“Sometimes instinct can be wrong. But sometimes it can be right too. And sometimes you just have to take it on faith.”

“I don't need to be any place else, because the music takes me to the only place I want to be right now. To the place where I am and have always been wholly me, the only church I've ever belonged to, the only place I've ever prayed.”

“Standing up for what's right is a huge burden to bear. It's normal to have some doubt.”

“Even though I know Miranda is suppose to jam her heel—she wears leather boots with four-inch spikes in my version—into his shin, sending Caliban to the floor in a crippline mess, I don’t do that. Instead, like I’m some sort of primitive creature, an animal operating only on instinct, I whip around, lift my knee and jam it into his balls. Henry grabs his crotch and falls to the ground. He moans, the class gasps, and Ms. Peck stands motionless.”—240”

“I don't give a shit how many guys you hook up with as long as you use a condom. What I care about is whether you said yes. That's the only thing that matters.”

“As you see, context is everything and nothing at the same time. Words stand alone and with each other.”

“Hush, little students, we'll say the word, Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird won't sing, Mama's gonna write down everything. And so that book won't look the same, Mama's gonna add a brand-new name.”