Laurie Halse Anderson Quotes

“It doesn't hurt. Nothing hurts except the small smiles and blushes that flash across the room like tiny sparrows.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

“I want to go to sleep and not wake up, but I don’t want to die.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls

“The world is crazy. You need a license to drive a car and go fishing. You don't need a license to start a family. Two people have sex and BAM! Perfectly innocent kid is born whose life will be screwed up by her parents forever.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, The Impossible Knife of Memory

“Yes it is, because you can only be brave if you're scared.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, The Impossible Knife of Memory

“I embarked on a campaign of honey and kindness, which, if you've never tried it, is very hard to do with someone who thinks you are chickenhearted and has in the past called you a poxy sluggard. It is especially hard if every day you are plagued with fear about what might happen next.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Forge

“Few people know this, but I am a trained assassin, skilled in jujitsu and krav maga. I can also, with a few folds, turn an ordinary piece of notebook paper into a lethal weapon. Or I can turn it into a butterfly, which is a great trick when I'm babysitting."
I fought a smile. "A trained assassin who babysits."
"Only the Greene twins and only because their family gets every premium channel on the planet.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, The Impossible Knife of Memory

“The salt in my tears feels good when it stings my lips. I wash my face in the sink until there is nothing left of it, no eyes, no mouth. A slick nothing.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

“Afraid that my head might burst through the roof, I head for the mall. I have ten bucks in my pocket—what to spend it on? French fries—ten bucks’ worth of french fries, ultimate fantasy.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

“I head for my closet after school. I want to take the poster of Maya Angelou home, and I’d like to keep some of my tree pictures and my turkey-bone sculpture. The rest of the stuff can stay, so long as it doesn’t have my name on it. Who knows, some other kids may need a safe place to run to next year.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

“I am clanless. I wasted the last weeks of August watching bad cartoons. I didn’t go to the mall, the lake, or the pool, or answer the phone. I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don’t have anyone to sit with.

I am Outcast.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

“I could only fix myself”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Shout: A Poetry Memoir