want to incriminate myself. Maybe I don't like the sound of my voice. Maybe I don't have anything to say. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Smoke gunpowder and go to school to jump through hoops, sit up and beg, and roll over on command. Listen to the whispers that curl into your head at night, calling you ugly and fat and stupid and bitch and whore and worst of all "a disappointment." Puke and starve and cut and drink because you don't want to feel any of this. — Laurie Halse Anderson

They said I had to get fatter.
I told them my goal was 080.00 and if they wanted my respect, they'd better stop lying to me.
When my brain started working again, I checked their math. Someone had made a mistake because they didn't figure in the snakes in my head and the thick shadows hiding inside the cage of my ribs. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Are you kidding me? It's Shakespeare'! Look at Romeo And Juliet.; they're what, like fourteen years old, and they meet at a party and bam, jump in bed. They hook up in her bedroom with her parents in the house, and then they get caught and everybody dies ... Slutty fourteen year olds and gang violence. I can't believe they make high school kids read it. — Laurie Halse Anderson

But that's the wrong question. Ask why everyone else is so pathetically stupid and why they're always whining about detention, I should get a medal for not slapping people in the face every day. — Laurie Halse Anderson

It's Nathaniel Hawthorne Month in English. Poor Nathaniel. Does he know what they've done to him? We're reading The Scarlet Letter one sentence at a time, tearing it up and chewing on its bones.
It's all about SYMBOLISM, says Hairwoman. Every word chosen by Nathaniel, every comma, every paragraph break
these were all done on purpose. To get a decent grade in her class, we have to figure out what he was really trying to say. Why couldn't he just say what he meant? Would they pin scarlet letters on his chest? B for blunt, S for straightforward? — Laurie Halse Anderson

Dr. Parker and all my parents live in a paper-mache world. They just patch up problems with strips of newspaper and a little glue. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Don't forget how to be gentle," she warned. "Don't let the hardness of the world steal the softness of your heart. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Until then we're going to keep making memories like this, moments when we're the only two people in the whole world. And when we get scared or lonely or confused, we'll pull out these memories and wrap them around us and they'll make us feel safe. And strong. — Laurie Halse Anderson

In the spring of fifth grade, the boob fairy arrived with her wand and smacked Cassie wicked hard. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Before the suffragettes came along, women were treated like dogs ... They were dolls, with no thoughts, or opinions, or voices of their own. Then the suffragettes marched in, full of loud, in-your-face ideas. They got arrested and thrown in jail, but nothing shut them up. They fought and fought until they earned the rights they should've had all along. — Laurie Halse Anderson

They're on their way to the foreign-language wing. That's no surprise. The foreign kids are always here, like they need to breathe air scented with their native language a couple times a day or they'll choke to death on too much American. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Tell us your secret,' the girls whisper, one toilet to another. I am that girl. I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through. I am the library aide who hides in Fantasy. I am the circus freak encased in beeswax. I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame. When I get close, the step back. The cameras in their eyeholes record the zit on my chin, the rain in my eyes, the blue water under my skin. They pick up every sound on their collar microphones. They want to pull me inside of them but they're afraid. I am contagious. — Laurie Halse Anderson

It is my first morning of high school. I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomachache. — Laurie Halse Anderson

That's pretty good, for a young girl
from Fever 1793 — Laurie Halse Anderson

No, I am never setting foot in this house again it scares me and makes me sad and I wish you could be a mom whose eyes worked but I don't think you can. — Laurie Halse Anderson

To keep up appearances, I stomp my room and slam the door. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Mr. Freeman thinks I need to find my feelings. How can I not find them? They are chewing me alive like an infestation of thoughts, shame, mistakes. I squeeze my eyes shut. Jeans that fit, that's a good start. I have to stay away from the closet, go to all my classes. I will make myself normal. Forget the rest of it — Laurie Halse Anderson

Killing people is easier than it should be." Dad put on his beret. "Staying alive is harder. — Laurie Halse Anderson

My only choice was to fight my way out, even if I didn't think I would make it. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Dead girl walking" the boys say in the halls.
"Tell us your secrets" the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
"I am that girl. I am the spaces between my thighs, daylight shinning through. I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I'm fighting the shock of having a guest in my room. I almost kick her out because it's going to hurt too much when my room is empty again. — Laurie Halse Anderson

We are studying American history for the ninth time in nine years. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Mr Freeman: "Art without emotion is like chocolate cake without sugar. It makes you gag." He sticks his finger down his throat. "The next time you work on your trees, don't think about trees. Think about love, or hate, or joy, or pain- whatever makes you feel something, makes your palms sweat, or your toes curl. Focus on that feeling.
When people don't express themselves, they die on piece at a time. You'd be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside- walking through their days with no idea who they are, just waiting for a heart attack or cancer or a mack truck to come along and finish the job. It's the saddest thing I know. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Our frog lies on her back. Waiting for a prince to come and princessify her with a smooch? I stand over her with my knife. Ms. Keen's voice fades to a mosquito whine. My throat closes off. It is hard to breathe. I put out my hand to steady myself against the table. David pins her froggy hands to the dissection tray. He spreads her froggy legs and pins her froggy feet. I have to slice open her belly. She doesn't say a word. She is already dead. A scream starts in my gut - I can feel the cut, smell the dirt, leaves in my hair. I don't remember passing out. David says I hit my head on the edge of the table on my way down. The nurse calls my mom because I need stitches. The doctor stares into the back of my eyes with a bright light. Can she read the — Laurie Halse Anderson

I closed my eyes and let my enemy win. — Laurie Halse Anderson

The rest of the class looked away. He [Jonas} was a quiet freak, not a zombie. The horde would not protect him. They'd stand by and watch the culling. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Death is funny, when you think about it. Everybody does it, but nobody knows how, exactly how. — Laurie Halse Anderson

The bathroom door swings open. Emma sees the blood painting my skin and the red rivers carved on my body. Emma sees the wet knife, silver and bone. The screams of my little sister shatter mirrors. — Laurie Halse Anderson

To be the best, you have to give everything all the time, then you have to give some more ... — Laurie Halse Anderson

I was good at digging holes. It was the rest of life I sucked at. — Laurie Halse Anderson

The tears dissolve the last block of ice in my throat. I feel the frozen stillness melt down through the inside of me, dripping shards of ice that vanish in a puddle of sunlight on the stained floor. Words float up

Me: "Let me tell you about it. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I'm just going to pretend that a very good-smelling, incredibly warm stranger is sitting next to me, a harmless stranger. — Laurie Halse Anderson

A group of little creatures is coming up the walk. A pirate, a dinosaur, two fairies, and a bride. Why is it that you never see a kid dressed as a groom on Halloween? — Laurie Halse Anderson

Flames curled out of all the windows next door. The rooftop beyond that was a lake of fire. Every building in sight was burning. The air was filled with crackling and popping sounds, with shrieks and screams coming from the street below. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Wats yr typ?
people who can spell — Laurie Halse Anderson

No. 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

The room does not smell like apple. It smells like frog juice, a cross between a nursing home and potato salad. The Back Row pays attention. Cutting dead frogs is cool. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Had she ever enjoyed anything? Had every day been a struggle? Perhaps death would be a release, a rest for the weary. — Laurie Halse Anderson

What did it feel like to die? Was it a peaceful sleep? Some thought it was full of either trumpet-blowing angels or angry devils. Perhaps I was already dead. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Momma said that ghosts couldn't move over water. That's why Africans got trapped in the Americas.. They kept moving us over the water, stealing us away from our ghosts and ancestors, who cried salty rivers into the sand. That's where Momma was now, wailing at the water's edge, while her girls were pulled out of sight under white sails that cracked in the wind. — Laurie Halse Anderson

When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I kissed him until everything that hurt inside me melted into a pool of black water so deep I couldn't touch the bottom. As long as I was touching him, I wouldn't drown. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I reach for funny books all the time to help me get through life. — Laurie Halse Anderson

We've fallen down on our responsibility to our children by somehow creating this world where they're surrounded by images of sexuality; and yet, we as adults struggle to talk to kids honestly about sex, the rules of dignity and consent. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Here stands a girl clutching a knife. There is grease on the stove, blood in the air, and angry words piled in the corners. We are trained not to see it, not to see any of it ... Someone just ripped off my eyelids. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I would never be popular. I didn't want to be; I liked being shy. I'd never be the smartest or the hottest or the happiest. By eighth grade you start to figure out your limits. — Laurie Halse Anderson

We swore sacred oaths to be strong and to save the planet and to be friends forever. — Laurie Halse Anderson

We were secret sisters with a plan for world domination, potential bubbling around us like champagne. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Mandatory community service seemed like hypocrisy, — Laurie Halse Anderson

God did not intend for Irish kids to play in the sun, according to my mother. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Emma hears me come up the stairs and asks me to watch a movie with her. I stick Band-Aids on my weeping cuts, put on pink pajamas so we match, and snuggle with her under her rainbow comforter. She arranges all of her stuffed animals around us in a circle, everyone facing the TV, then presses play ... Ghosts dare not enter here. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Does being forced to sit in time-out ever make little kids stop putting cats in the dishwasher or drawing on white walls with purple marker? Of course not. It teaches them to be sneaky and guarantees that when they get to high school they'll love detention because it's a great place to sleep. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I had let down my shields, that was the problem. The crazy inside Dad had infected me, weakened me so that when Finn smiled, I'd been vulnerable. I'd dropped my shields and let myself pretend that somebody like Finn would want to be with somebody like me. — Laurie Halse Anderson

That fellow was like all of us: descended from good people who were stolen from their families and country, sailed over the sea, and forced into slavery. 'We don't let them steal our dignity,' that preacher said. Richard, his name was. He said they cannot steal our honor, our strength, or our love." "True words," I said. "Do you know what he said about this America?" Henry asked. I shook my head. "Remember, lads?" Henry asked his mates. "Join with me. He said, 'This land . . .'" A half dozen voices spoke with Henry, strong black men sharing the preacher's words like a hymn or a prayer. "'Which we have watered with our tears and our blood, is now our mother country.'" The words drifted up to the stars with the sparks from the fire. "We go to war, Missus Isabel," Henry added, "in order to make our mother country, this land, free for everyone. — Laurie Halse Anderson

One of the seeds has split its shell and reaches a white hand upward. An apple tree growing from an apple seed growing in an apple. I show the little plantseed to Ms. Keen. She gives me extra credit. David rolls his eyes. Biology is so cool. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I wasn't going to let her sucker me into being her friend again just so she could turn around and crush me one more time. — Laurie Halse Anderson

The same boys who got detention in elementary school for beating the crap out of people are now rewarded for it. They call it football. — Laurie Halse Anderson

The books I'd checked out of the library earlier in the week were still stacked on my bureau, whispering my name and begging to be read. — Laurie Halse Anderson

The merry-go-round is spinning too fast. I want to get off. I want to close my eyes, or just blink. — Laurie Halse Anderson

If I can write a book that will help the world make a little more sense to a teen, then that's why I was put on the planet. — Laurie Halse Anderson

There is nothing wrong with me. These are really sick people, sick that you can see. — Laurie Halse Anderson

No wonder the zombies were crazy. They thought they were supposed to practice breeding before they learned how to do their own laundry. They talked about it, thought about it, maybe did it, all while going through the motions of attending class and learning stuff so that they could go forth and become productive adults. Whatever that was supposed to mean. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I am angry that I starved my brain and that I sat shivering in my bed at night instead of dancing or reading poetry or eating ice cream or kissing a boy ... — Laurie Halse Anderson

Think about love, or hate, or joy, or pain- whatever makes you feel something, makes your palms sweat, or your toes curl. Focus on that feeling.
When people don't express themselves, they die on piece at a time. — Laurie Halse Anderson

The world turns upside down every day. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance. — Laurie Halse Anderson

What if a king made bad laws; laws so unnatural that a country broke them by declaring its freedom?" He threw his arms in the air. "Now you are spouting nonsense. Two slaves running away from their rightful master is not the same as America wanting to be free of England. Not the same at all." "How is it then that the British offer freedom to escaped slaves, but the Patriots don't? — Laurie Halse Anderson

I think you have a lot to say. I'd like to hear it. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I just want to sleep. The whole point of not talking about it, of silencing the memory, is to make it go away. It won't. I'll need brain surgery to cut it out of my head. — Laurie Halse Anderson

How could men who liked cats be bad? — Laurie Halse Anderson

Maybe they're planning the next Project. They could mail snowballs to the weather-deprived children in Texas. They could knit goat-hair blankets for shorn sheep. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Do I want to die from the inside out or the outside in? — Laurie Halse Anderson

I've written in every imaginable location; a repurposed closet, the kitchen table, the bleachers while my kids had basketball practice, the front seat of the car when they were at soccer. In airports. On trains. In the break room when I was supposed to be wolfing down dinner. In the back of classrooms when I was supposed to be paying attention. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Sometimes when I find myself very irritated about a topic, I know it's my next book. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Dr. StupidParker says that when I'm sad it really means I'm angry and when I'm angry it really means I'm afraid. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Nicole can do anything that involves a ball and whistle. — Laurie Halse Anderson

When I was a real girl, my mother fed me her glass dreams one spoonful at a time. Harvard. Yale. Princeton. Duke. Undergrad. Med school. Internship, residency, God. She'd brush my hair and braid it with long words, weaving the Latin roots and Greek branches into my head so memorizing anatomy would come easy. — Laurie Halse Anderson

The laws of the universe dictate that for every positive action, there is an unequal and sucky reaction. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I can't stop biting my lips. It looks like my mouth belongs to someone else, someone else, someone I don't even know. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I've dealt with depression my entire life, on and off, which makes me the perfect author for teenage readers. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I have to go. Boss has
this weird idea that I should actually work while he's paying
me. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I want to tell him that it's just a stupid car, but bits of me are scattered all over town; the graveyard, school, Cassie's room, the motel, and standing in from of the sink in my mother's kitchen. It takes too much energy to gather all the bits together, so I just sit there and watch him implode. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I can't tell anymore when I'm asleep and when I'm awake, or which is worse. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Where 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

Why do you have such a crappy attitude about math?"
"I don't. I have a crappy attitude about everything. — Laurie Halse Anderson

You gonna spend the rest of your days whining because you dad's a jerk? I hate people like that. Don't be a baby - live your own life. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I won the wintergirl trip over the border into dangerland. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Keep home in your heart, where no one can steal it. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Ninth grade is a minor inconvenience to him. A zit-cream commercial before the Feature Film of Life. — Laurie Halse Anderson

Hannah was about to burst with excitement, which would have been disgusting because she would have sprayed blood, guts and glitter in every direction. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I didn't fit.
I was a different size, a different shape. I kept trying to squeeze into a body, a skin suit, that was too small. It rubbed me the wrong way. I blistered. I callused. I scarred over and it kept hurting. I would never fit.
But, really, I didn't want to fit. That's why it was hard. — Laurie Halse Anderson

I nod like I'm listening,like we're communicating, and she never knows the difference. — Laurie Halse Anderson