It is very sad to me that some people are so intent on leaving their mark on the world that they don’t care if that mark is a scar.

The preciousness of the moment, which should make it easier to talk, makes it harder.

She did not need to fold into herself and self-destruct. Those awful things are survivable, because we are as indestructible as we believe ourselves to be. When adults say, "Teenagers think the hate invincible," with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken.

I hope we get pulled over, he says. I'd like to see how the cop responds to a black man wearing a Confederate T-shirt over a black dress.

that while the world wasn't built for humans, we were built for the world.

So why don't you go home for vacations?' I asked her. I'm just scared of ghosts, Pudge. And home is full of them.

I think maybe I know why,' she finally said. 'Why?' 'Maybe all the strings inside him broke,' she said.