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Parents are rule givers.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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It's a complex thing when you're writing a novel, because so much of it is conscious and planned and deliberate, and so much of it is not, and it has to be a dance between the conscious and the unconscious. I bring my best instincts to my work. For instance - and I come by this naturally, or I think I do - I am a very good judge of character.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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My dad says it’s all right if people make fun of you. You know what he said to me? He said, ‘Dante, you’re an intellectual. That’s who you are. Don’t be ashamed of that.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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Sometimes heaven was feeling nothing. Maybe being drunk was a little like dying and going to heaven. Like living in the light. He kept thinking of Ileana. She was eight now.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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I didn't care because what mattered is that Dante's voice felt real. And I felt real. Until Dante, being with other people was the hardest thing in the world for me. But Dante made talking and living and feeling seem like all those things were perfectly natural. Not in my world, they weren't.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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I loved the different rules of summer.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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Typically, I didn't know what to say so I didn't say anything.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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Love is a storm that twists and mangles us. If you love—if you really love—if you have that kind of heart—then you know. (And if you don’t, there is no explaining.) The storm comes from within. There is nothing you can do to prepare.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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He wanted to ask her how many men had fallen in love with her. But she wasn’t the kind of woman who let you ask that question.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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I’ll always remember that look on your face. You saw me. You’ve always seen me. And I think that’s all that anyone wants. That’s why Fito loves coming over here. He’s been invisible all his life. And all of a sudden he’s visible. Seeing someone. Really seeing someone. That’s love.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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Maybe my life isn't all that interesting but at least I'm busy. Busy doesn't mean happy. I know that. But at least I'm not bored. Being bored is the worst.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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The world did have too many words. The sound of the rain was all we needed.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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It could happen anytime. The finger tightens, pulls, and a bullet goes flying through the air. That's how remembering is.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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Euphoric memory. That’s what Adam called it. Some of you guys even get high remembering.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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And he wished her anger would come back because she was strong when she was angry.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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And why were the voices there, but he knew why and he knew they would always be there, the voices, knocking at his door, taking over his house.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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I know you sometimes think that people are like books. But our lives don’t have neat logical plots, and we don’t always say beautiful, intelligent things like the characters in a novel. That’s not the way life is.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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The heart, yeah, sometimes I didn’t get it. But if we were making each other laugh and smile, maybe it was part of the way human beings loved each other.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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I wanted to tell her happy was hard for me. But I think she already knew that.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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But love was always something heavy for me. Something I had to carry.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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I thought it was nice that they knew how to talk and how to laugh and how to be in the world.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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It was warm in the kitchen and I felt safe.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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Being on the verge of seventeen could be harsh and painful and confusing. Being on the verge of seventeen really suck.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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Birds exist to teach us things about the sky.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
