Benjamin Alire Saenz quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Benjamin Alire Saenz Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Benjamin Alire Saenz on Wise Famous Quotes.

As far as I was concerned, the sun could have melted the blue right off the sky. Then the sky could be as miserable as I was.

Because rooms were always full, full of memories and voices and people who were either dead or impossible to love.

Man loneliness was much bigger than boy loneliness.

Why do you like to cuss?" "Everybody likes to cuss." "I don't." "They don't call you Mr. Excitement for nothing.

Do you think, Ari, that love has anything to do with the secrets of the universe?" "I don't know. Maybe.

I wonder if he'd been as beautiful as Dante. And I wondered why I thought that.

I hated being volunteered. The problem with my life was that it was someone else's idea.

I wanted to tell her happy was hard for me. But I think she already knew that.

I knew what he was saying, and I wished to God he was someone else, someone who didn't have to say things out loud.

Feeling sorry for myself was an art. I think a part of me liked doing that.

He tried not to laugh, but he wasn't good at controlling all the laughter that lived inside of him.

For an instant she seemed to be nothing more than light.

We looked at each other. We didn't really smile. But we were smiling at each other on the inside.

Highways are nice and paved, and they have signs telling you which way to go. Life isn't like that at all.

See the thing about artists is that they tell stories.

But why? Why don't I want to fight when fight is all I've ever known and loved? I've fought for every inch of joy I've ever known.

God, his heart could be loud sometimes, loud as if it had its own will, its own logic, its own voice.

I wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful.

You fight yourself, Zach. And you keep fighting yourself. And it's killing you because you're fighting the best part of yourself.

I wasn't big on family gatherings. Too many intimate strangers. I smiled a lot, but really I never knew what to say.

I was darker than he was. And I'm not just talking about our skin coloring. He told me I had a tragic vision of life. "That's why you like Spider-Man.

She had all this love in her eyes, and I swear I could drown in that love.

Some boys ... Are perfect shits. & other boys are very, very beautiful.

Don't you have hobbies?"
"Sure. Staring at the blank walls.

He looked like an angel. And all I wanted to do was put my fist through his jaw. I couldn't stand my own cruelty.

Right then I witnessed the world they lived in go completely silent. The world was flooding with their tears.

But my father, the man who was in my room and had turned on the light, he'd raised me. He'd tamed me with all the love that lived inside him.

Her eyes were as sad as they were fierce.

But you know we're always going to have to rely on the goodwill of those of you who are straight for our survival. And that's the damned truth.

I didn't understand how you could live in a mean world and not have any of that meanness rub off on you. How could a guy live without meanness?

You know what I think, Ari? I think Mexicans don't like me.

About stuff. Stupid stuff. And then he asked me, "Why do Mexicans like nicknames?" "I don't know. Do we?

No wonder I stopped keeping a journal. It was like keeping a record of my own stupidity.

I decided that maybe we left each other alone too much. Leaving each other alone was killing us.

Our parents are really weird," he said. "Because they love us? That's not so weird." "It's how they love us that's weird.

Sometimes when people talk, they don;t always tell the truth.

Weird?"
"Yeah, weird. But in a good way."
"Good," I said, "I've always wanted to be weird in a good way.

You can't expect to go both ways when you're driving on a one-way street.

Why did I have to be a good boy just because I had a bad-boy brother? I hated the way my mom and dad did family math.

A heart so pure it was nothing but storm.

Everyone was becoming someone else. Sometimes, when you were older, you became someone younger. And me, I felt old.

Turning on the radio and just sitting there was my version of praying.

I didn't think it was my job to accept what everyone said I was and who I should be.

From what we cannot hold the stars are made.

How was I supposed to know him when he didn't let me?

Maybe that's why I felt sad and empty - because I'd missed him all my life.

She could almost see his smile. A sunrise. Breaking the darkness.

We all fight our own private wars.

I think sometimes our minds get so full of something that we just have to empty them out.

Who hurt you? When did it happen? How many times? Where? Tell me. Why do you hate yourself? Where do you keep the hurt?

Your pain's become the only light you know. You want to punish yourself. You think your life has to be a tragedy.

Why is there a riot in the heart when we love?

He didn't know anyone could cry like that. A wind was coming from inside her.

Moms and God generally get along pretty well.

People have parties because they're sad. They think a party will make them happy.

I FELL ASLEEP, HOPING THE WORLD would be different when I woke.

You don't deserve this, Brian. I wanted to shove that phrase into his heart. But I knew he'd always believe that he did deserve what he got.

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.

Salvation is too heavy a load for a child to carry.

Grief was a terrible and beautiful thing.

I wished it was raining," he said.
"I don't need the rain," I said. "I need you.

Your body is nothing but a money machine." That's what Uncle Rudy says. "That's the way it is. We're all just prostitutes.

Dejate querer. Let yourself be loved.

Because you didn't need words when you were sitting in the light.

Everyone expected something from me. Something I just couldn't give.

He drags it out of her, all those feelings she has.

It was like letting go of the sky.

I was ashamed of myself for being ashamed of myself. I didn't like feeling like that.

You know what the worst thing about adults is?"

"No."

"They're not always adults. But that's what I like about them.

Mima. No despair. She was dying, and there was not one sign of despair in her dancing eyes.

Dad? Dad, no. No. I can't. I can't. Why are you saying these things?"
"Because I can't stand watching all that loneliness that lives inside you.

You belong everywhere you go. That's just how you are.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Yeah, that was a good song. My theme song. But really I thought it was everybody's theme song.

In order to be wildly popular you had to make people believe that you were fun and interesting I just wasn't that much of a con artist.

If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime.

The whole world seemed to be quiet and calm and I wanted to be the world and feel like that

It was good to laugh. I wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh until I laughed myself into becoming someone else.

I was getting an A for work. But not for talent. The story of my life.

And he wished her anger would come back because she was strong when she was angry.

You're such a school teacher.

I didn't know what to do with that piece of information. So I just kept it inside. That's what I did with everything. Kept it inside.

I'd rather have a cup of coffee and a cigarette than live in all that honesty.

Maybe Sam was right about things hiding inside of us. How many more things were hiding there?

And prayer? How could you pray to a God you wanted to hit?

Tears. They're like seeds in a watermelon. Good for spitting out.

And understood that rage could be quiet. Could be soft. Rage didn't have to be a killer.

He looked like a summer morning when he smiled, exactly like a summer morning.

Maybe tears were something you caught. Like the flu.

Dogs were lucky - they didn't need to live forever. They weren't as greedy as people.

And why was it that some guys had tears in them and some had no tears at all? Different boys lived by different rules.

I knew that a part of him would never be the same. They cracked more than his ribs.

But maybe there isn't a logic behind the word family. The truth is, it isn't always such a good word.

My father decided he would read everything that I read. Maybe that was our way of talking.

But love was always something heavy for me. Something I had to carry.

Do you think we'll ever discover all the secrets of the universe?

I was fifteen.
I was bored.
I was miserable.

It's always been interesting to me how we mistake good genes for virtue.

. . . Alive
is a place. Alive is the new word for home.

They cracked more than his ribs.

Have you noticed that some people don't give
A damn and just keep on shopping?