I don't just use yarn from a store. I buy old sweaters from consignment shops. The older the better, and unravel them. There are countries of women in this scarf/shawl/blanket. Soon it will be big enough to keep me warm. Laurie Halse Anderson More Quotes by Laurie Halse Anderson More Quotes From Laurie Halse Anderson I pushed my ragged mouth against the mirror. A thousand crushed bleeding lips pushed back at me. Laurie Halse Anderson bleeding mirrors mouths My face becomes a Picasso sketch, my body slicing into pieces. Laurie Halse Anderson pieces body faces Life is for the living. Don't let the fear of striking out let you from keep you from playing the game. Laurie Halse Anderson striking-out life-is games Who wants to recover? It took me years to get that tiny. I wasn't sick; I was strong. Laurie Halse Anderson sick strong years No, I am never setting foot in this house again it scares me and makes me sad and I wish you could be a mom whose eyes worked but I don't think you can. Laurie Halse Anderson mom eye thinking We swore sacred oaths to be strong and to save the planet and to be friends forever. Laurie Halse Anderson sacred strong forever I want to tell him that it's just a stupid car, but bits of me are scattered all over town; the graveyard, school, Cassie's room, the motel, and standing in from of the sink in my mother's kitchen. It takes too much energy to gather all the bits together, so I just sit there and watch him implode. Laurie Halse Anderson stupid mother school Emma is a mattress who got thrown off the truck when her parents split up. It's not like you can blame a mattress when people don't tie it down tight enough. Laurie Halse Anderson ties parent people I lift my arm out of the water. It's a log. Put it back under and it blows up even bigger. People see the log and call it a twig. They yell at me because I can't see what they see. Nobody can explain to me why my eyes work different than theirs. Nobody can make it stop. Laurie Halse Anderson eye blow people You hurt her by starving yourself, you hurt her with your lies, and by fighting everybody who tries to help you. Emma can only sleep a couple of hours a night now. She's haunted by nightmares of monsters that eat our whole family. They eat us slowly, she says, so we can feel their sharp teeth. Laurie Halse Anderson couple hurt lying The light beyond my eyes flashflashflashes with a hundred futures for me. Doctor. Ship's captain. Forest ranger. Librarian. Beloved of that man or that women or those children or those people who voted for me or who painted my picture. Poet. Acrobat. Engineer. Friend. Guardian. Avenging whirlwind. A million futures--not all pretty, not all long, but all of them mine. I do have a choice" - p. 271 Laurie Halse Anderson eye men children I need to finish this scarf/shawl/blanket thing so I can start something for Emma- a hat, maybe, or a sweater for her stuffed elephant. Laurie Halse Anderson sweaters elephants needs Do I want to die from the inside out or the outside in? Laurie Halse Anderson eating-disorder dies want Why? You want to know why? Step into a tanning booth and fry yourself for two or three days. After your skin bubbles and peels off, roll in coarse salt, then pull on long underwear woven from spun glass and razor wire. Over that goes your regular clothes, as long as they are tight. Laurie Halse Anderson clothes glasses two Some adults would rather pretend that bad things dont exist than to talk about them. Laurie Halse Anderson bad-things adults I breathe in slowly. Food is life. I exhale, take another breath. Food is life. Laurie Halse Anderson wintergirls breaths breathe I've written in every imaginable location; a repurposed closet, the kitchen table, the bleachers while my kids had basketball practice, the front seat of the car when they were at soccer. In airports. On trains. In the break room when I was supposed to be wolfing down dinner. In the back of classrooms when I was supposed to be paying attention. Laurie Halse Anderson basketball soccer kids We have to acknowledge that adolescence is that time of transition where we begin to introduce to children that life isn't pretty, that there are difficult things, there are hard situations, it's not fair. Bad things happen to good people. Laurie Halse Anderson transition children people Apologies mean nothing if you don't mean it. Laurie Halse Anderson apology ifs mean Gossip is the foul smell from the Devil's backside. Laurie Halse Anderson gossip smell devil
