Explore Book Quotes

“He has a turtle, a frog, a goldfish, and a duck. Little Brown Bear fills a plastic bottle with water. It makes bubbles.”

“My name is something I wear, like a shirt. It gets worn, I outgrow it, I change it.”

After this the fir-tree became quite silent and thoughtful; never had the birds in the forest told such tales as “Humpty Dumpty,” who fell down stairs, and yet married a princess.

“It was Dad’s voice in my head, or at least what I thought was his voice. I hadn’t heard it in so long, I couldn’t even tell if it was his or if I was making it up. Whatever it was, it got me to where I needed to get.”

“Sometimes my mama is laughing when she comes home from work. Sometimes she’s so tired she falls asleep while I count the money into piles.”

“THE ONLY REAL FAILURE IS TO FAIL OTHERS.”

The city became for me the ideal of what I wanted to be as a grown-up. Friendly, but never gushing, cool but not frigid or distant, distinguished without the awful stiffness.

“Unbeknownst to his friends, he also frequently self-harms, one such bout of cutting leading to Willem’s needing to take him to Andy Contractor, Jude’s doctor and trusted friend. It is clear that he suffers from debilitating mental trauma from his childhood.”

“Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.”

“The regime of oppression is almost over; its life force is waning, and only its ghost remains. Don’t tarry too long to mourn its effects; celebrate and rejoice in the new. The past is over. Wipe the dirt off your feet.”