-
They're sort of ancillary anyway, friends. I mean, they're important -- everybody knows that; the TV tells you so -- but they come and go. You lose one friend, you pick up another.
Ned Vizzini -
How would you know? Everything’s like sex. It’s the universal metaphor. To pick a lock, let me guess, you have to go slow at first, but then you have to pull off some fancy moves, and you have to stay concentrated, and you have to stick something in something, right?
Ned Vizzini
-
That's all I can do. I'll keep at it and hope it gets better.
Ned Vizzini -
I found myself jealous of the people who wrote the books. They were dead and they were still taking up my time. Who did they think they were?
Ned Vizzini -
I had fooled myself into thinking that I was something important to the rest of the world.
Ned Vizzini -
I'm fine. Well, I'm not fine - I'm here." "Is there something wrong with that?" "Absolutely.
Ned Vizzini -
Relationships change even more than people. It's like two people changing. It's exponentially more volatile. Especially two teenagers.
Ned Vizzini -
Dad nods, looks me dead in the eyes; slowly and regretfully, he banishes all the smiling and joking from his face, and for once he's just my dad, watching his son who has fallen so low.
Ned Vizzini
-
We're all animals, high school is animals, but some of us are more animal than others. Like in 'Animal Farm,' which I read, all animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others? Here in the real world, all equals are created animal, but some are more animal than others.
Ned Vizzini -
She's pretty." (It's amazing how girls can say this and make it the most withering insult.)
Ned Vizzini -
I don't know how I can be so ambitious and so lazy at the same time.
Ned Vizzini -
I work. And I think about work, and I freak out about work, and I think about how much I think about work, and I freak out about how much I think about how much I think about work, and I think about how freaked out I get about how much I think about how much I think about work.
Ned Vizzini -
No," mom says, looking at me in the eyes. "What's a triumph is that you woke up this morning and decided to LIVE. THAT'S a triumph. that's what you did today.
Ned Vizzini -
What am I always going to do? I'm going to go home and freak out.I'm going to sit with my family and try not to talk about myself and what's wrong. Im going to try and eat. Then I'm going to try and sleep. I dread it. I can't eat and I can't sleep. I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human, you know?
Ned Vizzini
-
I know a lot of famous people didn't do well at school, like James Brown; he dropped out in fifth grade to be an entertainer, I respect that... but that's not going to be me. I'm not going to be able to do anything but work as hard as possible all the time and compete with everyone I know all the time to make it.
Ned Vizzini -
Putting lessons in young adult books is very dangerous.
Ned Vizzini -
I just want to not be me.
Ned Vizzini -
I feel dead, wasted, awful, broken and useless. It's not the kind of feeling you forget.
Ned Vizzini -
You shouldn't be able to be alive and you are. You want to trade?
Ned Vizzini -
Nobody had told me I was common.
Ned Vizzini
-
They've spent alot of money on me. I'm ashamed.
Ned Vizzini -
A lot of the books that I grew up reading were pretty brutal, like the Redwall books.
Ned Vizzini -
Dreams are only dreams until you wake up and make them real.
Ned Vizzini -
You all right, man?' This should be my name. I could be like a super hero: You All Right Man. Ah...' I stumble. Don't bug Craig,' Ronny is like. 'He's in the Craig zone. He's Craig-ing out.
Ned Vizzini