Wendelin Van Draanen Quotes

39 Sourced Quotes

Now, I know from experience that the trouble with one lie is that it usually takes more lies to cover it up. And if you don't watch out, you wind up telling lies to cover up the lies that are covering up the original lie.

Wendelin Van Draanen
I told about the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. It's that way with people, too, he said, only with people it's sometimes that the whole is less than the sum of the parts.

Wendelin Van Draanen
My heart stopped. It just stopped beating. And for the first time in my life, I had that feeling. You know, like the world is moving all around you, all beneath you, all inside you, and you're floating. Floating in midair. And the only thing keeping you from drifting away is the other person's eyes. They're connected to yours by some invisible physical force, and they hold you fast while the rest of the world swirls and twirls and falls completely away.

Wendelin Van Draanen
I'd scale that monster sycamore if I could. Right to the top. And I'd yell her name across the rooftops for the whole world to hear. -Bryce

Wendelin Van Draanen
(Actually now I'm remembering that the goodbye chow isn't spelled that way. It's ciao or something weird like that. It's Italian, right? But I'm not an Italian gypsy, I'm a hungry gypsy. So spelling it chow makes total sense.)

Wendelin Van Draanen
It's funny how you can think you know someone pretty well, and then something happens or they do something that makes you understand that you didn't really know them at all.

Wendelin Van Draanen
It's easy to look back and see it, and it's easy to give the advice, but the sad fact is, most people don't look beneath the surface until it's too late.

Wendelin Van Draanen
There's no winning arguments with your parents, so why get all pumped up over them? It is way better to dive down and get out of the way than it is to get clobbered by some parental tidal wave.

Wendelin Van Draanen
I wipe away my tears and nod, because the pain in my leg is nothing compare to the one in my heart.

Wendelin Van Draanen
He tells us that life isn't about what happens to you, it's about what you do about what happens to you.

Wendelin Van Draanen
Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss…. He turned to me. But every once in a while you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.

Wendelin Van Draanen
As I run, I wonder how many of these people helped buy my leg.
I wonder about the deep, wide abyss between good intentions and concrete action, and how many of them leapt across it.

Wendelin Van Draanen
And now I was seeing that there was something really cool about that family. All of them. They were just...real. And who were we? There was something spinning wickedly out of control inside this house. It was like seeing inside the Baker's world had opened up windows into our own, and the view was not a pretty one. Where had all this stuff come from? And why hadn't I ever seen it before.

Wendelin Van Draanen
I just need some time to get over all those years of having liked him

Wendelin Van Draanen
Okay that's it. Now I'm torching this. I just need to score a match.

Wendelin Van Draanen
You told us over and over that you don't think you could live without books, but the ironic thing is, you'd probably die before you'd think to rip pages out of one to start a fire. Am I right? Well, get over it already. Better to be warm then well-read.

Wendelin Van Draanen
There's nothing like a head-strong woman to make you happy to be alive.

Wendelin Van Draanen
The room fell quiet. And as I read down the list of over one hundred and fifty eight-grade boys, I realized that to me, there had only ever been one boy.

Wendelin Van Draanen
I'll ride my bike all the stinkin' way to school for the rest of eternity if it means being with her. -Bryce

Wendelin Van Draanen
A painting is more than the sum of its parts,' he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you've got magic.

Wendelin Van Draanen
What did a kiss feel like, anyway? Somehow I knew it wouldn't be like the one I got from Mom or Dad at bedtime. The same species, maybe, but a radically different beast, to be sure. Like a wolf and a whippet—only science would put them on the same tree.

Wendelin Van Draanen
I'd never looked at our house, or even our side of the street, and said, Oh! I wish we lived in the new development—those houses are so much newer, so much better! This is where I'd grown up. This was my home.

Wendelin Van Draanen
I asked you to conquer your fear, but all you did was give in to it. If you were in love with her, that would be one thing. Love is something to be afraid of, but this, this is embarrassing. So she talks too much, so she's too enthused about every little thing, so what? Get in, get your question answered, and get out. Stand up to her, for cryin' out loud!

Wendelin Van Draanen
... something can be so much more than the parts it took to make it, and why people need things around them that lift them above their lives and make them feel the miracle of living.

Wendelin Van Draanen
But in my heart I knew that just like the new grass, I wasn't strong enough yet to be walked on

Wendelin Van Draanen
Maybe my mother's right. Maybe there is more to Bryce Loski than I know. Maybe it's time to meet him in the proper light.

Wendelin Van Draanen
It's disturbing how fast weeds take root in my garden of worthiness. They're so hard to pull. And grow back so easily.

Wendelin Van Draanen
My grandfather stood beside me and looked across the street, too. "No, Bryce," he said softly. "She's the same as she's always been; you're the one who's changed." He clapped his hand on my shoulder and whispered, "And son, from here on out, you'll never be the same again.

Wendelin Van Draanen
Next time you're faced with a choice, do the right thing. It hurts everyone less in the long run.

Wendelin Van Draanen
I am a runner. That's what I do. That's who I am. Running is all I know, or want, or care about.

Wendelin Van Draanen