Let me tell ya. You gotta pay attention to signs. When life reaches out with a moment like this it’s a sin if you don’t reach back… I’m telling you.
And I still love you in my own fucked-up way. I miss you, I really do. Can we still be friends?
Life is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly. Literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for us to endure nobly.
I can always look up at the cosmos and marvel, no matter what happens. And when I look up at it, I feel as though my problems are small. I don’t know why, but it always makes me feel better.
Air goes in and outof my nose, throat, lungs, blood, heartbrain – and so I am
You need to make time for your family no matter what happens in your life
Sounds like the start of a beautiful friendship, Leonard. It really does.” “Here’s looking at you, kid.
you don’t put demands on people and you never say anything negative–ever. So many people suck the life out of everyone they’re around, but you don’t do that. You give people strength just by being you.
So the key is doing something that sets you apart forever in the minds of regular people.Something that matters.
Real life often ends badly, like our marriage did, Pat. And literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for people to endure nobly.
I’m trying to let him know what I’m about to do.I’m hoping he can save me, even though I realize he can’t.
Of course I began to see Nikki, which was strange because I was staring into Danny’s eyes, and Danny is a six-foot-three black man who looks nothing like my ex-wife.
Another thought hits me hard as a lawn dart to the eye: this moment is so terribly unimportant to the rest of the world, yet it means everything to me somehow – and it’s enough.So I sign and I sign and I sign.
I was right; just as soon as you take the first step toward getting to know someone your own age, everything you thought was magical about that person turns to shit right in front of your face
You need to know it’s your actions that will make you a good person, not desire.
A strange, beautiful new world awaits, Leonard.We’ve found an oasis in their ruins. We really have.You want to see it, so just hold on, okay?
… Kenny G is extremely talented and resourceful and a powerful force to be reckoned with … Mr. G might not seem evil, but I fear him more than any other human being.
…I like the way Chee kept God magical, sorta like Santa Claus when you’re a kid. More priests should take this approach, because there is a frickin’ reason why Santa Claus is more popular than Jesus nowadays.
I am not weak and can control my mind really well”.
Silence has always been my default mode—my best defense against the rest of the world.
You may exist inthis world–but I exist tooand I will not yield
Haven’t you ever noticed that life is like a series of movies?
I believe in happy endings, and i feel this movie has advanced long enough.
I’m a screwed-up person who no longerknows how to communicate with the people I love. But I meant everything I told you in my letter.
And I understood why he didn’t need friends or to be accepted at our shitty racist high school, because he had his music, and that was so much better than anything we had to offer.
Your mother is risking a lot, because she believes in you.
We’re celebrating our freedom. We’re celebrating our ability to be kids when everything is trying to take that away from us. It’s a choice, Ty. We can do whatever we want.
PS. Docendo discimus. (Latin. By teaching, we learn.)
It felt like so many years’ worth of anxiety and worry were trying to escape all at once—maybe like an emotional volcano, only my mom and dad, they didn’t run away to save themselves but sprinted right into my lava.
That’s basically the mantra of Herr Silverman’s teaching – think for yourself and do what’s right for you, but let others do the same.
I knew that I had reached the end of childhood once I realized that adults in my life didn’t know anymore than I did.
We really don’t get to understand /why/ most of the time. It’s true.
Remember – it’s a long race and you can always outwork talent in the end.
Nobody knows anything when they are in their midtwenties.
A lot of female teachers do this – flirt with male students. I wonder if that’s the only way they know how to interact with men. Like they use their sexuality to get what they want.
After I returned to New Jersey, I thought I was safe, because I did not think Kenny G could leave the bad place, which I realize is silly now – because Kenny G is extremely talented and resourceful and a powerful force to be reckoned with.
The P-38 WWII Nazi handgun looks comical lying on the breakfast table next to a bowl of oatmeal.
Miracles happen on Christmas, Pat. Everybody knows that shit.
it’s a long race and you can always outwork talent in the end
Why didn’t my father get to give Mom the fairy tale? Why do most people fail to give each other the fairy tale?
You’re different. And I’m different too. Different is good. But different is hard. Believe me, I know.
Mom could make small things seem miraculous. That was her talent.
The problem with the stigma around mental health is really about the stories that we tell ourselves as a society. What is normal? That’s just a story that we tell ourselves.