“When you're living through them, events are nothing more than stuff that happens. You're not thinking about significance. Significance only comes when you look back at your life.”

“When you're living through it, though, especially when you are twelve and you think the whole world is changing until you realize it isn't the world, it's you, no piece seems little. It's all so big you think it can kill you. But it doesn't. Which is why the story goes on.”

“Who do you seewhen you think of you?Are you an outsider,Cool, distant, angry,swimming against the current,or are you in the flow?When they tell you,This is who you are,do you say yes or no?Who do you seewhen you look beyondthe skin and the surface,when you drift to sleep,when you are the personno one else knows? Whoare you on the inside?Don't answer these questions.Not yet. First, open your eyes,your mind, your heart.See.”

“Who do you seewhen you look at them?You know the ones I mean:the others, the olders,the youngers, the oneswho are not you, notlike you or your friends,who wear the labelsyou give them untilthey give them back,saying, I believe thesebelong to you.”

“You can spit until you're dry, but you'll never make a lake”

“The point is that being a minority isn't only about the color of your skin or your religion. it's about not fitting in, being on the outside.”

“I never thought I could write this much and now that it's coming to an end, I feel sad that I have to stop, sort of the way you feel at the end of a really good book and you know you're going to miss the main character. But in this case, the main character is me! Myself. Joe (formerly JoDan) Bunch. —Joe Bunch”