“There's a beast in all of us, you know,' Jasper said.'No,' Tessa said.'Yes, a monster right inside of us all,' Jasper said.They wondered what theirs looked like. They faced each other and blinked while making faces to try to capture the phantom.”

“Were we all like that? Were we all trying to change how we looked on the outside to match how we felt on the inside? Were we all trying to change how people saw us?”

“I want to make my mark,' he says.But what target, I wonder, are you going to hit?”

“ A shame really, because putting the right book in the right kid’s hands is kind of like giving that kid superpowers.”

“Sometimes my feelings get so big that I just want to swim out into the darkness. Just jump off the end of the world. Sometimes I want to dig, right down to the bones of everything. Sometimes when you dig, you dig up stuff you might not want to find. But that’s where the good stuff lies.”

“I was born in Hell. But I am no demon. I am beige and colorful. I was quiet in this room. But I am learning to be loud. Can you hear me? I will make my mark, wherever i am. It is my space. I'll make it mine. I choose. I choose.If I voice my truth, no one loses.”

“I smile a lot. I heard someone say once that it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown, so i'm trying it out.”