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be6c3a6
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I am spinning the silk threads of my story, weaving the fabric of my world. They tiny elf-dancer became a wooden doll whose strings were jerked by people not paying attention. I spun out of control. Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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2157731
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I HEARD BULLETS WHISTLE AND BELIEVE ME, THERE IS SOMETHING CHARMING IN THE SOUND. --LETTER FROM THE TWENTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD GEORGE WASHINGTON DESCRIBING HIS FIRST TASTE OF BATTLE T
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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14b984b
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Look in a mirror and find a ghost. Hear every heartbeat scream that everysinglething is wrong with you. "Why?" is the wrong question. Ask "Why not?"
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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0241ed6
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I cut class, you cut class, he, she, it cuts class. We cut class, they cut class. We all cut class. I cannot say this in Spanish, because I did not go to Spanish today. Gracias a dios.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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72f7443
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I'm an idiot.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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fa5f481
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The box opens and the razors slide out, whisper sweet. Used to be that my whole body was my canvas-hot cuts licking my ribs, ladder rungs climbing my arms, thick milkweed stalks shooting up my thighs.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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c602cc4
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The stars folded themselves away as the sun peeked above the horizon and cracked open the sky and I kissed him and we laughed and it was good.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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a6ddab2
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I am an iceberg drifting towards the edge of the map
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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39acecc
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We held hands when we walked down the gingerbread path into the forest, blood dripping from our fingers. We danced with witches and kissed monsters. We turned us into wintergirls, and when she tried to leave, I pulled her back into the snow because I was afraid to be alone.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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959afd1
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There is something about Christmas that requires a rug rat. Little kids make Christmas fun. I wonder if we could rent one for the holidays.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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7afee68
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Listen to the whispers that curl into your head at night, calling you ugly and fat and stupid and bitch and whore and worst of all "a disappointment". Puke and starve and cut and drink because you don't want to feel any of this. Puke and starve and cut and drink because you need an anesthetic and it works. For a while. But then the anesthetic turns into poison and by then it's too late because you are mainlining it now, straight into your s..
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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f49d1b4
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Light up the stars in your brain, electrify your body, buckle on your smile, and everybody will love you again.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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669d093
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The suffragettes were all about speaking up, screaming for their rights. You can't speak up for your right to be silent.
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speak-up
suffragettes
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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768f320
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Have you considered what you might do to help? You have recovered, so you cannot get the fever again. You are young and strong. We have a real need for you." "How can I help anyone? I'm just a girl." As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I wanted to pinch myself. The first time anyone treats me like a woman and I respond like an infant."
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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8960197
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A wide valley of the dead spread out below me, hundreds of them gently tucked into the ground in neat rows, their whispers frozen into the stones above them: I am here. I was here. Remember me. Remember.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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d056f78
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you are not dead, but you are not alive.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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750c36e
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Non riesco a fermarmi, ma non posso andare avanti.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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f571991
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Art without emotion is like chocolate cake without sugar. It makes you gag.
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inspirational
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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a72fb3f
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our culture has the expectation that the memories of a happy childhood will somehow ground you and prepare you for adult life. But what about the memories that cut, that wound, that won't heal?
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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64afdef
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i lean into the mirror. eyes after eyes after eyes stare back at me. am i in there somewhere?
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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ed8a09c
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That's such bullshit, Mythology repeated by parents because it lets them force their kids into sports and push them too hard by pretending that in the end it will pay off with the holy scholarship. You know how many kids get a free ride? Hardly any. Like, maybe fourteen.' -Finn (165)
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fear
finn
hayley
pretending
knife
parents
sports
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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9b071cb
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My timing is perfect, and I wind up in a traffic jam. The cars around me are driven by fat cows and bellowing bulls. We roll along, six mph. I can run faster than this. We brake. They chew their cud and moo into their phones until the herd shifts gears and rolls forward again.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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9b3544b
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We fall into clans: Jocks, Country Clubbers, Idiot Savants, Cheerleaders, Human Waste, Eurotrash, Future Fascists of America, Big Hair Chix, the Marthas, Suffering Artists, Thespians, Goths, Shredders. I am clanless.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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32be4d9
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WE ARE THE HORNETS, HORNY, HORNY HORNETS!
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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1cc038e
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I hate winter. I've lived in Syracuse my whole life and I hate winter. It starts too early and ends too late. No one likes it.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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3bd9ae8
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When we were girls we rode horses disguised as bicycles
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dreams
girls
games
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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cfdad25
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The false innocence you render for them by censoring truth protects only you.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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ac38eaa
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Think about love, or hate, or joy, or rage - whatever makes you feel something, makes your palms sweat or your toes curl. Focus on that feeling. When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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4d8e7a9
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I wanted a coffin made of wood from trees not yet planted my appetite for time was growing.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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8ee5628
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Take your age the first time a stranger touched your body with danger in his hands, evil-minded... But it's not usually a stranger, is it<
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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c12844c
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too large," the mayor said. "If it breaks free of its chains,"
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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b265051
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We need more holidays to keep the social studies teachers on track.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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d37a466
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I thought of all the ancestors waiting at the water's edge for their stolen children to come home. Waiting and waiting and waiting . . .
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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5c189b6
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How could men who liked cats be bad?
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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b0a1bac
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over them,
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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ed6279a
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I've got a cake rising," Eliza said. "I'm not leaving that for any man"
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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3f9200f
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Too many grown ups tell kids to follow their dreams, like that's going to get them somewhere. Auntie Laurie says follow your nightmares instead. Because when you figure out what's eating you alive, you can slay it.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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6af0b24
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Plants make way more seeds than they need, because they know that life is not perfect and all the seeds won't make it.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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b045a9e
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Welcome to the only class that will teach you how to survive. Welcome to Art.
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being-alive
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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7cebcb8
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Rape wounds deeply, splits open your core with shrapnel. The stench of the injury attracts maggots which hatch into clouds of doubt and self-loathing the dirt you feel inside you nourishes anxiety, depression, and shame poisoning your blood, festering in your brain until you will do anything to stop feeling the darkness rising within anything to stop feeling- untreated pain is a cancer of the soul that can kill you
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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a3b6f91
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that's pretty good, for a young girl" from Fever 1793"
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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bd1b6fc
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Picasso sure had a thing for naked women. Why not draw them with their clothes on? Who sits around without a shirt on, plucking a mandolin? Why not draw naked guys, just to be fair? Naked women is art, naked guys a no-no, I bet. Probably because most painters are men.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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38777da
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I knew I wouldn't get an invitation. I would be lucky to get an invitation to my own funeral, with my reputation.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |
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739dbcf
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It's amazing any thing survives.
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Laurie Halse Anderson |