S.E. Hinton

“Y'all were heroes from the beginning. You just didn't 'turn' all of a sudden”

“California is like a beautiful wild kid on heroin, high as a kite and thinking she's on top of the world, not knowing she's dying, not believing it even if you show her the marks.”

“He died violent and young and desperate, just like we all knew he'd die someday.”

“He'll have to do without me, Jamie thought, not looking back. And then clearly, as if he'd been told, he knew Grenville /could/ do without him. There was somewhere else he had to go now, somewhere else he had to be.”

“It goes so fast, he thought, they don't tell you that, how fast it goes...”

“... Hey, I didn't know you didn't like baloney."I went cold. "I don't like it. I never liked it."Soda just looked at me. "You used to eat it. That's why you wouldn't eat anything while you were sick. You kept saying you didn't like baloney, no matter what it was we were trying to get you to eat.""I don't like it," I repeated.”

“Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset.”

“He sure put things into words good.”

“I didn't think much about that statement then. But later I would-I still do. I think about it and think about it until I think I'm going crazy.”

“They used to be buddies, I thought, they used to be friends, and now they hate each other because one has to work for a living and the other comes from the West Side. They shouldn't hate each other...”

“That's why people don't ever think to blame the Socs and are always ready to jump on us. We look hoody and they look decent. It could be just the other way around - half of the hoods I know are pretty decent guys underneath all that grease, and from what I've heard, a lot of Socs are just cold-blooded mean - but people usually go by looks.”

“There isn't any real good reason for fighting except self-defense.”

“Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.”

“...people get hurt in rumbles, maybe killed. I'm sick of it because it doesn't do any good. You can't win...even if you whip us. You'll still be where you were before- at the bottom. And we'll still be the lucky ones with all the breaks. So it doesn't do any good, the fighting and the killing. It doesn't prove a thing.”

“What's the safest thing to be when one is met by a gang of social outcasts in an alley? ...No, another social outcast!”

“You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you're a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don't stick up for them, stick together, make like brothers, it isn't a gang anymore. It's a pack. A snarling, distrustful, bickering park like the Socs in their social clubs or the street gangs in New York or the wolves in the timber.”

“It was cliche, he knew, but he meant it classic.”

“I wish I was a kid again, when I had all the answers.”

“Some are going, some are staying....i'm in between.”

“You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want. There's still lots of good in the world. Tell Dally. I don't think he knows.”

“Your mother is not crazy. Neither, contrary to popular belief, is your brother. He is merely miscast in a play. He would have made the perfect knight in a different century, or a very good pagan prince in a time of heroes. He was born in the wrong era, on the wrong side of the river, with the ability to do anything and finding nothing he wants to do.”

“Somos todo lo que nos queda. Tenemos que ser capaces de seguir unidos, pase lo que pase. Si no nos tenemos los unos a los otros, no tenemos nada.”

“...no es cuestión de dejar de vivir solo porque hayas perdido a alguien.”

“No quiero morir ahora. No ha sido suficiente tiempo. Dieciséis años no son suficiente tiempo. No me importaría tanto si no hubiese tantas cosas que no he hecho y tantas otras que no he visto.”

“Lo de greaser no tiene nada que ver con eso. Mi colega, el de allí, quizá no lo hubiera hecho. Quizá tú sí. Y quizá un amigo tuyo no. Es algo individual.”

“...no deberíamos de estar separados después de haber trabajado tanto para permanecer juntos.”

“Man, I didnt know anything like that was going to happen! Honest, Tex, he was on something. Holy cow! I really kid, I been doing this stuff for a year now and I never saw nobody pull a gun before! God Almighty! What if he hadnt missed!' -- Lem 'He didn't.' -- Tex 'What?' -- Lem 'I said he didn't miss. He shot me and it hurts like hell.' -- Tex”

“I used to be sure of things. Me, once i had all the answers. I wish i was a kid again, when i had all the answers”

“Ponyboy, listen, don't get tough. You're not like the rest of us and don't try to be..."What was the matter with Two-Bit? I knew as well as he did that if you got tough you didn't get hurt. Get smart and nothing can touch you..."What in the world are you doing?" Two-Bit's voice broke into my thoughts.I looked up at him. "Picking up the glass."He stared at me for a second, then grinned. "You little sonofagun," he said in a relieved voice. I didn't know what he was talking about, so I just went on picking up the glass from the bottle end and put it in a trash can. I didn't want anyone to get a flat tire.”

“Johnny almost grinned as he nodded. "Tuff enough," he managed, and by the way his eyes were glowing, I figured Southern gentlemen had nothing on Johnny Cade.”

“Nothing sparkly can stay.”

“But Dally, heaters kill people!Ya' kill 'em with switchblades to, don'tcha?”

“Johnny died.”

“It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset.”

“They grew up on the outside of society. They weren't looking for a fight. They were looking to belong.”

“You know what the crummiest feeling you can have is? To hate the person you love the best in the world.”

“Get smart and nothing can touch you.”

“They shouldn't hate each other . . . I don't hate the Socs any more . . . they shouldn't hate . . .”

“Okay greasers, you've had it.”

“I don't know why I go to school unless for kicks, oh well might as well do dissect a frog.”

“why do you like fights Darry~PonyboyHe just likes to show off his muscles~Sodapop”

“Even the most primite societies have an innate resepect for the insane.”

“Nothing can wear you out like caring about people.”

“Writer's were supposed to be a litte crazy”

“Things are rough all over.”

“It's okay. We aren't in the same class. Just don't forget that some of us watch the sunset too.”

“I am a greaser," Sodapop chanted. "I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city. I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society. Man, do I have fun!" "Greaser...greaser...greaser..."Steve singsonged. "O, victim of enviornment, underprivelaged, rotton no-count hood!"Juvenile delinquent, you're no good!" Darry shouted.Get thee hence, white trash," Two-Bit said in asnobbish voice. "I am a Soc. I am the privelaged and the well-dressed. I throw beer blasts, drive fancy cars, break windows at fancy parties."And what do you do for fun?" I inquired in a serious, awed voice.I jump greasers!" Two-Bit screamed, and did a cartwheel.”

“...but I've never regretted it. You can't regret experience.”

“I made up my mind that I'd get out of that place and I did...I learned that if you want to get somewhere, you just make up your mind and work like hell til you get there. If you want to go somewhere in life, you just have to work till you make it.”

“Mace, you never read Smoky the Cowhorse,did you? No.Well,ol' Smoky, he had somebad things happen to him,had the heart knocked clean out of him.But he hung on and came out of it okay.I've been bashed up pretty good,Mason, but I'm going to make it.”