I had some great English teachers. One of my favorite - her name was Linda Janoff - was wonderful and so irreverent and so smart and encouraging. Ransom Riggs More Quotes by Ransom Riggs More Quotes From Ransom Riggs I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was. Ransom Riggs escapingdreamhome Sometimes it's better not to look back. Ransom Riggs sometimeslooks I was here for a reason. There was something I was meant not simply to be, but to do- and it wasn't to run or hide or give up the minute things seemed terrifying and impossible. Ransom Riggs giving-upimpossiblerunning I liked this idea: that peculiarness wasn't a deficiency, but an abundance; that it wasn't we who lacked something normals had, but they who lacked peculiarness. That we were more, not less. Ransom Riggs deficiencyabundanceideas What I believe when it comes to big things in life, there are no accidents. Everything happens for a reason. You are here for a reason - and it's not to fail and die. Ransom Riggs everything-happens-for-a-reasonthings-in-lifebelieve If I'd kept my heart better armored, where would I be now? Ransom Riggs my-heartifsheart When someone won't let you in, eventually you stop knocking. Ransom Riggs knocking I grew up feeling like a weirdo like many kids do. But I was lucky to find my own home for peculiar children. I went to a school for the gifted in Florida, and it was full of kids who - we were all strange together. And that was a real blessing. Ransom Riggs realhomechildren There was a girl who could fly, a boy who had bees living inside him, a brother and sister who could lift boulders over their heads. Ransom Riggs girlbrotherboys If you must fail ... fail spectacularly! Ransom Riggs failurefailingifs Sometimes you just need to go through a door. Ransom Riggs doorssometimesneeds I have an unusual hobby: I collect pictures of people I don't know. It started when I was a kid growing up in South Florida, the land of junk stores, garage sales, and flea markets, as a kind of coping mechanism. Ransom Riggs floridagrowing-upkids Our debt was too great and the words thank you too small. Ransom Riggs small-lifedebtlife I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen. Ransom Riggs peculiarwould-beordinary I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen. The first of these came as a terrible shock and, like anything that changes you forever, split my life into halves: Before and After. Ransom Riggs halfwould-beforever Some truths are expressed best in the form of myth. Ransom Riggs mythform Maybe it was better, now and then, to wonder. Ransom Riggs divulgenow-and-thenwonder Every snapshot collector has obsessions. Some only collect photos of cars. Others like World War II, or babies, or old-timey girls in old-timey swimsuits. I happen to collect the weird stuff: photos that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up a little. The uncanny. Ransom Riggs girlbabywar I've never really been interested in the vintage photos people pay lots of money for -- civil war tintypes or old daguerrotypes of famous people. Nor do I have any interest in the really gross, dark stuff that some people pay top-dollar, like post-mortem photos of babies (yuck) or press photos of old murder scenes or whatever. I collect in these little niches most other people don't care about -- dark-and-weird-but-fun -- and photos that have been written on, which a lot of sellers think hurts their value. All of which is good news for me! Ransom Riggs hurtfunbaby I just like that balance of the real and the fantastical because as a reader and consumer of stories and fantasy, I always want to feel like I can find that world. Ransom Riggs balancerealstories
