“You know, the thing about not talking very much is that people think you’re mature. They make things up about you.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
“I decided that maybe we left each other alone too much. Leaving each other alone was killing us.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
“We are all collateral damage for someone's beautiful Ideology, all of us inanimate in the face of the onslaught.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Collateral damage Copy Share Image
“Why did I have to be a good boy just because I had a bad-boy brother? I hated the way my mom… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Brother Copy Share Image
“Some girls, I thought, were perfect shits. Other girls were very, very beautiful.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Beautiful Copy Share Image
“It was always easier to be disgusted after the fact. It was easier to shake your head and be outraged, as if… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Outrage Copy Share Image
“And then everyone in the room started laughing. My dad and my uncles and aunts - if there's one thing they knew… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Beautiful writing Copy Share Image
“Even though summers were mostly made of sun and heat, summers for me were about the storms that came and went. And… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Feeling alone Copy Share Image
“Scars. A sign that you had been hurt. A sign that you had healed. Had I been hurt? Had I healed? Maybe… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
“Do you think it will always be this way?” “What?” “I mean, when do we start feeling like the world belongs to… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Life and living Copy Share Image
“I guess I didn't have it so bad.Maybe everybody didn't love me,but i wasn't one of those kids that everyone hated,either. I… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
“I couldn’t decide if the dream was a good dream or a bad dream. Maybe a good dream because when I woke… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Bad dream Copy Share Image
“I didn't understand how you could live in a mean world and not have any of that meanness rub off on you.… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Mean world Copy Share Image
“I stared at the reproduced mural in the book--but I was more interested in his finger as he tapped the book with… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
We have this huge discourse on family in this country, but no one deconstructs it the same way. People talk about "the… — Benjamin Alire Saenz American family Copy Share Image
“It made me smile, the way they got along, the easy and affectionate way they talked to each other as if love… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Affectionate Copy Share Image
“Maybe that's why she liked all those bad boys. They were outcasts. It was like she was picking up strays and taking… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Bad boy Copy Share Image
“When I walked into the house, I went in search of one of my dad's bottles. Not that they were that hard… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Alcoholism Copy Share Image
“He was still experimenting with kissing girls even though he said he'd rather be kissing boys. That's exactly what he said. I… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Dante Copy Share Image
“I found myself whispering, "Do you think we'll ever discover all the secrets of the universe?" I was surprised to hear Susie's… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
“You are smart, Ari. Very smart. And anyway, being smart isn't everything. People just make fun of you. My dad says it's… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Sadness Copy Share Image
“Sometimes I think my father has all these scars. On his heart. In his head. All over. It’s not such an easy… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Father Copy Share Image
“I mean, when do we start feeling like the world belongs to us? I wanted to tell him that the world would… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Tomorrow Copy Share Image
“What did being connected to the world get you? It got you sadder. Look, the world is not sane. If you stay… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Advice Copy Share Image
“He looked tired but at that moment, as we sat at the kitchen table, there was something young about him. And I… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
“I wondered what it would be like, to love a girl, to know how a girl thinks, to see the world through… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Girls Copy Share Image
“Listen, the road to happiness is a long fucking road trip. You can't take The freeway. Back roads, buddy, that's all you… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Bad weather Copy Share Image
“Daughters. They were sometimes as familiar and intimate as honeysuckles in bloom, but mostly daughters were mysteries. They lived in rooms you… — Benjamin Alire Saenz Children Copy Share Image
“I wondered what it was like to feel whole, to not feel torn up or stunned out or wigged out or any… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Around the world Copy Share Image
“This is my theory: the people who shouldn't hate themselves, do hate themselves. And the people who should hate themselves, don't hate… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Friendship Copy Share Image
“You think you and Dad are the only ones who can keep things on the inside? Dad keeps a whole war inside… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz War Copy Share Image
“The day he came home from the hospital, he cried. I held him. I thought he would never stop. I knew that… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
“They were always asking me lots of questions. Questions I didn't want to answer. They wanted to get to know me. Yeah,… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
“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.”… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
“You're every street I've ever walked. You're the tree outside my window, you're a sparrow as he flies. You're the book that… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
“But the thing is, I didn't make my friends happy and they didn't make me happy. All we did was get stoned… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Drugs Copy Share Image
“See, I think there are roads that lead us to each other. But in my family, there were no roads - just… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Connections Copy Share Image
“In the distance, I can see a storm coming in, the dark clouds and the lightning on the horizon moving towards me.… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Dark clouds Copy Share Image
“I was harder than Dante. I think I'd tried to hide that hardness from him because I'd wanted him to like me.… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Copy Share Image
“Adam says I isolate. He is addicted to telling me that I spend too much time in my head. It’s an unhealthy… — Benjamin Alire Sáenz Behavior Copy Share Image
