Katie Kacvinsky

“Maybe he’s normal and we’re the crazy ones. Maybe everyone should talk to themselves. Maybe we’re all just afraid of what we’d say.”

“But I'm learning it's human nature to want the things you can't have. What changes is how you go about pursuing the things you want. When you're a little kid and you're told no, you scream and throw a temper tantrum. When you're a teenager and your parents tell you no, you're old enough to internalize your temper tantrum. But you're smarter and you're sneakier this time around. So you nod and act like you care when they say no, when they tell you who you can be friends with, when they say the know what's best. But then you go behind their backs to do it anyway. Because at some point, you need to start calling the shots. At some point, you need to start believing you know whats best. Or, I thought with a smile, you just stop asking for their permission in the first place.”

“I rolled my eyes. "He's talking to himself. My vote is he's crazy." He thought about this. "Maybe he's normal and we're the crazy ones. Maybe everyone should talk to themselves. Maybe we're all just afraid of what we'd say.”

“It's like looking through a microscope your whole life," he (Justin) said. "You miss the whole picture. Sometimes you need to get lost in order to discover anything.”

“You're not saving lives, Dad. You can't save lives when no one's living anymore. (Maddie)”

“I'm used to the security of living behind my online profiles and the clip art advertisdements I create to define me. I can be whoever I want to be in that world. I can be funny, deep, pensive, eccentric. I can be the best version of myself. I can make all the right decisions. I can delete my flaws by pressing a button. In the real world anything can happen. It's like stepping onto an icy surface--you have to adjust your footing or you'll slip and fall. Your movements become rigid and unsure because behind all the fancy gadgets and all that digital armor, you realize you're just flesh and bones.”

“She explained sometimes the story is supposed to be missing because it's still waiting to be written.”

“My bookshelf was my favorite part of my room. It had a calming presence. Maybe there was something to be said about the feeling and presence of real books.”

“Thoughts are circular, they don't take you anywhere. They don't have feet-they can't gain any ground. They can trap you if you don't eventually stand up and make a move.”

“It was a little awkward walking behind his mom when, about eight hours ago, I had been rolling around on the floor with her son with my shirt pulled halfway up my back.”

“I could hear the boy cheering in the back seat and Justin had a huge smile on his face, his dimples standing out. I squeezed my eyes shut. Maybe I lacked the necessary testosterone levels to be enjoying this.”

“Justin: "Girls like compliments, don't they?" Madeline: "I think everyone does if it's sincere. Not just girls.”

“Justin: "Say hi to Paul Thompson for me," he added.Madeline: "Garrlgh," I gagged. The corner of his lips curled up.Justin: "What was that?"Madeline: "That was vomit creeping up the back of my mouth when you mentioned Paul's name.”

“I wouldn`t want to be that smart" Clare added. "Sometimes the more you know, the harder it is to enjoy life. It`s like you lose curiosity or something.”

“Besides, there are no secrets. Sooner or later the truth leaks out. That's one thing I've learned in this life.”

“I really hate the news.”

“You are perfect. Your fingernails drive me crazy.”

“I care about you. More than I feel safe caring. You make my heart do some really weird things”

“I was pathetic. Who gets aroused for getting first aid”

“No amount of power is worth having when it means hurting the people you love”

“Have you ever kissed anybody?" he asked and took a sip.I smirked. "There aren't a whole lot of opportunities in the digital world. I did practice on my hand once. It didn't do anything for me".Justin coughed on the water he was swallowing and I slapped my hand over my mouth."Did I just say that aloud?" I mumbled.He was half coughing, half laughing. "Yes, you did", he managed to say.”

“I needed him to know how I felt so I just kissed him as long as he would let me. I used to think talking was all about words. But you can say so much more with your eyes and your fingers and your touch. Words just make us one-dimensional.”

“You need to be content with small steps. That's all life is. Small steps that you take every day so when you look back down the road it all adds up and you know you covered some distance. It took me a long time to accept that, but it's true. You need to have patience."",”

“When you get too excited about the possibilities, you don't stop to consider the consequences. Just when you get too cocky, life has a way of putting you in your place.”

“It was safe, with all the lights off and no one around to point and stare. In the night it's easy to indulge. It was just the two of us—we didn't have to think about who we were or what this meant or where it was going. It was like an escape. It's easy to forget at this moment billions of people exist and far-off galaxies are being born and stars collide. Kissing is its own kind of collision, it produces its own planetarium of lights inside your head. For me, it was like seeing colors for the first time after living in a black-and-white world. A single person can be just as wide and vast and spellbinding as any sky full of stars. They can make you think the world stops and night can last forever.",”

“You can use power for good or bad, for control or freedom. You grew up watching your dad abuse it one way and it made you take the opposite direction. That's what we all think. Everything's about balance. That's what sustains life. Maybe your role is to keep your dad in check?”

“I was starting to think, maybe you need to feel your way more through life—just turn off the lights and follow your senses, even if you stumble once in a while. Maybe that's what falling in love is like. Just feeling your way through the darkness until you find something solid to hold on to.”

“You see the most when you're not looking for anything in particular...when you look too hard for something, you get nearsighted because you only see what you want to see.”

“in the real world, anything can happen. It's like stepping onto an icy surface--you have to adjust your footing or you'll slip and fall. Your movements become rigid and unsure because behind all the fancy gadgets and all that digital armor, you realize you're just flesh and bones..”

“Some people try to tell you the things you want in life are out of your grasp, while others lift you up on their shoulders and help you reach them. I may not know a lot, but I prefer to fill my life with people who let me climb on top of their shoulders, not people who try to keep me planted on the ground.”

“You know, there are so many things you can't control in life, like whathappens to you or how people are going to react to what you do.It's wasted energy to worry about it. But you can control how youreact. That's the trick.”

“Knowledge can hurt because you can't turn away from thingsanymore. You can't pretend you're blind to what's happening," hesaid. "It's a lot easier to ignore something you don't want to acceptthan to face it.”

“You don't have to choose sides," he said. "Makeup your own mind and believe that.”

“What a forced lifestyleour technology, our inventions imposed on our lives when we triedto live synonymously with computers; when we stepped inside theirworld, we left the natural one behind.”

“You can't stop people from beinghuman. We're creative, we're social. People are like water. If youtry to contain them, they find a way to break free.”

“Come on, life passes you by when you stand around talkingabout it.”

“Youcan see all of this online. But that's cheating. No computer programcan compare to the physical experience. It's like learning how toplay a virtual sports game. You're not really playing anything,against anyone. You're just a spectator. People are becomingspectators of their own lives instead of living them. But the best partis getting in the game. That's when it's all worth it.”

“it's good for you to write down your thoughts. It'stherapeutic because it forces you to slow down and think aboutlife.”

“I also like to escape inside their world,tucked behind their colorful spines. It forces me to fully investmy mind into what I'm doing, not just my ears or my eyes.”

“Don't worry about hurting me, if that's what you're afraid of. I want to get hurt. At least I´ll feel something for a change.”

“It's not convenience that bothers me, it's people's obsession with saving time. Everything's a race. I just don't get who or what we're constantly racing against.”

“I think people are nuts to shut themselves inside all day. We're cutting ourselves off from each other and it's only going to get worse.”

“I thought I was going to be the first person to die from gum build up clogging my stomach cavity”

“Life is too short to say maybe”