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Like, did you know that LGBT kids are 8.4 times more likely than straight kids to attempt suicide? And 50 percent of LGBT kids are rejected by their parents? That between 20 and 40 percent of homeless teens say they’re gay, lesbian, or transgender, and that up to 50 percent of the guy teens have sold their bodies to support themselves?
Bill Konigsberg
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And I think, What’s the opposite of suffocation?
Bill Konigsberg
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Lean forward, and head on down the mountain.
Bill Konigsberg
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I don't think about relatability (when writing), I think about the heart of the character.
Bill Konigsberg
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You can be anything you want, but when you go against who you are inside, it doesn't feel good.
Bill Konigsberg
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The world will make you vulnerable. If you're acting like you're not, that's what you're doing.
Bill Konigsberg
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Acceptance is an affirmation that you’re good enough.
Bill Konigsberg
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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.
Bill Konigsberg
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I mean, if you accept something, you take it for what it is. Tolerance is different. Less.
Bill Konigsberg
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That never even occurred to me, that he had feelings.
Bill Konigsberg
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I was thinking about how snakes shed their skin every year, and how awesome it would be if people did that too. In lots of ways, that’s what I was trying to do.
Bill Konigsberg
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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.
Bill Konigsberg
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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?
Bill Konigsberg
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And it's hard to express the truth when the world wants you to be someone else.
Bill Konigsberg
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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.
Bill Konigsberg
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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.
Bill Konigsberg
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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.
Bill Konigsberg
