“I realized about a month ago that there's a last time everyone skips across a street. And that most people I know have already skipped for the last time and don't know it.From here on out it will always be walking or running, growing older and buying things at the store or seeing friends or going to work, but never again will life impel them to skip. When I thought of this, the tragedy of it overwhelmed me so that I skipped all the way home from my friend's house.Skipping is a strange thing. Because it means something. Like trains make the sound of leaving. Skipping is the motion of being totally free, childlike, abandoned of self and to self.But I learned something else about skipping. You can't fake it. Or make it happen. It must be something that happens to you. (pp. 152-153)”

“You can't just skip the boring parts.""Of course I can skip the boring parts.""How do you know they're boring if you don't read them?""I can tell.""Then you can't say you've read the whole play.""I think I can live a happy life, Meryl Lee, even if I don't read the boring parts of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.""Who knows?" she said. "Maybe you can't.”

“Did you skip your medication or something?”

“See, I know this game. You flatter me, make me laugh and feel good about myself. Then the next thing I know you’re walking out the door with your pockets stuffed with my money, telling the world what an asshole I am. Let’s just skip straight to the end where you get out of my house and tell everyone I’m a dick. Yeah, that works for me. (Aiden)”

“If you skip one class, everyone knows about it. The teacher will track you down, or one of the guidance counselors will track you down and ask if you're smoking pot. According to the geniuses running this place, the only reason you would skip class is if you're smoking pot, though I actually find my classes more enjoyable when I'm high.”

“I never read prefaces, and it is not much good writing things just for people to skip. I wonder other authors have never thought of this.”