James Howe

“I am about to stop being a get-along kind of guy and turn into somebody who makes a difference.”

“It doesn't matter how many times I've been called a name, it still hurts - and it still always comes as such a surprise that I never know how to respond. Or maybe I do, but I'm afraid.”

“So does being cool mean you get to go around calling other people names?”

“Sometimes I wish I were a character in a book and there was a writer out there giving me things to say.”

“Sometimes I think it's easier to stand up to the whole school -- or the whole world even -- than it is to stand up to one person, especially if that person really matters to you.”

“Impossible," he said "I am in love with my food source.”

“When you're living through it, though, especially when you are twelve and you think the whole world is changing until you realize it isn't the world, it's you, no piece seems little. It's all so big you think it can kill you. But it doesn't. Which is why the story goes on.”

“When you're living through them, events are nothing more than stuff that happens. You're not thinking about significance. Significance only comes when you look back at your life.”

“Why, if I were to believe what everyone says about me, I would think myself quite, quite ugly. But I don't believe everyone, you see...I believe you because you are my friend. You think I'm beautiful, and so I am.—The Old One”

“The point is that being a minority isn't only about the color of your skin or your religion. it's about not fitting in, being on the outside.”

“[Button] If Gay and Lesbian people are given civil rights, soon everyone will want them”

“I am who I say I am,I'm not some fantasyof how you think you think you knowor who I ought to be.I am a girl who is growing up in my own sweet time,I am a girl who knows enoughto know this life is mine.I am this and I am that andI am everything in-between.I'm a dreamer, I'm a dancer,I'm a part-time drama queen.I'm a worrier, I'm a warrior,I'm a loner and a friend,I'm an outspoken defenderof justice to the end.I'm the girl in the mirror who likes the girl she sees,I'm the girl in the gypsy shawlwith music in her knees.I'm a singer and a scholar,I'm a girl who has been kissed.I'm a solver of equationswearing bangles on my wrist.I am bigger than i ever knew,I am stronger than before,I am every girl I have ever been,and all that are in store.I am who I say I am.I'm not some fantasy.I am the me I am inside.I am whoI choseto be.”

“Another Thing I'm Sick of Hearing:If I started that gay rights group, I must be gay.So if i start an animal rights group,what does that make me?A giraffe?”

“You don't have to have a boyfriendor a girlfriend to know love.Just open up your heart andlet the world in. Your heartis bigger than you can imagine,and so is the world, and so,granddaughter, are you.—Addie's grandmother”

“Some days I want to put my head in the sand. There's too much pain out there, there's too much that scares me. But I wouldn't be able to breathe with my head in the sand, and I wouldn't be able to hear or see or smell. The world is a lovely place...despite the sadness it holds for each of us, despite the terrible things we do.”

“What's wrongwith being out there, out there like a starshining in the night when that's the only waythe star can be seen? You never tell a star:HeyTone it down.”

“Maybe this is what it's like for all only children: To love the family that isn't almost as much as the one that is.”

“What must it be liketo move through your days alwaysin step with a friend?”

“Writing it downis the way I make it real,the way I find my wayinto what it is I feel.The words on paper orcomputer screentell me more thanwhat I knew beforeI wrote them,help me rememberwhat I'm afraidI'll forget,let me keepwhat I don't wantto lose,say to me:Youwerehere.”

“Who do you seewhen you look at them?You know the ones I mean:the others, the olders,the youngers, the oneswho are not you, notlike you or your friends,who wear the labelsyou give them untilthey give them back,saying, I believe thesebelong to you.”

“Who do you seewhen you think of you?Are you an outsider,Cool, distant, angry,swimming against the current,or are you in the flow?When they tell you,This is who you are,do you say yes or no?Who do you seewhen you look beyondthe skin and the surface,when you drift to sleep,when you are the personno one else knows? Whoare you on the inside?Don't answer these questions.Not yet. First, open your eyes,your mind, your heart.See.”

“Joe: Oo, Brittany "Aren't I Fabulous?" Hobson?Addie: She's not that bad.Joe: Brittany "All the Boys Like Me, I'm so Popular I Could Die" Hobson.Addie: Joe!”

“Dear Skeezie, Today I ran after a boy as he was trying to get away. I tackled him and we both landed in the mud. Do you think I appeared desperate?-Joe Bunch”

“And that's an even greater love: to love somebody when he's a little...worn at the edges. —Teddy Bear”

“Horace and Morris and Dolores were friends—the greatest of friends, the truest of friends, the now-and-forever-I'm-yours sort of friends.”

“I hated that the soldier doll had my name. I mean, please. I didn't play with him much. He was another Christmas present from my clueless grandparents. One time when they were visiting, my grandpa asked me if G.I. Joe had been in any wars lately. I said, "No, but he and Ken got married last week." Every Christmas since then, my grandparents have sent me a check.”

“I never thought I could write this much and now that it's coming to an end, I feel sad that I have to stop, sort of the way you feel at the end of a really good book and you know you're going to miss the main character. But in this case, the main character is me! Myself. Joe (formerly JoDan) Bunch. —Joe Bunch”

“A day can start out ordinary and end up being in the top ten. —Joe Bunch”

“There's no such thing as a wasted wish.”

“The way I look at it, love does not necessarily make for a happy ending any more than winning does. What makes for a happy ending is what Addie said all along: freedom. The freedom to be who you are without anybody calling you names. —Bobby Goodspeed”

“Another thing I think about names is that they DO hurt. They hurt because we believe them. We think they are telling us something true about ourselves, something other people can see even if we don't. —Bobby Goodspeed”

“Sticks and stones may break our bones, but names will break our spirit.”

“Sometimes kids just act impulsively, but it's because we have strong feelings, not because we're trying to make trouble.”

“This business of really knowing people, deep down, including your own self, it is not something you can learn in school or from a book. It takes your whole being to do it—your eyes and your ears, your brain and your heart. Maybe your heart most of all.”

“The future is a trickster rabbit, full of surprises. Only the past is predictable.”

“Crying can help, too. People are often afraid to cry because they are told that crying is for babies. Crying does not make you a baby, no matter what anyone says. There are times when people feel so bad that they can't express their feelings in words. At those times, crying helps.”

“Harold (about max): he looks kinda like a football couch Chester (sarcastically): Yay team rah rah. if he says anything athletic i'll scream max: want to jog?(chester screams). ”

“So, this is a rabbit, I thought. He sort of looks like Chester, only he's got longer ears and a shorter tail. And a motor in his nose.”

“(Quoting Goethe:)"We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last destroy them out of discretion, and so disappears the most beautiful, the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverably for ourselves and for others.”

“The point is that something I thought was perfect has been broken, and I'm having to find the beauty in what is there instead of what I thought was there. Like this shell. I can either spend all my time wishing it were perfect, trying to imagine it the way it was or might have been, or I can see how beautiful it is just like this. ”

“We all start out thinking that there is such a thing as perfection and that there's something wrong with us if we settle for less. First we won't eat the food with the brown spots. Then we hate ourselves because we have our own brown spots—pimples or ears that are too big or legs that are too skinny.”

“Life is short and there will always be dirty dishes, so let's dance.”

“If getting is the key to your happiness your key will open few doors. If giving is the key to your happiness you will find few doors locked.”

“You can spit until you're dry, but you'll never make a lake”