Bill Konigsberg Quotes
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Guilt is about something you do. Shame is about who you are.
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A thought came to me. What do I think about the date with Rafe? Here I am thinking about what everyone else would think, and I haven’t taken even a second to have my own reaction. Weird.
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Actually, tolerance and acceptance are different. To tolerate seems to mean that there is something negative to tolerate, doesn't it?
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The hole in my heart, I can’t even begin to describe. It’s hard when you open your heart and let someone in and then suddenly they’re not in it anymore. It doesn’t matter whose fault it is; that empty spot stings so bad that you want to find any kind of relief, or wrap yourself up so tight you can’t feel it anymore. I knew it might be there a little while. Or maybe even a long while. For both of us.
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It’s not, like, denial? In the GSA we joke that bi guys are just gay guys who aren’t ready to admit it yet.
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Wow. Did I just write that? I didn't want who I am to come between us? How could I not have seen that?
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But I do think that when we choose the easy path, where people or society reward us for being what they want us to be, against who we really are, a kind of death occurs. To the soul.
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The world will make you vulnerable. If you're acting like you're not, that's what you're doing.
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I think some people are bi, definitely.
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You can be anything you want, but when you go against who you are inside, it doesn't feel good.
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Just smile, Max. The paint cannot be stronger than a smile. But it is.
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I mean, if you accept something, you take it for what it is. Tolerance is different. Less.
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I knew that she was right, obviously. But part of me didn't want to. I wanted to have someone to call my own so badly that I just couldn't let it go.
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Guilt, she’d explained, was useful because a person could learn from it and do the right thing next time. Shame, on the other hand, was useless.
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No one had really been looking at me all the time. Other than me.
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And it's hard to express the truth when the world wants you to be someone else.
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I had the strong sensation that I'd underestimated my parents and their devotion to me. Of course they'd be on my side, whether they understood or not. That was just the kind of parents they were.