Benjamin Alire Saenz Quotes
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This is my theory: the people who shouldn't hate themselves, do hate themselves. And the people who should hate themselves, don't hate themselves. The world is all backwards. See, this is one of the many reasons why God and I are not good friends.
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The day he came home from the hospital, he cried. I held him. I thought he would never stop. I knew that a part of him would never be the same. They cracked more than his ribs.
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Young men and women come of age when they look at their parents and see them not only as their parents but as people. They gain a lot of compassion, and it's easier to accept their flaws.
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We left him there. Louie. We left him.” I watched my father lean into his own arms and sob. There was something about the sound of a man in pain that resembled the sound of a wounded animal. My heart was breaking. All this time, I’d wanted my father to tell me something about the war and now I couldn’t stand to see the rawness of his pain, how new it was after so many years, how that pain was alive and thriving just beneath the surface.
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People don't always have to do the right thing for the right reasons—so long as they do the right thing.
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Patience is a gift you have to work for.
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I hated God for giving me a heart. What good were they? Hearts? Having one got me exactly where?
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We looked at each other. We didn’t really smile. But we were smiling at each other on the inside.
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I prefer law to war under all circumstances.
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Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder.
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The sky was angry and shouting, and it reminded Andrés of how Mando and his father had shouted at each other and had drowned out the sound of love.
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Dante and I were cursed with parents who cared. Why couldn't they just leave us alone? What ever happened to parents who were too busy or too selfish or just didn't give a shit about what their sons did?
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Feeling sorry for myself was an art. I think a part of me liked doing that.
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Maybe tears were something you caught. Like the flu.
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And even me who did know them. I—I hated being loved by them. But I couldn’t run. I couldn’t. It is useless to run from a storm. So I stayed. I know about storms as well as anyone.
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Every generation thinks they’re the coolest canoe that’s ever come down the river.
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He started crying. Dante and his tears. Dante and his tears. You pushed me. You pushed me and you saved my life.
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How could I have ever been ashamed of loving Dante Quintana?
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I’d rather have a cup of coffee and a cigarette than live in all that honesty.
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It would be so effen great if the whole world laughed more- the whole world. I don't mean the kind of laughing that's putting someone down. I mean the kind of laughing that means you've just discovered something really beautiful.
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He said I was too sad a nd that some day I wouldn't be sad anymore – and maybe then I would let someone love me.
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Grief was a terrible and beautiful thing.
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I got to thinking that poems were like people. Some people you got right off the bat. Some people you just didn't get--and never would get.
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I hadn't even solved the mystery of my own body.